UKC

New Kestrel & Kyte. Off The Grid. With a proven legacy, the new Kestrel, and the women's specific Kyte are rugged, high performance backpacks for long trips.

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In reply to UKC/UKH Articles:

The marketing blurb makes much of there being a women's specific pack, so why is this comp offering only the men's version as a prize?  You don't think a woman might win the comp and prefer the other one?

In reply to deepsoup:

Hi deepsoup, I spoke with Osprey who said that if a woman wins the competition and would like the women's version of the pack they will happily provide one, stock depending. They also said that they will ensure that there's men's and women's versions of prizes available in future competitions, where applicable.

In reply to Theo Moore:

Cool, and thanks for taking that on.

I think that "stock depending" is still a bit lame though. They already made sure that the men's version of the pack is definitely available.

For a long time now gear manufacturers have designed gear for men by default then taken a half-arsed "make it a bit smaller, make it pink" approach to coming up with a women's version.  If Osprey are aiming to do better with the Kyte, how ironic that they then designed a competition to promote it (along with the Kestrel) and couldn't be arsed to consider the possibility that a woman might win the comp and prefer a prize appropriate to her.

They've been caught displaying a bit of lazy, thoughtless, everyday sexism here and if they want to put it right, how about trying a little harder?  A belated "Oh yeah, ok, if a woman wins we'll have a look and see if we have one of the women's version kicking about" just doesn't quite seem to cut it somehow.

Great news that they intend to do better in future, but in the meantime how about taking a bit of a hit to make amends and offering two prizes in this comp - a Kestrel and a Kyte.