I have been seeing these pouches for quite some time now and figured it was about time I give one a try to see what the hype is all about. These are a heavy polymer substance (feels like soft non-sticky rubber) and have a single zipper across the top which is a weatherproof zipper with an oversized zipper pull. At each top corner there’s an eyelet to help with clipping the pouches to something.
As with most pouches, there’s little input as to what these pouches are good for. For this review I choose the small size, which measures 6” x 9” and is bigger than you expect it to be. I’ve only had the pouch for about a month now, but it’s been long enough for me to form some thoughts.
This is a well made pouch, with a very limited scope of utility. Not something I will use everyday, but something which will come in quite handy for some uses.
Construction / Durability
I am very impressed with the construction of these pouches. They are very heavy in both hand feel and the actual thickness of the material. So much so that it’s not nearly as difficult as I feared to operate the top zipper. I would guess that you will have a hard time destroying one of these pouches under normal everyday conditions.
Sizing
As I mentioned above, the small size is 6” x 9”, but feels like a larger pouch. What’s nice is that it is still thin, but can expand to hold quite a lot. I actually find myself wondering if I might have wanted to try the “suppressor” size as that is even smaller.
However, as it is, this is about the smallest size you could get and still fit your Field Notes inside of with relative ease. You can see what I keep stocked in mine:
I think the bigger thing to point out here is that this seems to be the optimal size for holding writing implements — which will be a boon for some.
Problem
There’s only one major problem with this pouch: attaching it inside your bag is annoying. The spots to clip the bag on to things work ok, but you have to unclip the pouch to get at the contents of it.
This would be an ideal fast access pouch, but there’s no way to store this in both a fast access manner, and one which still affords you ease of access into the pouch. Perhaps playing with it more could yield better results, but I think it is better to not use this pouch for fast access storage, which brings us to how I use it.
Overall & My Usage
When I first got this pouch I had assumed it would be something I used for outdoor hiking, perhaps for my morning rucking, so that I could keep essentials dry. (The pouch is not waterproof, but my assumption is that anything in it will stay dry under all conditions except submersion.) However, that’s selling this pouch short.
Instead I have been using this pouch as a quick drop in pouch for when I run out of the house to work elsewhere. I often take different bags depending on where I am going, or what I am taking, and this DAKA pouch has been great for pulling out of one bag and dropping in another. I’ve never found a great pouch for that use, but this one is really proving its worth.
When travel picks back up again, I suspect this will transition to being a repository for travel receipts and other small miscellany that accrues during trips.
Overall, I am pleasantly surprised by this pouch. At $18 on Amazon I think it is a little bit overpriced, but then again the build quality is excellent. I won’t be getting a family of these, but I am quite happy with the one I have now.