After several years of making packs in his home garage for friends, Dick sells 29 packs in his first year of business for 24 dollars each. Dick hand-forms and welds each of the frames, and his wife, Nena, sews each of the pack bags. Kelty packs first include aircraft-aluminum contoured frames, padded shoulder straps, waist belts, clevis-pin attachment of pack bags, nylon pack cloth, zippered pockets, hold-open frames, and nylon back bands. The first shoulder straps were produced using wool carpeting for padding. The original clevis pins were made from aircraft rivets.
