Perfect for the WF & TriStar
I’ve tried several approaches to organizing my various bags: bundling without packing cubes, and various packing cubes from Eagle Creek, Lewis N. Clark, Gonex, Red Oxx, Qube, and Tom Bihn, and many others. There are things to like about all of these makers’ products, and there are times when bundling is superior to any packing cube, e.g., clothing prone to wrinkles, such as suits or blazers, that can’t be worn in transit. I like bundling as preached by Doug Dyment, but I’ve found that I prefer packing cubes on both sides of my WF. I did a test comparison of folding vs. rolling vs. Army-rolling my 10-day clothing budget—all Merino tops, bottoms, underwear & socks, along with a Montbell rain shell and Patagonia Nano Puff jacket—inside these Tom Bihn cubes, Eagle Creek Spectre Cubes [compression, non-compression, and structured compression], Lewis N. Clark Electrolight compression cubes, Gonex compression cubes, and Red Oxx packing cubes. I learned several (to me) important things:
1. Surprisingly, the TB cubes are the lightest of all of these, including the EC Spectre and LNC Electrolight; and it’s not that close. I suspect the reason is all that mesh.
2. Surprisingly, packing method did not matter; folding benefitted slightly more from compression, but not enough to matter. Whether folded or rolled, all the clothing fit inside a combination of a TriStar Small [94000] and what TB calls the WF Small [95200]. The difference completely disappears with Army-rolling, which…