Apparently Dick Kelty did not patent the original Kelty pack design from 1952. After an item has been on sale for a year, you can't get a patent on it, and maybe Dick ran over the one year time limit. However, in 1976 a patent application on a pretty standard looking Kelty pack was filed. The patent was granted in 1979. This particular Kelty had a frame that was connected in a way that allowed some flexing of the frame.
Kelty has always had a reputation for durability and quality, as I tell college students in my backpacking class and winter camping class. I generally use my 1972 vintage Kelty Tioga for family backpacks, and internal frame packs for trips on which I can go light.
I just ran into your web site. As a contemporary of Kelty I implore you to revise your web site. Remove reference Kelty or remove any reference to the piece of shit pack you are showing. You show that and use a Kelty Tioga.
Kelty nearly got it right the first time and should still be making the original pack with only minor tested improvments.
In case you are interested I produced the first modern 'Padded Hipbelt' at A16
Posted by: Andy Drollinger | September 07, 2007 at 07:21 AM
Dick was a very modest man. In 1952 when I begged him to take out a patent on his design, he said" Man has been carrying stuff on his back forever. A backpack is nothing new."
I think that the greatest compliments to him were the many backpacks that followed utilizing his many original ideas. He would have just shrugged his shulders.
Posted by: Nena Kelty (Dick's widow) | November 14, 2010 at 03:41 PM