This piece of kit had been sitting in tropical storage for 4 years. It, and some other gear, was unfortunately the target of a massive amount of mildew during that time.
I was worried that I would end up losing the versipack. I had a three-day assault pack made by Tactical Tailor that I ended up ditching that was stored with this bag because it was much worse shape (the Colossus was stored inside the pack). The Colossus went back to Canada with me slung across my body. The smell was overpowering at times. When I got home, I just let it sit for a few months to see if the smell would lessen. It didn’t. Eventually I purchased some Borax and mixed it with a sink full of hot water and went to town scrubbing every piece of the bag, both inside and out. It took a few hours, but it was way better than it looked when I had recovered it. The smell had mostly abated, but was still noticeable. With a big camping trip coming up, I purchased a pack of cedar balls and tossed them in every pocket of the bag in the hopes that it would fix the remaining scent. This seemingly worked and the rest of the smell was gone after a week in the outdoors.
maltosekincaid.com 