THE KELTY ARROW AND MOUNTAINS, CIRCA 1970THE KELTY ARROW AND MOUNTAINS, CIRCA 1970A. I. "Dick" Kelty is the man behind the bigger-than-life
Kelty brand. Mr. Kelty was a humble carpenter who began to make
packs with aluminum frames in his home in California in the very
early 1950s, with the help of his wife Nena... Thus, within the
history of gear, Kelty started as another home-based husband/wife
team, just like GERRY, like Holubar, and like Stephenson's Warmlite....Mr.
Kelty's first year of real business was in 1952,
when he sold 29 packs, and they were all in olive drab color since
they all used WW II leftover parachute pack fabric! (business
card image credit goes to Mr. Kelty's son Richard Kelty, who sent
me one of his father's original business cards).... As an international
footnote, I will add that there has always been simultaneous independent
inventing going on within the History and Evolution of outdoor
gear. A case in point is the fact that in Sweden the frame pack
was "invented" in 1950 by Ake Nordin, the man
who was to become the founder of the still-thriving Swedish company
Fjallraven (Arctic Fox in
English).
My own first "real" pack was a no-name frame pack in a greenish fabric of some kind, but definitely not the renowned Kelty nylon (click here to see my pack in action circa 1965)...... By the mid-1970s, I proudly owned a Kelty BB5 pack. My shoulders and hips still recall backpacking into the Tetons in 1978, proudly hefting a 76 pound pack, fully half my weight! Those Keltys easily provided the capacity to go "Mega-weight" rather than "Ultra-light."
The picture above shows Dick and his wife Nena with two key staff. The picture below shows Dick Kelty in his element, cheerfully helping a group of backpackers! In the background one can see a classic green Kelty frame pack. The picture was taken in 1977 at Lake Arrowhead, California. Bruce Wagner, who was National Sales Manager for Kelty from 1968-1978, supplied this account, "the two young hikers in your 1977 picture of Dick Kelty are Carl Siechert (left) and Norm Switzer. Carl is my brother-in-law. He and Norm and another friend, Bill Berg, were two weeks into a South-to-North thru-hike of the PCT. They were testing equipment for Kelty and, in that capacity, quickly became known on the trail as the "Kelty Kids". On the weekend of April 16-17, 1977, Dick and Nena Kelty came to our home in Lake Arrowhead, California, to intercept the boys for an equipment debriefing. Your picture was actually taken by Bill Berg in the family room of our home."......... Click here for a picture of Mr. Kelty with the founders of Sierra Designs, with whom he sat in about 1979 for a publicity event for "CML" Group.... Mr. Kelty's reputation was sterling, Warmlite's founder Jack Stephenson, who knew him personally, fondly told me, "Dick Kelty was the best-ever innovator and super fair salesman, helpful far beyond any others."
iDick Kelty within The History of Gear was a part of what I call the California group of early pioneers; others from that same time frame include Jack Stephenson of Warmlite, and Ralph Andy Drollinger* of A16 Packs..... Mr. Kelty was known as an inventor and a person who always genuinely "walked his talk" as a true outdoorsman. Many grant him the title of the "father of the frame pack." Although some dispute some of the claims, what is certainly true is that he had many innovations in backpack design that improved weight-carrying and improved comfort. Some claim that he introduced the first aluminum frame backpack, the first waist-belt, the first padded shoulder straps, the first nylon pack-bag, the first zippered pockets, the first hold-open bar; and the first use of clevis pins. Whether he was truly "first" in all these categories I cannot say, but what is most certainly true is that Mr. Kelty was a giant among the gear pioneers, and through his efforts gave backpacking an early and long-continued boost into the national consciousness of the United States. (* Mr. Drollinger contributed some of the information on this page)
Why Keep Your
Old Frame Pack?
The following is quoted from the catalog of Moor and Mountain,
a retailer near Boston which has been in business since 1966 and
seen many gear trends come and go. I believe this quote is to
be attributed to Al French: "Internal frames have
much to offer backcountry skiers, winter campers, and high angle
climbers. 
They
allow what one calls a "live load", riding closer to
the back and therefore the wearer's center of gravity. However,
the backpacking industry (including most retail outlets) have
unfairly designated external frame backpacks as obsolete artifacts
from the Jurassic Age of outdoor equipment. In Al's opinion --
drawing from his and other folks' experience -- an external frame
is more efficient for carrying a heavy load over long relatively
flat distances; and, in almost all cases, an external frame pack
is significantly less expensive, lighter, easier to load properly
and is also far better ventilated for summer use. So don't throw
your old Kelty D4 in the trash." Andy Drollinger, founder
of A16
packs,
agrees wholeheartedly with this statement, please click
here to
see some of his comments about Kelty..... Note: it is rumored
that A16 has on display, in one of their seven stores, one or
two of the very earliest Kelty packs. Ask if you are visiting
A16, and please report back to me with the details and a picture
or two! (Contact
Me)
Asher "Dick" Kelty passed away in January, 2004 at his home in Glendale, California of natural causes. He was born in September, 1919 in Duluth, Minnesota....Instead of a memorial services, he issued now-famous words encouraging everyone to "go take a hike." ..... His company lives on and seems to be thriving. Better yet, his wife Nena still publishes books about how to backpack! Her most germane is "Backpacking the Kelty Way" (pub 2000), and her latest is titled: "My Father was Carmen Miranda: Memoirs of an English Showgirl" (pub. 2008)... . Below is a recent picture of her, at a bookstore signing. Nena Jover Kelty.
Remarkably different than the Kelty company
has been the business course of former associate/rival, the small
custom gearmaker Stephenson's Warmlite,
which has survived, stayed tiny, and never changed its name or
ownership in some 40 years of doing business! A little-known fact
in the History of Gear is that Stephenson was selling a frame
pack with a fully-padded waist belt system more than ten years
before Kelty packs had them!
BOOK ALERTS: My first book in a series about The History of Gear was about Frostline Kits. Please visit my FROSTLINE PAGE (click here) for a link to order it, or to view a free 15 page PDF preview. The second book was released May 20, 2008 and is titled, "GERRY, To Live in the Mountains" (click here). The third book of the series covers the story of Holubar (an early business partner of Kelty); that book was released November 2009. My fourth book is "MSR, Defying Tradition and is about the early days of Mountain Safety Research (MSR)... My fifth book is about Stephenson's Warmlite, Jack Stephenson an early pack maker who knew Dick Kelty personally. Later, I will pull together several related gear companies into one book, among them A16 and probably Kelty.
Please Note: All Material above, and in all my "History
of Gear" webpages, is copyrighted, and no usage of my material
is permitted unless explicit permission is granted by me, Bruce
B. Johnson, owner of OregonPhotos.com. ... Editors: Please contact me at brucej@oregonphotos.com
if you have interest in publishing....Others: if you were involved with one of the
old-line, vintage gear companies and have a story to tell in these
pages, please contact
me soon.
