This is my 3rd Synapse 25. First one was stolen many years ago, had my second one since then, and this third one is just an upgrade for me that I very recently purchased. I wanted the black color and the ballistic nylon fabric. I did not like the metal zippers that would clang loudly and incessantly, so I switched them out to these paracord zippers. Tom Bihn sells these separately but I didn’t like the two colors available at the moment (too happy-lookin’), so I bought these dull green colored ones on Amazon. I already had the plastic end pieces with the Tom Bihn logo on them so I used those to close the ends off and they worked perfectly (see picture). Some videos online show people looping the paracord through the holes in the zipper pulls, which ends up extending the total length of the zipper pull, and makes the design feel more cluttered to the eye in my opinion. What I did was cut the metal zipper pulls off (was very sad and stressful to do this to such a beautifully made product) then completely replaced them with the paracord pulls. I am very happy with the reality of my vision aesthetically, and also no more clanging.
Some things I wish were different with the bag would be a more firm/solid bottom and back side to help the bag stand up straight more. I can also sometimes feel the bag’s backside folding too much, and/or feel the items inside of it too much on my back, like poking it, or just generally feeling lumpy. Part of this supposedly improved back side would…
