Brick Bag Explained


Brick Bag was born of necessity. Everyone who takes a GORUCK Challenge brings bricks to stuff in their ruck. Bricks are highly abrasive, and when they’re left to swim around, they tear holes in the Cordura. Even 1000 Denier Cordura, the best military-grade material for the job. We’ve tried all sorts of construction techniques. No matter how many layers of fabric, no matter how tightly packed or cinched down the bricks are, holes happen. So, Brick Bag is not a brick bag at all, unless the bricks are wrapped in something soft, like towels, bubble wrap, and duct tape. Instead, Brick Bag is a stuff sack, meant for daily use.


We always take inspiration from military gear. Pictured above is a stuff sack of sorts that I had in Iraq. Its original intent was as a carrying bag for the gear you would need in case of a biochemical attack, and it was to be with you at all times. By the time I made it over to the Sandbox, that was no longer required. But the bags remained with our team, so I used it as a stuff sack. As we at GORUCK are fond of doing, we trimmed down the excess to create Brick Bag.


The top closure of the Brick Bag is lined with a row of military-grade webbing. We enclosed a strip of hard plastic on the interior to give it a little additional stiffness, which makes the closure more functional. On either end of the webbing strip is a male and female buckle that close the bag. I use Brick Bag to segregate dirty clothes from everything else I have in my GR1. I’m also a fan of wrapping my camera in a blanket and stuffing it in Brick Bag.


It functions as a roll down stuff sack. The ends are then folded back towards each other and closed.


One strip of MOLLE webbing at the bottom provides options.


The ballistic bottom provides additional abrasion resistance, similar to the bottoms of our rucksacks. We’ve gotten the question why we don’t make all of our gear out of it. Ballistic makes a perfect bottom, but if the entire bag were made out of it, it would be too bulky and too clumsy. Ballistic has no real give to it, which impedes performance. Additionally, ballistic is slightly shiny (until covered in dirt or mud or something), and military types don’t tend to like to draw attention to their movement.


In using it over the past months, I’ve been surprised how often I grab for the defacto handle, which is the attachment buckle. It makes it easy to grab out of the interior of my GR1.


The centered, larger webbing strip with the Velcro sewn on top also provides options for individualization, and customization.


Brick Bag also has the capability to become a compression stuff sack. Attachment buckles strap into the MOLLE webbing at the bottom of the bag and correspond to the closure buckles at the top. Male/female, female/male.


Once buckled, each side is cinched down to reduce the volume of the bag. In mine, here, I have a summer sleeping bag and a woobie (aka a poncho liner), which will be my set-up at the GORUCK Ascent with my GR2.


On the far left is a Brick Bag using the compression straps. On the right, in my GR1, is the Brick Bag housing my camera wrapped in a blanket and closed on itself at the top. No compression straps.


All GORUCK gear must perform at the GORUCK Challenge before we release it. It’s our way to ensure that the functionality and construction are worthy to be considered the best in American manufacturing. This is always our aim. So, in the picture above, and below, the Brick Bag is stuffed with over 40 lbs of rocks and carried everywhere, in every which way for the duration of multiple Challenges. This allows us to make sure Challenge takers don’t find any stress points or weaknesses we haven’t yet found ourselves. New products will always make their way to and through the Challenge first for this reason. We release products when they’re ready and not a day sooner. The Challenge is a vital part of this process.


My Distressed GR1 on the bottom, Brick Bag on the top. I’ve already gotten used to taking this thing with me everywhere. As always, it comes with our Scars Lifetime Guarantee. And also as always, it only gets better with time, and use. Check out Brick Bag for more specs.

20 comments

  1. Uri says:

    Fantastic! Just what I needed as part of my kit for packing light, going fast and staying organized.
    Thanks guys for another great product.

  2. AJ says:

    Awesome job, guys! I’ll be getting one asap! Just received my GR1 and GR Tac – couldn’t be any happier.

    Cheers!

  3. jason says:

    John, 1000D is highly water resistant, by military standards. It’s the best material to combine high durability, functionality, and water resistance. Thanks to the good folks at DuPont for developing Cordura in 1929 and bettering it since.

  4. Kris says:

    I would not use something like this. Look at the ocean packs. Same thing but waterproof. Even tried them down to 10m (30ft) diving for 40 minutes and not a single drop. I think if u want something strong and waterproof it should be made of the same bladder material as the OMS HASMAT wing.
    But the Gr1 is great! 😉

  5. Jose says:

    Can this be attached to the outside of the GR1? I love the concept of the Brick Bag, but I would hate to sacrifice the space inside of the GR1.

  6. jason says:

    Jose, you could attach it at the top, buckling the Brick Bag closure through the GR1’s carrying handle up top and then, depending upon the volume you had in Brick Bag, use a karabiner to attach Brick Bag MOLLE webbing to GR1 MOLLE webbing at the bottom.. So, the shorter answer is yes, the longer answer is that you’ll have to make it work for you.

  7. Geovanny says:

    Hey Jason I signed up for the dallas GRC oct 1 a month ago but I bought all my gear at 30% off now that the brick bag has been released I was wondering if I can still or how can I purchase it at 30% off. Thanks

  8. Phil says:

    Great product! I use mine to carry – you guessed it – bricks; specifically my GRC bricks. It’s strong and keeps them compressed into a nice managable package in my GR2 (another amazing product). A definite “must have”. My only question is: Are different colors going to be available soon? I like black and all. But, ACU and dark earth would also be nice, along with matching patches. Just a thought.

    Other than that, keep up the awesome job.

  9. jason says:

    Geovanny, Dallas will be great, thanks for signing up. Please email us at info@goruckchallenge and we’ll take care of you regarding the Brick Bag. Phil – no plan for alternate colors in the near term, but it’s definitely on our radar. Thank you for the kind words, and your support of American manufacturing.

  10. Phil says:

    I currently own a GR2 which I used during my GRC, a brick bag, and I have a Radio on the way. Their toughness and quality are unparalleled. I was wondering, though, during the product development, were they load-tested to see the max weight that could be put in them? If so, what are those specs? Thanks, and thanks for the high-quality, American-made gear.

  11. Michael says:

    I have been using my beloved Radio Ruck for about a month and love the flexibility and quality of the pack. I recently decided that a Challenge should be on my horizon and wanted to know how tight the Brick Bag fit will be in my Radio Ruck? Thank you for creating great quality gear with simplicity and purpose to your designs.

  12. jason says:

    Brick Bag will fit just fine in the RR, for just about any purpose I can think of. It’s best as a stuff sack, which is wide open of course.

  13. Brandon says:

    Definitely need to pick one of these up. It’ll make a perfect compression sack for the back of my Harley.

    Thanks GR!

  14. Jim Whittle says:

    Jason, Should I buy the Black Brick Bag or wait for the CB version? Long wait? Thanks.

  15. Josh says:

    Just got the GR2 but my old brick bag doesn’t attach to the fastenings… Will the new stuff sack fastenings match up to the recent vintage GR2?

  16. jason says:

    New Tough Bag buckles will mimic the existing brick bag. We changed the buckles on the GR2 a while ago to make them IR compliant (for military usage). Send us a note to info@goruck.com and we’ll walk you through how to get our Scars team (aka Clay) to swap your buckles out so they’ll function better for you.

Leave a Reply to John C. Stone

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *