New Backpacking Gear Roundup 2025: Eight Pieces Worth a Closer Look

Introduction

Every year, gear makers release a new wave of products meant to solve real problems for backpackers, or simply to offer a fresh take on familiar items such as packs and sleeping bags. Some of those releases turn out to be genuinely useful. Others do not quite deliver on the promise behind them.

The eight items below are the ones that stood out most this season. They cover three backpacks, a GPS watch, a titanium pressure cooker, two sleeping systems and a two-person tent. Each is interesting for a different reason, and each comes with trade-offs worth understanding before you commit your budget. The notes that follow reflect early field impressions rather than long-term conclusions, so treat them as a starting point for your own research.

Gregory Paragon 50: A Refined Traditional Pack

The Paragon has been part of the Gregory line for some time, and it has been updated for 2025. It comes in three volumes, 50, 60 and 70 litres, and the model here is the 50-litre version. After a long stretch of ultralight-focused packs, this is a return to a more traditional design, and the feature set is a reminder of how much value that style of pack can still offer.

You get a classic top lid closure over a cinch collar, a stretch mesh front pocket, and a side zipper that opens into the main body, which is a genuinely useful addition. One side has a stretchy mesh pocket, while the other carries a second water bottle pocket designed for easier access while the pack is on your back. That kind of detail is uncommon on traditional packs from the larger brands, and it is good to see bottle access treated as a priority rather than an afterthought.

At the base there are bottom straps and a sleeping bag compartment with a divider. The divider can be unclipped and dropped to the bottom, turning the pack into one large open space while keeping access to the lower compartment. The suspension uses a fairly rigid hip belt with plenty of ventilation, and both the torso and the hip belt length are adjustable. That adjustability means one pack can be fitted to several different people, which matters if the pack will be shared or handed between family members. The hip belt pockets are well sized.

The rigid hip belt is the main thing to watch. It may feel firm against the hips over long days, so it is worth loading the pack properly and checking the fit before a big trip.

Big Agnes Sweetwater 43: A Lighter, Vest-Style Hauler

The Sweetwater 43 takes a different approach. It is a streamlined, lightweight pack built around vest-style shoulder straps that help spread the load across the chest rather than concentrating it on the shoulders. It is the second generation of Big Agnes pack design, and the layout suggests the brand has rethought several of its earlier choices.

The comfortable capacity is around 30 pounds, which is a reasonable range for a pack of this size. Mesh pockets on the front of the vest straps hold a phone, snacks or other items you want within reach while moving. The back panel uses a fairly rigid frame, and the shoulder straps are height adjustable for a degree of torso tuning, with load lifters to fine-tune the angle of pull.

Side compression straps run in a V or Z pattern, both sides have stretchy mesh pockets, and there is a large stretch pocket across the front of the pack. The top lid uses a simple hook system over a cinch closure, and a rain cover is included. At $280, it sits in the middle of the pack market, and the vest-style harness is the main reason to consider it. How the design holds up over long distances is the open question.

Quechua MH900 25L: A Day Pack With Serious Value

Day packs in this size often cut corners on suspension, so the MH900 25L is notable for doing the opposite. It has eight pockets, a robust harness and suspension system, and a full hip belt, which together mean it can carry a heavier load comfortably over a full day out.

The harness includes load lifters, and the hip belt is asymmetric: one side has a watertight pocket for items you want protected from rain, while the other uses a stretchy mesh pocket for things that need to expand. A dedicated water bottle pocket holds a standard bottle without the usual wrestling, which is rare on a pack of this size.

The main body is a top-loading design with a cinch closure and a lid zipper for keys or small items. One side unzips for direct access to the main compartment, and the opposite side has a watertight zippered pocket for snacks or a water filter. Side pockets on both sides can hold trekking poles. With an 18.5-inch torso, the hip belt sits in a sensible place rather than riding up on the rib cage, which helps the pack stay stable when you move quickly. At $130, the combination of features and comfort is the strongest argument for it.

Coros Apex 2 Pro: A GPS Watch Built for Long Days Out

The Apex 2 Pro is a multisport GPS watch aimed at people who spend long days outdoors. GPS accuracy is the headline: it tracked well in narrow canyons, where GPS watches often over-report elevation gain because signals bounce off canyon walls. Paired with the companion app and satellite imagery, the recorded tracks held up well.

Beyond navigation, the watch covers sleep tracking, continuous heart rate monitoring, step counting and calorie tracking, and it offers customizable watch faces. Battery life is a clear strength. After two weeks of daily wear that included a multi-day trip with continuous GPS tracking, the watch still had 27 percent charge remaining. For anyone who has grown tired of charging a watch every few days, that is a meaningful difference.

The main consideration is ecosystem. If you already rely on another platform for training data, moving your history across takes some effort, and the watch makes the most sense for people who are starting fresh or are willing to switch.

Keith Titanium Pressure Cooker: A Specialist Cooking Tool

This is the most specialised item in the group, and the most interesting. It is a genuine titanium pressure cooker rather than a multi-cooker, which means it can do things a standard pot cannot, particularly at altitude where water boils at a lower temperature and cooking times stretch out.

