Deep Dive: Packing Cubes

Modularity and scalability are important in designing mass produced products that are part of a larger ecosystem, and it's something I try to keep in mind when designing new stuff. For years before our packing cubes were released, I'd been making dozens of little zipper pouches of all shapes and sizes. Really though, most roles could be filled by one of a half dozen or so sizes of packing cube. Centering it around my LFR and pouch suite, I wanted to come up with packing cubes that would fit well inside my existing products. Using the internal dimensions of the 2WIDE Classic GP Pouch yielded a nicely proportioned packing cube about the size of a small shaving kit (this is the 2WIDE). Dividing it by three yielded a small but still useful packing cube that takes up the remaining space alongside the first one if you stuff it inside the larger 3WIDE Classic GP Pouch, or alternatively fits inside a rifle mag pouch (this is the Micro). An expanded (but certainly incomplete) range of possibilities is shown below, for anyone wondering which packing cubes to get:

Currently, the ecosystem only has two sizes of packing cube. If I made another, I'd make a larger one, and probably will someday, but no ETA on that.

Why would you want a packing cube? Several reasons. Firstly, it lets you take the contents of a pouch in your hand, and bring it off your belt/pack and right in front of your face and hands, in your "workspace" (yes, just like when reloading...). No more feeling around inside a pouch you can't see for the object you need, and no more of that object falling down into the bottom of your pouch and you having to dig through the other contents to reach it. Now it is much more organized, so you don't have to spend as much time fiddling with your kit. Secondly, it bundles up several items at once so that they can be easily moved around together. Think about if you had to carry groceries to your car without any grocery bag. With all my food/batteries/cold weather gear in a packing cube, I can quickly take it out of one rig and transfer it to another, or take it out of my ruck for a patrol, or hand it off to a buddy. Lastly, it protects the items within. It helps keep my hat and gloves dry, or helps keep dirt and bugs out of my food.

Any container will do, but some work better than others. I think everyone has tried ziploc bags, and while they have their place as a poor man's drybag, they don't make a great packing cube. They really only last a few trips before they blow out. The seals fail extra fast, letting your stuff get wet or spill all over the inside of your ruck. Instead of having nice handles, they're smooth and slippery. There's a bunch of chinese made packing cubes on the market, but their build quality is really geared more towards tiktok hoes on vacation than dudes on patrol, in addition to the obvious issues with them being made by slave labor in a country that hates us. There's a few companies making packing cubes in the USA but not many, and not in the shapes/sizes I want, so I figured I'd do it.

As for the construction of the packing cube itself, this went through several iterations. This is our first release of a product made out of 200D packcloth nylon, since our 1.9oz storm collar fabric can't stand up to the repeated abrasion and 500D cordura would be overkill for something that is always hidden inside another bag. The 200D was a perfect middle ground, and should last a long time while still scrunching down to almost nothing when empty, an important feature. Another important feature is how easily a full packing cube can slide in and out of a pouch or pack, and the somewhat slick 200D excels at this. We sourced the fabric from Brookwood and though we wanted ranger green, coyote brown was the only subdued color we could get. If that changes, we'd like to offer packing cubes in more colors in the future. If not for style, I think different colors are nice for organization and differentiation.

The zipper is a YKK/Ideal # 5 coil, durable and easy to find replacement sliders for. The paracord pull attached is one of the simplest designs out there, but superior, in my opinion, to much more complex solutions. It's a great balance of rigidity: always easy to grab but never in the way. Plus it's field replaceable.

Having spent some time out in the cold, I always try to design my stuff with mittened use in mind, and to that end the grab handles were as big as I dared make them for such a small item. I also included smaller pull tabs on each end of the zipper, something I pretty much add to the end of every zipper I sew now.

Overall, a fair amount of thought went into this item, considering how basic it is. But I don't like to release anything without testing and iterating it first, and the slew of them I've sewn over the years helped me hone in my design. Hope you guys like it.

As always, if you have any questions please comment below, or email me at support@nixieworks.com . Thanks and good luck out there!