When you start carrying more than just a knife on a daily basis, you find that you will need some method for organizing — so adding a pen and flashlight to my daily carry meant that things were becoming overloaded in my pocket. I need an organizer because this is Houston and there’s not many days of ‘jacket weather’ here where I can easily add pockets to my wardrobe.
I already talked about the Ripcord and Ripcord Mini — both of which are excellent, so today I want to talk about Yellow Birch Outfitter’s PocKit Modern Carry (shown in black on this article) and PocKit PICO Custom (shown below in coyote).
These are both very well made carry organizers, but their bulk works against them for me.
Size and Materials
Both of these are made from 1000D Cordura Nylon with nylon edging to finish them out and a nice YKK zipper. As you imagine they feel rough to the touch, and bulky even before adding anything in them. The finishing and craftsmanship are outstanding on both I have.
For me the dimensions were hard to picture in my head, but once I got them I realized these are both pretty large, but also I can’t see how they would useful if they were any smaller. I think the sizing is correct and both fit nicely in my front pocket.
I did ask if they would consider making me one out of 500D Cordura but was told that when they tried it before the PocKIts didn’t hold up well. I can see that actually, because the in and out nature of the clips on some of my knives certainly stress the stitching and edging on the materials. That’s too bad though, because these could really do with less bulk.
PocKit PICO Custom — In Use
Let’s first talk about the PICO Custom which is going to be a little tricky. Mostly because I screwed up the custom order on this, I had wanted the Modern setup which would have been two slots on the front, but miss-clicked and here we are with three slots. This instantly made it less useful for me, but oh well.
Still, this holds a ton. The other adjustments on this were to have the pockets straight across the top, and the rear zipper vertical on the back. This took a while to get because of the custom nature, but the finishing is still top notch and and at $45 it’s a very inexpensive custom build.
The problem for me is that this organizer solved nothing in my pocket. I was hoping to have the two slots across the top and straight so that I could fit a larger light with my Sebenza but going too fast caused me to end up with this. What I did find is that it holds a ton of gear:
So what started as a mistake became a bit of a happy accident for me. While I don’t have a use for this in my pocket, it’s become my go to organizer for my slings. It stays setup in there as a great way to keep some of my more vital gear in an easy to grab and organized spot in my sling.
And because of that, this is a win, but I’ll be getting another with the correct layout shortly because that would work well in my pocket.
PocKit Modern Use
This is the first of the PocKits I got with the Modern Black config: one large and one smaller pouch. And I love it, but it can be hard to carry. It’s interesting because this fits my setups well, while also not really helping with the bulk.
Yes my gear stays out of the “lump at the bottom of my pocket” territory but I find this almost too bulky to carry. My jeans, and my other 5-pocket pants can’t accommodate — only my chinos have pockets large enough that this works well.
Carrying smaller gear in this helps to keep the bulk down, and the gear organized.
With this type of setup I will generally carry a smaller light and small knife, with my car key and breath strips in the rear compartment.
All of that means that I have a pretty easy kit to drop in and out of my pocket, without anything rattling around. And may I take one moment to say that NFC/Phone keys for our cars cannot come soon enough.
Of both, this one is my favorite and I use it about 10% of the time overall. It would get more use if my 5-pocket pants had slightly larger pockets, or if I wore a jacket as it would be great to toss in a jacket pocket.
Overall
All in all, these are high quality items, made extremely well. They don’t help with keeping your pockets less bulky, but they do help keep everything in their place and for many people they could likely replace your wallet setup if you wanted.
Don’t buy these to slim down the feel of your pockets, however if you want a very good organizer these are hard to beat while carrying a bunch. I like them better in a sling or jacket pocket than I do my front pocket. My last bit of advice is to be patient and order something custom so you can get it how you want it, just make sure you double check your order.