Eagle Creek "Compression" and "Specter" versions of cubes -- not for me until re-designed

Eagle Creek Specter® cubes

I was very excited when I saw the Eagle Creek Specter cubes, which are clearly intended for use in a backpack and other packing as well.  http://shop.eaglecreek.com/pack-it-specter.html?gclid=COH8ueLuxswCFYqPfgodtxUHpg

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They have done their usual very competent choosing of materials (these are very light and water resistent) and construction.

However, when I examined the design I was very disappointed.  As you can see above, the Specter's® cubes do not have a full 3-sided zipper as they put into the Pack-It® cubes. Instead they put a zipper that goes about two thirds of the way around one side, across one end, and maybe one third of the way around the other.

• In this design, it functions sort of half-way like a normal stuff sack such as backpackers use:
• I do not like that design at all because everything has to be emptied from the sack in order to reach whatever is in the bottom of the sack.
• I see my family going through this process--it would make me CRAZY!

• Because the cube has a partially opened "lid", you can get to about half, but not all of the things without emptying it--unsatisfactory--and it certainly won't function as a "drawer" while traveling in the way the normal design works.
• I had hoped to be able to use these in my case to have something even lighter weight, but hopefully still satisfactory to use in the way I normally use my cubes.

Because of this poor design (which may have been with backpackers in mind) for my purposes, even in a backpack, it just won't do the awesome job normally configured cubes perform). I am truly disappointed (and I have communicated my thoughts to the company with an analysis of "why" I feel this way).

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Then they introduced a new "compression" series, in both the Specter® cubes and the Pack-It® cubes.  Again, I thought -- fantastic--this should be awesome!

So I purchased a set of the Pack-It® Compression cubes.  What a devastating disappointment!

I measured the depth of a previously packed "over-stuffed" standard Pack-It® cube which was beautifully compressed and removed the clothes.  I then put those clothes into a new compression Pack-It® cube.  I attempted to zip the "compression zipper".  This required a major effort, during which I had to shove/tuck my nicely folded stack of clothes inwards all the way around the cube in the zipper area to close the zipper.

The zipper area is very "stiff" with two sets of zippers; it would NOT close without smushing my clothes.  I did manage to close it (with some real effort), then I measured the height of the newly "compressed" bag.

The bag was (in theory, though my measurement was not precise) about 1/2-inch shorter than the normally packed and compressed Pack-It®. However, when I placed the new cube in the case and attempted to close the case. It was not possible to close the case at all. The stiffness of the compressed cube was simply too great--the normal cube is more flexible/pliable, and I had no issue closing the case with it in place.

Pack-It® overfilled and ready to close:


Closed and neatly compressed: (look at the difference in height now!)


Measuring the height (it's not a very "tight" measurement of course):


Pack-It® Compression cube--showing the way they achieve compression:


Attempting to close the stuffed cube.  Note where I had to tuck in my neatly folded clothes about an inch all the way around in order to attempt to close the cube.


Measuring the stuffed and compressed "compression" bag:


You can get some idea of the stiffness of the bag by looking at the end on the left that has both zippers closed.  It's very "hard".

While it appeared to "fit" into the case, the case could not be closed.  So the compression cubes are on their way back to the vendor.

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The compression version of the Specter® cube works in the same way.  Thus it has the issues of both the normal Specter® cube with the potential compression issues as well.  (Although the compression issues are possibly a bit less in the Specter® cubes.  I cannot say.)

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Eagle Creek has done such a great job on so many things (evidenced by the frequent examples of my own recommendations in the other posts on this blog).  I have been more than willing to "pay the bit extra" to get what I find to be the best result, design, materials, and manufacture.

I am very hopeful that they will consider the results I found when I tested their new compression cubes.  You can do it Eagle Creek!