Gregory Paragon 60 Backpack Review

Bottom Line

Sporting an excellent balance of features, capacity, and load hauling, the Gregory Paragon 60 (and women’s equivalent, Maven 58) shines as the most comfortable pack in our lineup, earning our editor’s choice award. Everything about this pack felt smooth and delightful. When we loaded it up with 30 pounds of weight, the suspension system handled it easily. The hip belt was wonderfully comfortable, the back panel excellent, and the shoulder straps continued the good news. We really couldn’t complain about our comfort experience when testing and reviewing the Paragon. 

Although the Paragon isn’t the most feature-rich pack, it strikes a good balance for a midweight backpack. The side zippers are great to see for accessing items without opening up the main compartment, and the bottom sleeping bag pocket will please fans of that feature. We still see ample compression options and some decent external lashing points for strapping larger items to the outside if you want to push the capacity a bit. 

It comes in at a price that is in line with many of its peers but also at a weight that is significantly higher. It’s not as heavy as beefier load hauler packs, like its sibling the Baltoro. Instead, it sits in between lightweight packs and packs meant for hauling heavy loads. Rather than getting lost in that middle ground, the Paragon distinguished itself and came out on top in our side by side testing. If you’re a traditional backpacker looking for a comfortable pack where everything works well, the Paragon tops our list of the best backpacking backpacks.

How We Tested

We tested the Paragon on forested trails in Minnesota during the winter months while updating all of our backpack reviews.

Comfort

Although the competition was close, the Gregory Paragon ended up being the most comfortable pack that we tested. The combination of the excellent mesh back panel and wonderfully supportive hit belt meant that everything about this pack felt luxurious. We were impressed when we loaded it up with 30 pounds and found that the weight distributed evenly through the pack’s suspension system. The pack shifted most of the weight to our hips – as it should – and the remainder stayed on the shoulder straps without creating any hotspots. 

It’s worth remembering that comfort is a very subjective metric. What works well for one person won’t necessarily work well for another. This is why it’s always important to try on packs with appropriate weights yourself. That being said, the Paragon has all of the elements of a design that should work well for many people, so we’re confident in our comfort assessment. 

Although the mesh back panel isn’t as suspended as some other backpacks – even ones made by Gregory – it still offered a decent amount of ventilation. The mesh on both the shoulder straps and hip belt also added to breathability. What we are left with is a pack that surprised us and impressed us with the amount of comfort offered.

Features

The Paragon is a midweight pack with a feature set to match. It’s not trying to be the most feature-rich experience out there, but it’s also not afraid to add in more fully fleshed out ideas at the sacrifice of weight. 

Perhaps the most noticeable are the two zippers that run down the side of the backpack in an l shape, offering access to the interior without opening up the top part of the pack. Additionally, the hip belt has extensions that are velcroed in that can increase or remove support for various sizes of hips as necessary. This is a great feature to accommodate different body shapes and can especially be helpful on long adventures when your own body shape may change throughout the course of the hike. 

Curiously a vertical water bottle opening is only found on the right side of the pack. This is probably where most people will prefer to reach for their water bottles, but we wish Gregory would have added this to the other side for more versatility. Fortunately, that water bottle pocket also has another feature – a compression cord that is routed underneath the fabric. This is a great feature that allows for use of the pocket without compromising the compression ability of the pack. It’s one of those thoughtful design features that only comes from listening to your users or using the products in the field. 

Overall, the only nitpick we came up with is that the hip belt pocket zippers don’t close one-handed. This isn’t the most crucial test, but it’s still a nice feature when pack designs do allow this.

Durability

Gregory is known for making solid products, and the Paragon is no different. Being a mid-weight backpack, it invests a little bit more than some lightweight models into more durable materials and construction. The construction quality on this pack is simply excellent. 

No matter how we pulled and stressed the seams, we didn’t see any thread movement, which can be an indication of future failure. Gregory uses high quality 100D and 210D nylon for the pack body, and a nicely thick 420D nylon for the pack bottom. The pack bottom is made from 40% recycled materials, and the lining is also 40% recycled. We’d like to see better numbers from Gregory here in the future since competitors offer much better. At least the DWR is PFAS free.

Unfortunately, we do see a bit more mesh used on pockets than we would have liked. Usually water bottle pockets are acceptable here, but we’re disappointed that the back pocket is almost entirely mesh. Other manufacturers have switched to more durable face fabrics in combination with smaller amounts of mesh or elastic materials for improved durability. The mesh here does feel very high quality, but it is likely to fail far sooner than the body fabric.

Ease of Use

With its carefully considered feature set, we were pleased that every aspect of the Paragon 60 was straightforward and easy to use. Adjusting the torso measurement was so fast that we could see ourselves making micro adjustments on trail to dial in our fit. The included buckles were high quality and didn’t require careful positioning to snap into place. Although we usually prefer roll tops, the cinch mechanism was smooth and easy to use every time. Again the only nitpick is that the hip belt pocket zippers don’t close one-handed. But that’s is pretty easy to overlook when everything else works so well.

Water bottle pockets are an area in which many packs stumble, but thankfully the Paragon showed an above-average performance here. Although only one side has a vertical opening for a bottle, we found it easy to get a Nalgene or a Smartwater bottle in and out while walking. A caveat to this is that longer 1 l Smart water bottles can stick out a little bit, so make sure to test your bottles before committing to them on a trip.

Should You Buy the Gregory Paragon 60 Backpack?

If you’re in the market for a traditional backpack, we can’t think of a better choice for most people than the Paragon 60. It manages to execute well on everything that it sets out to do, delivering a supremely comfortable experience, great feature set, and solid durability while remaining easy to use. 

The fact that we think will convince most people is that amazing comfort. One of the truths about backpacking is that most of the time the most comfortable pack is the best one for you. Since the Paragon topped our list in that regard, it’s easy to see why it earned our editor’s choice here. That being said, The Paragon is still rather heavy for a backpack and other models will perform similarly for less weight – and in many cases, less money. Hikers who are more weight conscious should consider other models in addition to this one. But most traditional backpackers will love the Gregory Paragon 58.

What Other Backpacking packs Should You Consider?

The Paragon may top our lists, but we recommend plenty of other models in our full guide to the best backpacking backpacks, including these:

REI Flash 55 Review – Our budget buy pack is seriously worth a look even if you consider yourself more of a traditionalist. Sporting a great feature set and an even better price, we think the Flash is a pack that will make a lot of people happy. 

ULA Circuit Review – If the excellent balance of features and comfort in the Paragon appeal to you, the Circuit strikes a similar balance but with thru-hikers and lightweight backpackers in mind.