For years now I have been carrying my first aid kit gear in a random assortment of nylon pouches. Whatever fit the need/use. My day hiking kit has been like this too. And as anyone in the PNW will tell you, you mostly don’t worry about rain soaking out gear to that level day-to-day because it’s more constantly damp than it is driving rain.
But as anyone in Houston can tell you, when it rains, it rains and I have had even “rain proof” bags soak through and cause minor issues. I never thought about this, and then one day I realized: huh, gauze is probably not very useful if it gets wet.
So I wanted to find a nice waterproof-enough bag to store my first aid gear (and then some in) and that lead me to these Kuiu Zip Dry Bags. They are really neat bits of kit.
Materials & Size
The pouch is made out of 30D Cordura SiL-Nylon Diamond Ripstop. And, if like me, you didn’t know what that was offhand, well that I can help with. This is an extremely thin, very smooth, and slightly transparent material. My wife commented that the clear color reminds her of a condom… if that’s an indication of the visual appearance there.
Kuiu then screens their logo on this inside the pouch — you can see it from the outside, but it’s a little hazy. I don’t find it offensive, but it is something to note. The seams are sealed/taped, and the zipper is waterproof. I wouldn’t dive with this, but for my purposes (and those of most people) it is as waterproof as you are likely to need.
The small comes in at a still too large 6” x 3” x 3” footprint. However the material weighs next to nothing, and thus you don’t pay a very huge penalty for having it oversized, while getting the benefit of being able to stash your phone inside should the situation warrant it.
In Use
I bought this for my first aid kit in my day hiking kit, then quickly followed up to buy a few more. It’s a really great piece of kit as you can force the air out and zip it closed and then you don’t pay a penalty for the slightly oversized nature of it.
I would love for this to come in a slightly smaller footprint, but as it is I have not really needed that. I used to want DCF gear for this use case, but I prefer this material. It’s softer, quieter, and much easier to use than DCF and generally I think this is a better material for this use.
It’s been perfect for me, and it really is hard to overstate how light this is.
Overall
This is really nice kit. I like it a lot and there’s not much more to say other than how it is a dry bag that weighs nothing for your gear. I did also grab a roll top version — which I keep empty in my day pack in case I need to keep something isolated from my gear, or isolate something from the elements. It too is phantom weight, and awesome to carry.
Roll top variant.
Despite the looks, the clear one is the way to go. It makes it much easier to identify what is in the pouch, and thus make sure that you don’t open the wrong pouch when you are in a rush.
Big fan, find it here.