I snagged this during a recent sale from Grey Ghost Gear as I had been wanting to check this particular pouch out. My primary reason is it being a vertical orientation, but also I’ll admit that the chem light holders on it are another large draw — I love some chem lights.
It’s a mixed bag for me with this pouch.
Materials
I have no clue what this pouch is made out of, it is only listed as “laminate” which means it is a laminate nylon. It feels not great, but not terrible. I really wish it was 500D itself, but overall this is more of a “it won’t wow you” type of fabric. It doesn’t annoy you that much, because what will annoy you far more is the internal materials, which overall feel pretty cheap.
The clear window, the dividers, even the little loop pulls — they feel cheap/weak/inexpensive. Like something you would find inside a freebie backpack being handed out by an insurance company. They have held up just fine, and in use there’s nothing to complain about. But “cheapest provider which could still meet the spec” comes to mind. I am not loving the materials on this.
Layout and Use
If you can get past the less than impressive materials, the inside layout and overall utility of this little pouch is great. The “E&E” means escape and evasion as this is a military designed pouch. For the average user (me) this translates into a pouch that opens completely flat and has a lot of little organizational pockets in it. It also can hold a lot more than you would expect looking at it when empty.
At 6” x 4.5” it’s not small, and it runs about 2.5” deep when loaded out — but it’s not perfectly square on all sides with the hinge side being shallower than the top edge. The material is light enough that if it isn’t full, it can be squished down a bit to fit in tighter spots which is nice. Likewise it forms well around oddly shaped items being stuffed into it.
The organization on this is great to slightly overkill. Even with what I keep in it — which is part of my day hiking gear — there’s not a lot of flat stuff, and yet it handles all that really well. The flatter your gear, the better off you are. Each pocket has a small velcro strip holding it shut, and while the amount of velcro is slightly overkill — the pockets are unlikely to accidentally come open. So be prepared for a lot of velcro noise with this.
There isn’t a lot of pouches out there with this orientation, and because of the setup with this, I can easily toss it into a bag, and pull it out to lay it flat and work out of it. Or I can attach it to the rather narrow side of my ASAP, to clear out space in the bag, while keeping the bulk lower on my pack than most pockets might look. It’s nicely laid out, I’m a fan of that. And I find it pretty easy to get stuff out of, but a little tricky to remember where/which pouch something is hiding in.
Overall
The back is a PALS webbing filed, with MALICE clips to attach to your gear. That also means you can attach to other things using the rather wide array of MOLLE/PALS compatible attachments out there. MALICE clips are great, and strong, but usually overkill and I much prefer faster attachment methods like these clips.
While I like this pouch, I wouldn’t buy it at the full price of $42 — that’s too much money for a pouch which doesn’t feel that nice. You can generally find nicer feeling pouches for the same/less money — though this particular layout is hard to find in other pouches.
It’s solid, wait for a sale, or find something else.