I wanted to review some shoulder holsters for bottles. I am reviewing one from Etsy, one from Chicken Trampier, and two from Alan Stokes.
This piece of gear is called a holster, a holder, a sleeve and a few other things.
The Etsy one is under an ounce but started failing me at about a thousand miles on trail and eventually weighed more because I used duct tape to hold it together. Pictured here with a .7 liter bottle.
The CT one weighs 1.7 ounces and uses a non-stretch mesh and with postage cost me $35. Pictured with a one liter smart water bottle in it.
The heavier of the two by Alan uses a stretch mesh and attaches to your pack in an identical fashion to the other three.
The lighter one by Alan and his newer design (pictured with a .7 liter bottle) has nice color accents and was 1.8 ounces. I really like it as it seems really stout and unlikely to fail. Cost is not yet determined.
All of them are easy to use with the three heavier ones being stiffer and easy to put a bottle in with one hand. The lighter one currently has no functional attachment points for my pack because they all pretty much failed.
I never had trouble with bottles falling from the holster/sleeves but the cord at the top of the three with cords can be adjusted to solve that issue if it is a problem for you.
Other than weight distribution there are other reasons I use a holder. I can’t reach bottles in my backpack’s side pockets while hiking and bottles I put there tend to fall out on me. At least once I lost my water down a very steep hillside.
A shoulder holster lets me reach the bottle while I’m hiking so I can drink on the go and it helps balance weight. It is a major improvement for me on the trail.
I’ve tried alternatives. For example, I’ve used the bison clip https://www.supplycache.com/products/bottle-bandit-carabiner-cip-bison but the carabiners always failed on me and the bottles I carried would bounce. It was almost perfect.
But that *almost* had a big gap. REI quit carrying them. I and my wife quit using them. I no longer see them on the trail. I started carrying the bottle with the clip in a side pocket.
My wife used the holster at this link and it never failed on her. https://www.etsy.com/listing/1099227829/read-item-description-justins-ul-125g. It is about half an ounce.
More thoughts later but this is my preliminary review of Alan Stokes cottage industry holder and some alternatives. As I told Alan: “You are the man.”