We have gotten off subject! Original post was about packs.
What did we use in the old days?
Pants - Air Force dress wool pants, surplus
longjohns - 100% itchy gray wool union suit, with front buttons and back flap
Socks- my mother knit me wool socks and mittens. She knit socks with no seams! never had such good socks.- also 2 pair of thick rag wool socks - the darned boots were so stiff that you needed 2 pair of thick socks or you would get blisters.
Boots - 5 pound boat anchors. All leather. Huge vibrum soles that we had resoled every so often. Shoes lasted 10+ years.
Sleeping bag - down. Down bags have been around a long time.
Hiking shirt - 60/40 dacron/cotton work shirt, self embroirdered with flowers (we were all hippies then)
insulation - wool, wool and more wool
more insulation - down, down and more down
Shell jacket - cotton treated so that it had a very waxy feel. I cannot recall what it really was.
Tent - same waxy stuff as jackets. Remember when you could not touch the tent or it would leak?
daypack- canvas with leather bottom
backpack - external frame Kelty. Started with an old canvas packbag on a frame, but when I bought the Kelty in 1966 it had a nylon bag.
By now you get the idea- heavy, heavy, heavy!
But when you do not know any other, we felt we were "high tech"! Had the latest and greatest!