Introducing the Camelbak ShredBak™ For Winter Sports

Although the original market for hydration packs and the other products sold by Camelbak were mountain bikers / motocross riders and hikers / climbers; today, people in many different sports use the same type of equipment to give them a competitive edge. This is just as true for people engaged in winter sports from skiing and snowboarding to serious endurance sports like cross-country skiing or snowshoeing. Today Camelbak carries a full range of products designed for people engaged in winter sports as well as special devices that can modify normal Camelbak equipment to work in winter conditions. The newest addition to the winter equipment line up is the Camelbak ShredBak™ hydration vest.

Building on the earlier success of their “wearable” hydration garments designed for runners and cyclists, the ShredBak™ is specifically designed to work for people engaged in winter sports. It is essentially a mid-layer vest that contains a seventy-two ounce CamelBak^® Omega™ Reservoir that is integrated into its design. It uses the body’s own core heat to prevent the water from freezing and uses a compression system that keeps the water (or other liquid) held tight, avoiding sloshing or uneven weight distributions. Widely customizable, the ShredBak™ can be adjusted as needed to accommodate any athlete’s person preferences.

The water reservoir is held on the users back, and an access tube comes around and exits the vest at the wearer’s chest. This makes accessing the water both easy and inconspicuous. Although designed for comfort, the inner vest – which contains the compressed liquid reservoir – has to fit very snuggly in order to be worn correctly and many people find that this takes some getting used to. Further, since the water is held on the upper back, a full reservoir creates a “hump back” impression which is noticeable, even under an outer shell coat, though it is much less noticeable while actually on the move.

The key problem appears to be the temperature issue. The ShredBak™ was specifically designed to provide ready access to hydration to people engaged in winter sports, so the chief priority was keeping the water from freezing. The ShredBak™ met that condition and it does not freeze. However, if the user puts cold water in the reservoir, it has a tendency to draw away body heat, resulting in freezing the user to keep the water fluid. Therefore it is recommended that the user fill the reservoir with warm, or semi-hot, liquid. By all accounts this feels much better as long as the water stays warm, but after a few hours it inevitably gets cold again and begins freezing the wearer.

The ShredBak™ was only introduced in late 2009, so it is inevitable that Camelbak will receive all the feedback and offer new modifications and improvements to remedy the most common complaints and issues. This constant improvement of their product line is one of Camelbak’s hallmarks and will inevitably be applied to this new product as well. In the meantime, the ShredBak™ is probably best suited for people engaged in serious endurance sports like cross country skiing and snowshoeing, where the user’s increased physical activity is constantly generating a lot of body heat to offset the heat draining effects of the reservoir.