Think Tank Photo launches MindShift Gear nature photography bag company; intros world’s first rotating outdoor backpack
posted Monday, December 3, 2012 at 4:57 PM EDT
Think Tank Photo, the popular urban photography bag company, is taking a step into the great outdoors. The company announced today it is launching a new brand called MindShift Gear, which will focus on outdoor/nature backpacks.
As part of the MindShift Gear launch, a new backpack called the rotation180° professional has been introduced as a Kickstarter project. The new pack is being touted as "the world's first rotating outdoor backpack."
As you can see in the Kickstarter video below, it's actually just a waist pack section of the entire backpack that rotates out of the rear bag and to the front of your body via a belt system, letting you grab gear without taking the rotation180° professional off your back.
The process of pulling the waist pack out and forward seems quick and relatively seamless, only requiring a flap with a magnetic buckle to be released so you can turn the lower section of the bag to the front of your body. The rotating belt waist back is on the small side but will hold a pro size camera with up to a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens attached, or multiple prime and zoom lenses.
As we posted this, the rotation180° professional bag project had received nearly $17,000 in pledges with a goal of $30,000 in the next 29 days. If it meets its pledge goal, the new backpack will go on sale in April 2013 for $450. (UPDATE: Less than 12 hours have the launching the Kickstarter project, the rotation180° professional has been fully funded.)
According to Think Tank, the company launched MindShift Gear as a separate brand to "avoid confusion."
"Think Tank was founded to serve the needs of professional photographers in mostly urban settings," Brian Erwin of Think Tank Photo told Imaging Resource in an email. "This is a definition we take quite literally in our designs. What and how photographers carry gear in urban versus outdoor/nature settings is often very different. By creating MindShift we are able to design its lineup of gear specifically for how nature/outdoor photographers shoot."