NNormal’s Modular Trail Vest

New hydration vest from NNormal – cause everyone’s gotta do a vest now, which I don’t necessarily mind – diversity and competition breeds innovation – so one hopes.

And this one promises to be innovative. Modular by design – allowing you to attach more capacity in the back for longer days. So, rather than having to buy two vests, one for shorter outings where one carries most of their essentials just in the front, and a larger ones for bigger adventures requiring additional gear and nutrition in the back – NNormal’s Modular Trail Vest promises to do it all. So far, so good.

But the question I have from looking at it – and I haven’t had a chance to test it out myself – is this: If the same attachment system is used to add more storage or the quiver for poles doesn’t this sort of defeating the main use case on where folks would use such a vest? I would use my poles especially on longer outings where I’d need the additional storage. On shorter ones I rarely take my poles. So here’s a vest that allows you to go either (A) light, (B) light with poles, or (C) heavier with the additional pack, but then you can’t attach the pole quiver. So now I’m stuck still needing to buy a bigger vest for UTMB type race days. Seems like a bummer.

Update: I received some information from reader Federico who found a YouTube video back from TRE of last year where the vest was originally announced. There the rep showing the product suggests that the vest allows for both the added storage and the quiver to be attached at the same time. But the video doesn’t show this in action. So I will leave my comment up until I get confirmation on how this is supposed to work/what this looks like.