Practical Travel Gear Has Moved

I've been cross-posting my reviews for two months now, but it's time for a clean break. The new and improved Practical Travel Gear blog moved to its own domain in early May '09, with a more professional and clean design. I also have other contributors checking out gear first-hand, so now a new review is going up every weekday, even when I'm out of the country on assignment.

See it all at PracticalTravelGear.com!

Subscribe to the new RSS feed.

See popular posts there such as the Best Travel Gear of the Year and reviews of luggage, travel clothing, travel shoes, camping gear, and travel hats.

This old version of the blog will stay up so you can still see the archived reviews, but no new postings here from now on. Happy trails!

- Tim Leffel, editor

Power to Go from Chargepod Fueltank

I’ve long been a fan of the Callpod Chargepod, a device that allows me to leave a whole collection of chargers and cords at home. (God forbid the electronics companies can manufacture standardized connectors for the simple task of delivering A/C power to a battery.) You just pack the mini hockey puck, one cord, and the little adapters for each device. Then you can recharge everything simultaneously with just one plug.

This new Fueltank item from Callpod is similarly cool, but it solves a different problem: not having the time or the ability to recharge your devices while you’re on the go. For business travelers moving from place to place, it provides a round of charges when and where they need them: on a plane, in a foreign country, in the back seat of a car—whatever.

It’s essentially a battery pack that you charge up from your wall socket, then you take it along with you, armed only with the connector tips for your particular devices. You you can get charged back up several times over without ever plugging in or crawling around an airport floor searching for an outlet. For a trip that’s only going to last a few days to a week, this is all you need to take and you can even charge two devices at once.

...continue to the full Callpod Fueltank review

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Good Hats with Even Better Names from Nobis

My travel wardrobe changes a lot depending on the kind of trip it is, but I always carry a couple hats along, including some kind of baseball hat or cap. The people at Nobis let me try out something from their spring line though and I’m waltzing around a city in Mexico with Oliver Closeoff.

Yes, all their hats have names, and great ones too. Oliver is pictured above. After the jump you can see pics of two for women: Colette Iday and Iriel Hassle. A few gems from the men’s line are Mack Aroni and Watson Yurface. I love a company that doesn’t take its “designer wear” too seriously.

Fortunately, the gimmick is backed up by quality workmanship. Many of these hats look like nothing you’ve seen in the stores (in a good way) and they’re built to last.

See the full Nobis Hats review on the new PracticalTravelGear.com.

ExOfficio Pants Keep the Bugs Away

It’s always great when summer arrives, but not so great when the mosquitoes arrive. If you travel to a tropical country, it’s always mosquito season, plus the bugs carry nasty diseases, so three months of annoyance turns into year-round danger.

Thankfully it’s easier to keep the bugs away than it used to be if you pack the right clothing. This pair of ExOfficio Altyn Insect Shield Pants is going with me to the coast of Mexico and the jungle of Belize this summer. They’re great travel pants on their own, but the kicker is built-in Insect Shield repellent that stays active for 70—yes 70—washings.


Continued after the jump - ExOfficio Altyn InsectShield pants

Traveling with Timberlands

Timberland has a special place in my heart. I took a pair of their hiking boots around the world with me on my first round-the-world journey. Ply me with a few drinks in a bar and I’ll tell you the tale of chasing an Indian teenager down the fort ramparts of Jodhpur after he snagged them outside of a temple at the top. But that’s for another time…

On two recent trips I’ve been trying out two pairs of shoes that are good for travel. Both are from their Earthkeepers line. Shoes can only get so Earth-friendly, but in this case they’re at least giving it a good college try...

...continued after the jump

REMINDER - This blog has moved! Partial posts will continue here for a couple weeks, then it's adios altogether. Visit the new Practical Travel Gear Blog and see not just my reviews, but those from two other contributors as well. Subscribe to the RSS stream.

Wireless iPod Speaker from Cy Fi

Whenever I hear the words “wireless” and “speaker” together, two bad visions come to mind. One is the set of Advent wireless stereo speakers in my daughter’s playroom: if you even look at them funny, they lose the signal and sound like crap. The other vision is a party I was at a few years ago where the host spent half the night moving around a set of those all-weather wireless speakers like you see in the Skymall catalog because the sound kept cutting out or getting distorted.

