Been grinding my brain cells with this question for a while now, but to those who use the all-too-common utility belt (like me) what do you all think makes the ideal functional utility belt pouch and do you prefer or think a hard pouch would be better over a soft pouch?

Discuss

DarkShadow out

I suppose I'm biased since I've worked with this material quite a lot, but I have yet to find a true substitute for good old fashion leather. Get the right thickness and your pouches will retain shape yet be flexible enough to not crack under pressure. One of the five projects I'm working on right now is a leather utility belt. I'll post a pic when it's complete.

Gadgetastic!

Neurocybex got ML & I these "Grab it packs" That are the BOMB! you wear them like a old west gunfighters holster only their a pack. They buckle around your leg & everything! I think Zeta uses one too & has a link.

This would be the link you're looking for Supes
http://www.grabitpack.com/

Yeah! that's it! You'll see me wear it in recent Pics! IT's indispensable!
Here it is!


I can't say enough good things about it. I honestly don't know how I patrolled without it really.

That pack is amazing...totally just ordered one, haha.

Myself, I like the soft pouch myself. I use some camera bags I bought at Wal-mart last year and assembled my belt from those. I have thought about making a hard cased one to and trying that one out sometime. But I have a feeling I'm going to be sticking with good ol' belt number 5.

Its hard pouches for me. I bought a police grade belt and it works great for me.

i tend to look for holders made for what im holding. i have a med pack for my first aid kit and a binocular pouch for my binoculars.

at some point i'll find some piece of my gear that they dont make a holder for and i'll have to get some kind of pack for that, but so far everything i have has its own holder.

My tool belt has really loose pouches and it is easy for tools to fall out when bending down to grab stuff out of the lower bins. I'm thinking of "keying" my tools with tiny neodymium magnets so they will stick firmly to the belt, but only in the place meant for that tool. Also, I would just need to release the tool in the general vicinity of its place and it would lock into position.

I got a 'value pack' of 500 of the tiny magnets that would be ideal for this purpose.

http://www.kjmagnetics.com/

Most of their stuff is pretty expensive, but you can check the specials and find really good deals.

i use rare earth magnets for my mask. i was hoping to use them to hold it on so it could easily be taken off but the problem is, if the magnets are strong enough to hold the mask in place, they pull off my face when i remove it, and if they remove easily then they wont hold the mask.


if i could find something stronger then spirit gum to hold the magnets to me maybe it would work.

The grabitpack is awesome. I just wish it came in yellow.

On the original question, generically I'd have to say soft pouches.

magazine Pouches work great BUT they are MAGAZINE pouches and it can get you mistaken for an ARMED opponent. Hunting gear works well too.

This is outstanding, thank you all for the great feedback.

@ Gadgetatstic: Outstanding suggestion, i've looked at a few leather pouches and was wondering what suggestions you could make. I'm basically looking for pouches that are big enough to hold a Dremel tool, battery and tool bit array.

@Superhero: That was an awesome suggestion, that Grabit pack looks excellent, I'll definitely be putting that on my to-get list.

@Amazonia: I've scoured Wal-Mart for days now and they don't seem to have a decent belt pouch that i'm looking for, they are either too big or too small, do you have any suggestions?

@Citizen: What kind of hard pouches do you use exactly? My searches haven't come up with anything viable as of yet.

@Victim: Are you referring to tool belt pouches? What kind can you suggest and do you have any links?

Magazine pouches you say? Wondered why I didn't think of that before...

Many thanks to all.

DarkShadow out

The tool belt pouches I'm referring to are simply the ones hanging off of standard tool belts.

One of My old utility pouches I bought at the survival store years ago had a big pocket in front with 2 pockets on either side of my waist I really enjoyed that but they dont make them any more (Cheap Buttardos)

Now all I have is the one with the small pocket and the smaller pocket in front of it

I don't know a thing about utility belts, but I am planning on using a form fitting backpack with many pockets.

bianchi makes good tactical pouches with reinforced nylon. I've had several of them last me years. black hawk is also good, as well as BBC, (big bag company)nylon is lighter,slightly more flexible than leather and will retain its shape. I dislike leather immensely, but that's because I like the look of a swat officer over a cop. plus I have a buck knife my dad gave me years ago in a leather holster, and there's a hole in the bottom.

You can also find some interesting belt pouches at hardware stores. I was looking at a few different oens at Lowes just the other day.