One of the bigger trends on everyday carry blogs is the emergence of pouches to carry the increasingly insane amount of shit people seem to think they need. As members will note in my videos, I picked up the Maxpedition Mini Pocket Organizer to test out, and after having used it for quite some time, I have more than a few things to say.
First, let’s take a look at what we are talking about:
The full compliment of gear I carry in the organizer is as follows:
Maxpedition Mini Pocket Organizer
– Fisher Bullet Space Pen: this is for writing.
– 3/32″ Tether Nylon Cord (about 15 feet): this is for tying.
– Nite Ize DoohicKey: this is for prying.
– Olight S15 Baton: this is for lighting.
– Exotac NanoStriker XL: this is for fire.
– BIC Lighter: this is for fire.
– Spyderco Sage 2: this is for cutting.
– Belkin 6″ Lightning Cable: this is for life.
– Nock DotDash Pocket Notebook: this is for writing. Wait. Shit.
– Bogota Lock Picks: this is for unlocking.
– CountyComm Tweezers: this is for slivers.
All in all, a pretty robust kit in a very small package.
Why
My initial draw to setting up one of these pouches was to see what all the rage was about. Then I invented an actual reason for myself: to create a portable kit I can toss in any bag, or car, and have basically everything I might need in any situation.
Whether that is helping a friend locked out of a house, or pulling a sliver on a hike — or just having the right cable to top off the charge on my iPhone. There is no good reason for any of these setups in all honesty, but it can be a neat exercise in convenience. Especially if you don’t want to buy multiples of everything you own — just giving yourself an easy way to transport your stuff around without losing it, can save a ton of money.
The Pouch
There is no shortage of these pouches out there, but the ones which pop up the most are Maxpedition — even then there are no shortage of these pouches from this brand. I purchased this one solely based on the measurements being about the max size I thought I might want — nothing more. At about $20, it’s a pretty good deal.
However, when I received the pouch I was not very impressed with it. There’s a funky hoop sticking off the top, a logo on the front and inside. And some very loosely corded zipper pulls.
Out with the knife, paracord, heat shrink tube, and lighter. From there I cut the stitching free on the loop, and logos. I redid the zipper pulls with heat shrink tubing as well. Overall, after I made a bunch of modifications to the pouch, I was then OK with using it. Out of the box, it’s just ugly.
The rest of the pouch is about what you would expect for the price. Decent zippers, decent nylon, and decent interior organization. It doesn’t feel like a piece of crap, but you also won’t mistake it for a high end good. Though, would you even need much more high-end for this? I doubt it.
The size though has proven to be a very lucky guess for me. Anything bigger and I would not have liked it, smaller and it would not have worked. It’s a really nice size.
The Gear
Almost as fun as researching this pouch is figuring out just what you might want in one. For me, I basically pulled out all the stuff I take on my day hikes with kids, and the odds and ends from my briefcase which I find I don’t use often.
There was honestly only one single requirement: it should hold my lockpick kit. (That’s lockpicks, plus the doohickey to be used as a pry bar if needed.)
I had two main use cases for this setup: when I go on day hikes with the kids, and when I drive my wife’s car. Both are situations where I just don’t want to ever think about what I may need, and instead just grab one thing and be able to leave. The tether cord is for those impromptu stops at the hardware store, where I might need to tie off a board so it doesn’t knock me in the head when I drive home.
The tweezers are for when my kids don’t listen to me and pick up every stick in the entire park and get a sliver. Everything else are just items which I think would, and are, nice to haves — since they all fit in the pouch I didn’t see much downside to not packing them.
Those following my flashlight posts might see that Olight and wonder why: it’s a really solid all around light and one I don’t otherwise use elsewhere. So it found a good home here — same with the Spyderco Sage 2.
All in all, I actually really like the gear in this kit — it’s proven to be quite nice, if a bit overboard.
The Search
While I do like this Maxpedition pouch, it’s not exactly what I was looking for. It’s quite nice, but I think it is a better organizer for small gear if you are carrying inside another bag. As it is, there is no way to carry it on your person without a bag. Sure, I could thread my belt through the webbing, but that’s a pain in the ass.
So for my day hikes with the kids, it works great, but not ideal for much else — and that’s only assuming I take a backpack on those day hikes.
I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this pouch to any person, but it isn’t the perfect setup for me to easily move from car to car, or even to grab if I want to take it with me on an impromptu trip. Further research is going to be needed into this topic…
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