Mystery Ranch and Carryology Bring back a Beast of a Backpack With the Dragon 2.0

It’s not easy to do coverage for the community-favorite Carryology collaborations. Even as I try to be as a part of the community as I can, the simple fact is with the hype surrounding each release, it’s hard to get the word out with just how fast the bags sell out. But the winds seem to be changing, and as the the latest collaboration with Mystery Ranch—the Dragon 2.0—rises, we may be seeing more of it on people’s backs, and that’s a great thing.

The Dragon 2.0 is the fifth collaboration between Mystery Ranch and Carryology, and comes from a long line of special editions and collaborations. There was the original Scapegoat, a long-discontinued made in the USA hunting pack. This turned into the Scape Artist, a more urban-focused experiment between A & F Corporation (who had been importing Mystery Ranch into Japan) that was designed to be a Japanese exclusive to celebrate A & F’s 40th anniversary.

There’s a lot more to the story, but fast track a few years down the line and the Scape Artist ended up becoming the base of the original Dragon—now dubbed the No Escape—collaboration with Carryology. It both filled the void of the limited nature of the original Scape Artist, as well as allowed both MR and Carryology to put a fresh new spin on the design and bring it up to modern enthusiast sensibilities. To this day, I think both the Dragon and the original Unicorn remain one of the most popular and successful collaborations on the market, enough to have fueled the re-release of the Unicorn, and now, the Dragon 2.0.

So if you’ll excuse the short history lesson, what should newcomers expect from the new Dragon on the block? At it’s core it’s a versatile 26L pack with a unique opening system that acts as both a top and panel loader, with the best of the best materials, hardware, and community-requested functions and favorites bolstering its features. On the outside, three of the colors (Black, Olive, and Coyote, nods to the original Scape Artist colorways) wear the toughest X-Pac fabric on the market, Dimension Polyant’s X50 Tactical, while the white Dragon comes in UVX40 (60% Ultra-PE and 40% polyethylene) to represent the “snow” biome amongst the four.

Mystery Ranch’s Futura harness is considered by many to be the most adjustable, comfortable, and versatile shoulder strap systems out there, and naturally the Dragon comes with it, like its other collaboration siblings. This gets supported by a custom V-Buckle FIDLOCK sternum strap and a low profile, removable hip belt. Every other aspect of the bag has also been considered, from the extra large exterior (and interior!) water bottle pockets, a detachable beaver tail, a quick access top “brain” pocket, Hypalon lash points, and YKK AquaGuard zippers for the full all-weather package. And like all Carryology collaborations, the Dragon 2.0 of course comes with its own custom patch, designed again by artist Dan Matsuda and intended to be a companion piece to the original Dragon’s patch.

If it’s not already obvious, this is a lot to this bag, and it will be right at home nesting in an office, flying in the air as a travel pack, and on your back for all your missions and adventures. And the best part is, unlike its predecessors, you won’t have to look far to slay secure one for yourself—there are and will be plenty of Dragons available in the near future, ready to fly. The Mystery Ranch x Carryology Dragon 2.0 is (still!) available now from Mystery Ranch.