Today, we’ve got a compilation of a few of our writer’s experiences with Vertex Gamut using it throughout SHOT 2024. Impressions were good; here’s what they all had to say. Since its establishment in 2009, Vertx has been incrementally building its brand tailored to versatile and low-profile EDC carry options. Over the years, they have developed shirts, pants, and shorts with enhancements for on-body carry and several iterations of backpacks or travel bags tailored toward off-body carry and supplemental loadout options. Before SHOT Show 2024, our team received a variety of carry packs to help navigate travel to and from the show. The Gamut has a sleek, upscale appearance and is the urban cousin of the Ready Pack. The Gamut has a 25L capacity and CCW options. Its dimensions are 21″ H x 11.5″ W x 8″ D, and the dedicated CCW compartment measures 18″ H x 11″ W x 2″ D. 

Gamut sports VELCRO loop panels for tactigami accessories throughout the main compartment. It even unzips 180 degrees, providing full access to the high-visibility interior. Behind the front panel is an additional loop panel with a laser-cut MOLLE. Gamut also has two stretch water bottle pouches on the exterior that can be left open for access or covered by vertical zippers. The CCW compartment sandwiches between the 3-D molded foam back panel and the main cargo compartment. The oversized hot pull tab can be transferred from various zipper tabs to customize rapid access to any compartment. The padded shoulder straps and waist stabilizer strap help distribute weight for a more manageable load out.

Running the Gamut

Mike Searson

While I’m not typically a backpack guy in urban settings, I felt the need for one as sling bags and messenger bags don’t have the capacity or weight distribution I need for a week-long tradeshow. Gearing up for the 2024 SHOT (Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade) Show led me to Vertx and their Gamut 3.0 backpack. I chose this one because of its looks and carrying capacity. I needed to carry around a tablet, laptop, camera, outer jacket, and EDC items, as well as to load up on trade show loot and give out some items that could have a substantial amount of weight by the end of the day.

It came in a tan color, which is a bit more of a color to blend in without letting the rest of the world know that I might not be an itinerant PMC (Private Military Contractor) wandering the streets of Las Vegas, Nevada. Just a humble tradeshow attendee in search of a decent meal. I didn’t want the aura of some clown hauling around a three-day pack, bumping into people and displays like he was going to bivouac in a local Starbucks. The Gamut 3.0 includes a Rapid Access Pull tab that can be swapped from zipper to zipper and interchanged with other pull styles for a fully customized setup. A generously sized CCW compartment allows you to quickly and easily access a handgun in case you opt for off-body carry. 

The primary compartment opens 180° for quick access to your gear and can be customized for all your EDC and snivel gear organization. Straos are mostly comfortable and allow the pack to be stacked on a luggage roller handle at the airport. There is a compartment to store a good-sized (15-inch) laptop or tablet. Similarly, one of the sides has a stretch pouch to carry a spare water bottle. The opposing side has a pouch to keep small EDC items like pens, business cards, and the like organized and at the ready.

I ran into one issue: hauling multiple copies of print magazines to hand out to prospective clients and showing others where their products appeared in print. Initially, I felt a bit overloaded, but I quickly figured out how to properly adjust the straps to distribute the weight. After looking at other options, I’d like to add a BAP Strap XL to stow a small SBR in the pack and see how it carries. This truly modular platform allows the user to customize their backpack to work with their loadout. Vertx offers a staggering array of accessories, allowing you to set up different Go-bags, medical kits, and daily EDC.

Wearing the Vertx Gamut 3.0 for an entire week led me to the conclusion that I could carry a benign-looking pack like this on a daily basis and have all my essentials with me when I might need them most.

Flying, Walking, and Carrying, Vertx is Up For The Journey 

April Mosher

The Vertx Gamut is a tough, versatile, and comfortable bag to carry. Over the last week, I have packed, unpacked, and repacked this thing daily. I have flown with it and carried it for miles. One of the best things about Vertx products is the customization users can create with their “Tactigami” products. Tactigami are individual organizational pieces that velcroo on the inside of the bags in whatever configuration you choose. Because of the soft Velcro brand “One-Wrap” fabric used in their construction, Tactigami accessories are attachable anywhere inside a Vertx bag, including any of the pockets. These organizational accessories include zipper pouches, holsters, Molle adapter panels, and more. 

