u/Precogvision

I got to stop by the Aer store in SF today and finally try the Day Sling 4 X-Pac.

I've been using a DS3 X-Pac for the last three years. I use it daily and for traveling, and I didn't think I'd upgrade to the DS4 because the changes seemed minimal/unnecessary. But the final straw was when the buckle on the DS3 came undone (for like the 100th time) at a bathroom and it dropped on the nasty floor lol.

So in-person, the Day Sling 4 is actually a solid upgrade.

The Fidlock buckle feels more robust; it's more reliable and seems nearly impossible to slip.

I can easily zip-and-unzip both the front pocket and main pocket with one hand. I do wonder if this behavior will hold up as the X-Pac breaks-in and loses some structure. Previously, the large Aquaguard zipper on the DS3's front pocket made this nearly impossible anyways.

There's now a dedicated pocket for an AirTag (which I was previously storing in the DS3's passport pocket). The passport pocket on the DS4 also has a top flap, so it's less likely to accumulate dust/dirt.

The little divider in the front pocket seemed silly at a glance, but it actually works very well for me. Keys in one side, chapstick + AirPods + eye drops on the other. Less weird bulges in the main pocket.

The lash points on the DS4 are a great idea. There's been a couple times where I've wanted to attach, say, a water bottle to the DS3 but couldn't (and would worry about the buckle slipping easier). You can now remove the internal key loop (never used it before).

What impresses me most, though, is how the DS4 uses space. It's half a liter less than the DS3 which is more oblong. But everything I was carrying before fits fine.

For example, I have a Fuji X100V. In the DS3, you can put it in the mesh pocket and suspend it a bit off the base. You can't do that with the DS4 BUT you get back space because you can move the X100V to the far left/right more (as the DS4's more boxy, has less curvature at the end). Previously the 4 internal mesh pockets overlapped with each other. Now the 2 mesh pockets are biased lower, and the singular mesh pocket on the other side is slightly higher to mitigate overlap. Basically, the DS4 uses its space noticeably better.

Only thing that's really missing for me is the top grab-handle from the DS3. There's a finger loop on the top and I'm sure I'll get used to it but I did like the larger top handle.

Overall, despite not thinking I'd like it much, the DS4's a winner for me on initial impression. I'm really impressed with how they nailed all the small details and addressed the flaws of the DS3, so I ended up snagging it.

Context: I visited a long time ago (10+ years ago), last year and this year.

Almost no one was visibly overweight when I first visited as a kid in like 2012.

When I visited Shanghai last year, most people seemed reasonably thin. My supposition is that the beauty standard is higher in Shanghai (more money = more focus on image) and there’s more international influence around diet and exercise culture. People in Guangzhou were a little heavier but nothing crazy.

But this year, I visited Beijing with my girlfriend and then visited her family in a growing coastal city near Guangzhou. It struck me how much heavier people are in these locations. The food is also so heavy, calorie-dense in Beijing which likely contributes to this.

Literally every other person I see appeared to be overweight. In Beijing, we had a DiDi driver who had to be pushing 200kg which shocked me. It didn’t really feel much different from being in the USA (minus the USA having more noticeably obese people).

It’s crazy to see how the culture of convenience and increased earning power have contributed to this. It’s also interesting how different it is from Japan which has sustained markedly lower rates of fatness. I assume this is due to leaner culinary diet, more focus on tradition in their cuisine, and because Japan lacks the rapid growth that fueled consumerism and car adoption in China.

Anyways, the rest of the trip was great and I saw a lot of cool stuff, it’s just this part that was kinda sad to see. All of this N=1 of course, but I checked the stats and they do seem to loosely track with my experience (in 2012, apparently 40% of the population was overweight but I didn’t really notice possibly because the threshold for being considered overweight is lower for Asian than the USA).