Fortunately this cy*fi speaker is a different story: it promises “CD-quality” sound while broadcasting tunes from your iPod and my skepticism was dashed as soon as I fired it up. When I compared the sound on this nifty 4-ounce device to a couple heavier ones that plug in, the cy*fi actually sounded better, even when the transmitter was on the other side of the room or I was moving around the room with my iPod.

...continued after the jump

Lightweight ExOfficio Cruz'r Shirt for Men

For looking good during your travels and having a sink laundry option for packing light, this men's Cruz'r short-sleeve shirt from ExOfficio is a dream.

When I was a hard-core backpacker setting out on year-long travels through the world's cheapest destinations, clothes were a secondary thought. After all, you can revamp your wardrobe in Bangkok or Delhi for next to nothing when you get tired of your faded t-shirts. No way was I going to spend the equivalent of a few nights' lodging for a shirt just because it would make me look nice. The standard scruffy backpacker wardrobe was just fine.

Now I travel more on business or vacation and need to look, well, more presentable. I still want to travel with a carry-on whenever possible though, which means stepping up and packing quality lightweight clothing with extra benefits. This ExOfficio shirt is a real winner in that regard. It weighs just a few ounces, but feels expensive...

...continued on the new Practical Travel Gear blog

Sansa Slot Radio Pre-programmed MP3 Player

The Sansa slotRadio is a strange concept, but it works brilliantly in practice. It’s a pre-loaded MP3 player with 1,000 songs, plus a radio, all in a tiny clip-on package. Put a new chip in the slot, you’ve got 1,000 new songs instantly.

I love my iPod Classic, especially when I’m on a long flight or I need to keep my daughter entertained while traveling. The thing is, as user-friendly as the whole interface is, I’m really lazy about loading it up with new music, despite the fact I’ve got a thousand CDs sitting one room away from the computer…and I have an eMusic subscription…and I review new world music albums every couple months for Perceptive Travel. But unlike a teenager with all the time in the world, I always seem to have something else higher on the to-do list.

So I was intrigued by the idea of this Sansa slotRadio player as a time saver and I’ve enjoyed it far more than I expected. First there’s the level of surprise, which is ever better than it is with the iPod Shuffle because you really don’t know what’s coming next. You didn’t load it up to start with. Plus you can see the artist and song name on the display—my main beef with the Shuffle. It’s almost as small as the 2nd generation Shuffle though, and has a clip on the back, plus it has a radio for listening to NPR or local music in a foreign country. Not a bad value for a hundred bucks including the first 1,000 song sampler.

...continued on the new Practical Travel Gear blog

A reminder---this blog is moving! Subscribe to the new feed.

REI Adventure Pants Review

Walking through your local REI store can be like a traveler's version of a trip to Tiffany's. When I stopped in two weeks ago to use my annual rebate check and a "20 percent one full-priced item" coupon, I had trouble actually using the latter. After perusing racks of $95 slacks from Columbia, $80 t-shirts from Mountain Hardwear, $200 sunglasses from Smith, and $18 socks from a whole slew of companies, I ended up using the coupon on some heavy-duty DEET bug repellent. I saved $1.60. Woo-hoo.

In all fairness though, REI does run some killer sales now and then, in the stores and their outlet site, plus the prices on their own private label versions of popular clothing items are much easier to swallow. Like the lower-priced snacks and cereals under the Target or Costco brand name, the REI versions of pants, jackets, or wicking shirts won't sting you so badly at the cash register.

So I used my rebate check to go toward these nice REI Adventure Pants, marked down from $44 to $32.83---a deal that is still up on their website too at the moment.

...continued on the new Practical Travel Gear blog

Keen Recycled Materials Harvest Grand Bag

Now that the Earth Day media (and blogger) bandwagon is done for a year, you will see the predictable drop-off in stories about green travel and eco-friendly gear. The world keeps turning and deteriorating though, so we'll keep talking about what does and doesn't help the planet when you are on the move.

I've been trying out one of these cool recycled materials bags from the Keen Harvest collection. The "harvest" name refers to what these totes are made out of: recycled rice paper and "brown haul bag paper." This one is the Harvest Grand, a simple shoulder tote that's like a narrow messenger bag. Inside the flap there's a zippered front pocket, a small interior zippered pocket, a place for a phone/notebook and some pens, and the main compartment.