These have “tactical” applications and other practical uses like keeping pens organized or having a handy place to keep your cell phone. The ability to set up your bag for one use today and then reorganize it for another tomorrow makes Vertx bags the most versatile. The Gamut bag is a large bag that can hold a lot of stuff. It has three smaller pockets, a water bottle pouch, a laptop pocket, and a large compartment. The straps are wide and comfortable, and there are two additional straps—one across the chest and one across the midsection—to help distribute the weight of the bag and make it easier to carry on those long days. 

One day this week, I took a 10-minute walk outside in the rain, and nothing in the bag got wet, at least until I had to stuff my rain jacket inside upon arrival. The laptop pocket is also padded enough that I did not worry about stuffing the bag in the overhead compartments on my flight (those bins can get so full!). Overall, I can already tell that the durability and versatility of this bag are going to make it a favorite for years to come.

Big Joe’s Not Terribly Giant Gamut

Big Joe

Hmm, where to start on this thing??? I got this bag about a week before the shot show and used it for my everything bag to and from the show, and it’s still going strong. I’ll add that I flew Frontier Airlines. That tells you two things you need to know: first, I could only pack 40 pounds on my checked back, and I had to pay to lug this Gamut along, but the second thing is don’t ever Frontier again. It’s like checking in with your probation officer and sitting in the lobby of that place. Anyway, I ended up loading this Gamut up to the brim to save some weight in my luggage. 

For a while, it felt like a bad move on my part, but it wasn’t terrible. The Gamut holds weight very nicely, and the shoulder straps are very comfy and padded. The second thing I noticed after the shoulder straps was a nice padded back panel that conforms to your back, making it very comfortable. The next thing I noticed and liked is that they made the laptop pocket removable if you wanted it to be, and they could open the main compartment to hold stuff. On my trip to Vegas, I packed a blaster, so I used the CCW compartment, which was very similar but not for a gun. 

I used it to access stuff rapidly I would need along the way on the trip. It made me think that even those who like me would never buy this bag because I don’t want to off-body carry should think again about these bags. Between the CCW pocket and all the other pockets, the layout of the bag and the ease of access to all your crap is pretty nice. I won’t bore you with the actual travel details to Vegas, but I finally arrived and headed for a couple of days. It was cold, windy, and wet all day. I had a rain jacket, but my Gamut didn’t. It turns out it did, and it was pretty awesome! The outside of the bag has a built-in DWR finish or a water-resistant finish. Think of it like rain-x on your car windshield but on a bag. It was very nice; the rain just ran right off and didn’t soak the bag.

During the show, I ended up ditching the laptop sleeve to make more space for crap I didn’t need to put in this thing. The whole interior of the bag is made of hook and loop material. That means it is modular, and you can scale up or scale down what you want on the inside with the addition of the tactigami inserts that Vertx sells. It’s pretty nice, but don’t worry if you decide not to splurge on the extras that Vertx sells. The bag has plenty of features to make anyone happy.

The only thing that I noticed about the layout of the bag that I really didn’t like is the quick access compartment near the top of the bag. It’s small but expands, but it is close to the zipper that opens up to the main compartment. My dumbass would open up the main compartment and throw stuff in there like it was that small pocket, and the small things I wanted to keep separate would go everywhere. 

Also, I would tend to overload that pocket, and then I would open the main pocket up, and I had so much weight in the small pocket that it would nose dive like the Titanic.  Again, not to bore you with the details, but I returned safely home from Vegas with the Gamut in hand without adding or subtracting from the population. About halfway through the show, I started calling this bag a trashcan, basically because I could just keep putting stuff inside of it and packing it down more to make stuff fit. 

Overall, this bag is very feature-rich and a very good deal for the price. Most bags with this many features don’t include the DWR finish and soak up water as a mouth breather does.