The build is solid. There is a robust handle on the body and a separate handle for the lid, which matters because the lid has to close tightly to build pressure. The lid carries a pressure relief valve and a secondary safety valve designed to prevent over-pressurisation. Inside, a removable insert with a silicone gasket creates the seal, and the maximum capacity is 1,800 ml.

That capacity is large, and the pot is correspondingly heavy, so it makes most sense for group trips or basecamp-style cooking rather than solo fastpacking. The insert can be removed and the pot used on its own to boil water, which adds flexibility. Rice cooked in it has come out well, which suggests it will handle the kind of meals that are hard to get right in a simple pot. If you want something different from the usual dehydrated dinner routine, it is worth a look.

Therm-a-Rest Boost: A Sleeping Bag That Grows

The Boost is built around versatility. It is a roomy semi-rectangular sleeping bag that can expand to become considerably wider, and the mechanism is a centre zip. Opening that zip increases the interior space so the bag feels far roomier than a standard semi-rectangular design without becoming a fully rectangular bag.

There are also zippers at the top, which let you put your arms out and turn the bag into something closer to a lounge space on a cold morning inside the tent. The bag comes in six sizes, and the regular wide version used here is already wider than the standard cut before the centre zip is opened. A traditional hood and draft collars are included.

The trade-offs are weight and packed size. The Boost uses 650 fill down, so it will not be the lightest or most compact option in a pack. Prices run from about $300 to $370 depending on size. For anyone who has struggled with drafts in a quilt or feels restricted by a mummy bag, the extra room is likely to be worth the weight.

Zenbivy Light Bed: Softer Fabrics, Same Comfort-First Design

The Light Bed has been refreshed for 2025 with updates to its fabrics rather than its structure. The change adds only an ounce or two compared with the previous generation, and the payoff is a noticeably softer surface against the skin.

The liner is now a 25-denier pongee fabric, which feels much softer than a standard nylon interior and avoids the plasticky sensation that some lightweight bags have. The pongee runs down to a certain point, after which the construction switches to 15-denier nylon, which is also used on the wings of the full-length sheet and on the top of the quilt. A full-length sheet is available with the system, and the included pillow rounds out the setup.

If comfort is the deciding factor in your sleep system, this is the version to look at. The update is incremental rather than dramatic, but the fabric change is the kind of detail you notice every night.

Big Agnes Copper Spur UL2 XL: A Non-Tapered Two-Person Tent

The Copper Spur UL2 XL takes a well-known tent design and removes one of its long-standing compromises. The XL version has a non-tapered floor, which means it can genuinely sleep two people side by side rather than narrowing at the foot end.

The dimensions tell the story: 54.4 inches of floor width and 96 inches of length. That length is unusually generous for a tent of this class, where 84 to 86 inches is more typical, and it leaves room at the foot of the tent for gear. Two 25-inch wide pads fit without squeezing. You also get two doors, two vestibules, a peak vent and a large mesh pocket basket inside.

The fly uses HyperBead fabric, which is new for 2025 and is described as having a higher waterproof rating, less sag, greater strength and fewer chemical treatments than the previous material. The tent keeps the proven Copper Spur architecture, which is a large part of its appeal.

One practical annoyance is worth flagging. The stakeout cord at the vestibule doors is too short, which pulls the door down to the ground too quickly and prevents the canopy cut of the vestibule from tensioning properly. Adding a longer cord to the stakeout point on both sides of the door helps the fly pull tight. It is a small oversight, but it affects how the vestibule performs in wind and rain.

Overall Buying Advice

With eight items across very different categories, the right choice depends on what is actually limiting your trips.

If you want one pack that can be adjusted for several people or several load sizes, the Gregory Paragon 50 is the more traditional and flexible option, and the adjustable torso and hip belt make it easier to fit. If you prefer a lighter, more streamlined carry and want to try a vest-style harness, the Sweetwater 43 is the more experimental pick, and its roughly 30-pound comfort range covers most three-season loads.

For day trips, the MH900 25L offers the most features for the money in this group, with a real hip belt and a dedicated bottle pocket. On the electronics side, the Apex 2 Pro stands out if battery life and GPS accuracy matter more to you than staying inside an existing training ecosystem.

For cooking, the titanium pressure cooker is a niche purchase. It suits group trips and anyone who wants to cook real meals at altitude, and it is not the item to buy if you count every gram. On sleep, the Boost solves the problem of feeling confined, while the Zenbivy Light Bed solves the problem of fabric comfort. The Copper Spur UL2 XL solves the problem of a two-person tent that only really fits one and a half people.

Conclusion

None of these eight items is a universal recommendation, and that is the point. The Paragon 50, the Sweetwater 43 and the MH900 25L each serve different pack priorities. The Apex 2 Pro addresses battery life and tracking accuracy. The titanium pressure cooker opens up a different kind of backcountry cooking. The Boost and the Zenbivy Light Bed approach sleeping comfort from two directions, and the Copper Spur UL2 XL gives taller or gear-heavy two-person parties a floor that does not taper. Match the item to the problem you actually have, and any of these is a reasonable place to start.