Continue...

Practical Travel Gear is Moving

After nearly four years in this Blogger house, it's time to pack up the moving truck and take the Practical Travel Gear blog to a new home. This gear blog is getting a little tired of being single as well, so it has invited two other people to co-habitate the new digs.

As you've probably noticed, my posting schedule on here can be a bit erratic at times, partly because I spend a good bit of time actually traveling and it's hard to keep blogging hard while researching travel articles in some far-off land with spotty Internet access. Also partly because I've got a lot of other balls in the air with my books, Perceptive Travel, and ongoing travel writing assignments.

So, as of Friday we'll be unpacking boxes at PracticalTravelGear.com. You will notice the new home looks a lot prettier (designed by Jay Phillips) and with it being on Wordpress, we'll be able to future post, add helpful widgets, and basically own instead of rent. No sub-prime loan necessary, thankfully.

I've reviewed close to 300 travel gear items on here, but I'm only one person, a male one at that. So the talented Kara Williams (from The Vacation Gals) will be reviewing women's travel gear as well as useful items for family travel. Videographer and biz travel road warrior John Gordon will help out with all the geeky gadget and productivity devices that I don't have the need or patience to mess with on a regular basis.

I will still run a couple more posts in parallel, but then this version will fizzle out. All the archives will remain here where they are though, so a search for something you read before will still work. Please join us though by clicking over to the new site and subscribing to the RSS feed. There will be three postings a week starting the 4th on. After two months, when the search engines get caught up, we'll post more often.

Thanks for your support!

The Best Rechargeable Batteries

Earth Day just passed. Are you still using regular throwaway batteries?

With a portable battery charger and a set of rechargeable batteries, you can help the planet and save money long-term as well. A minuscule fraction of batteries get disposed of properly, which means a lot of acid and toxic minerals going into landfills every day. In developing countries, you'll also see them tossed by a roadside or getting into the water supply via a riverside.

Wired magazine tested four models of rechargeable batteries in its April issue, snapping pictures on a digital Canon camera and measuring the number of photos per charge. They also looked at charger time, which ranged from 620 minutes down to 13 minutes.

The top choice in the number of photos per charge was actually the cheapest option: the Duracell 2650 mAH, which run about $4 a battery or $15 to $25 for 2-4 batteries with a charger. With a regular charger they took an incredible 10 hours 20 minutes to fully charge, but for an incredible output: 1,377 photos.

The fastest charger was the Energizer 2450 mAH, which only got 693 photos snapped, but charged in just 13 minutes with the included fast charger. I found a great deal on this package at Amazon: for under $25 you get the quick charger, two AA batteries, and two AAA batteries. And it qualifies for free shipping.

In the middle were the Sanyo Eneloop (759 photos per charge, 150 minutes charge time) and the UltraLast Green Pre-charged Rechargeables (781 photos per charge, 90 minutes charge time).

The UltraLast line is interesting though because of the chargers that are available. There's one $25 package on Amazon that has a wall charger, a car charger, and a sleek USB charger plus four of each size of battery. That's a bonafide bargain and in my book that puts it in the lead. I'll take the average performance if you throw that much into the package.

The USB charger would be quite handy too if you're a business traveler or a flashpacker. It takes up less room than the other options and if you're staying at the kind of hotels where you're going to be plugged in and working at a desk, you can just piggyback onto that power supply without the bulk of a wall socket charger.

Search for more rechargeable batteries and items at Gaiam.com

Editor's note: in May this blog will move to its own domain, where I'm be joined by a female gear reviewer and a frequent business traveler. Get ahead of the game by adding that RSS stream to your reader at PracticalTravelGear.com.

Keen Sayulita Smart Travel Shoes

Shoes are always the big obstacle when you're trying to pack light, especially for men. While we're content to make due with less, there's no equivalent to "little black flats" in the male shoe wardrobe and we can't get away with flimsy little sandals when going out to a nice restaurant. So the challenge is to find a pair of travel shoes that look decent enough for a variety of situations, as in any situation that doesn't require hiking boots or dress shoes.

This pair of Sayulita shoes from Keen I've been trying out do the trick quite well. They're light, they're comfortable for walking around a city, and they look good with jeans or khakis. The top is suede and the bottom is reasonably environmentally friendly: recycled polyurithene and renewable cork.

Yes, cork is going to compress over time, but in this case that's a good thing. The base of the shoe ends up conforming to your foot so you get more support than you would expect in such a lightweight, flexible shoe. (The shipping weight for the two of them together is 10 ounces.) I put about five miles of walking on them over four days and they're conforming to my feet like a glove.

The Keen Sayulita shoes come in two colors (brown or gray) and two styles: lace and slip-on. The slip-on version make breezing through the airport easy too.

You can buy them at most online retailers specializing in shoes or travel gear. But check out the Keen Footwear website for a whole range of shoes that are ideal for travelers: toed sandals suitable for rafting or kayaking, the Market Street and Blvd. lines of casual shoes for strolling around town, and the Trailhead line---which includes the great Shellrock hiking boots I reviewed after trekking through Peru. And yes, there are female versions too, because you can't just travel with flats and thin sandals.

Get yours:

Direct from Keen.

KEEN Sayulita Lace Shoe at Backcountry.com


Keen Sayulita at Amazon

Heys Travelmate Sling Bag

Heys is a travel gear and luggage company best known for its very hard but lightweight rolling suitcases---those colorful ones you see whizzing by you in the airport. But they also make a lot of practical travel accessories and bags that aren't hard-sided, including this cool little Travelmate bag that slings over your shoulder.

Think of it as a miniature daypack, a travel purse, a hands-free travel carrier for dads, or a man purse, but the idea is that you can stow what you need in a small bag that doesn't get in the way. It's smaller than a backpack or messenger bag, but large enough to hold the essentials. In my test I managed to fit in the following: trade paperback, notebook, camera, passport, snacks, cell phone, pens, lip balm, and my Chargepod. There's a zippered mesh pocket on the side that will hold a small water bottle.

The Heys Travelmate stays snug against your body so your hands are free---especially helpful if you're trying to keep track of a toddler or push a stroller. If you're not traveling on business and you're on an airline that doesn't sock you for baggage fees, you could check your suitcase and complete the whole trip with just this bag. Then on the other end, it would do the trick for your days of sightseeing.

I have no complaints about the bag itself: it's rugged, well-made, and has lots of pockets for keeping things separated, including one on the front that's handy for things you need to get at often, like money and an ID. The flap on the front is attached with velcro, so you can open it with one hand. One inside pocket is clear and waterproof: handy if you're carrying cosmetics that could leak.

Two of the three accessories that come with it are a different story though and should have just been left out. There's a cheap LED flashlight that was already dead in the model I received and a mirror that's about as clear as a piece of tin foil. The included travel wallet is nice though: the kind that hangs around your neck and goes under your shirt---handy in places where pickpockets could be working the crowd. (The bag itself would be pretty hard to snatch too; it would have to be slashed.)

The regular line of Heys Travelmate bags includes models in 14 different colors, from subdued to very bright. There's also an "exotic" line with zebra and leopard prints or the houndstooth one pictured here. Some of the shades and patterns are too feminine for guys, but there's plenty to choose from.

These bags generally retail for $23 to $30, so they're a good value. They're available in some retail luggage stores. Find out more online or go shopping:

Heys Canada
Heys USA

Solid colors at Amazon
Exotic line at Amazon

TSA-friendly, No-metal Belt from Beep Free

With as much travel gear as I review on here, you'd think more gear would be the last thing I'd request as a birthday present, but I needed a new TSA-friendly belt. So when I told my mom that, she tracked down this model from a company that specializes in these things and scored me the Beep Free Belt.

See, the only no-metal travel belt I have is the Eagle Creek All Terrain belt with a hidden money pocket. That's all well and good when I'm going on a long vacation or a hiking trip, but it doesn't look so hot if I'm going to meet someone at the other end or I don't want to pack a separate belt for going out to a nice restaurant now and then.

With the Beep Free Croco Finish model pictured above, I can look respectable and be respectable too on a business trip: I don't have to do a strip tease for the airport security agents every time I take a flight. I just pop off my loafers, put all the metal into my checkpoint-friendly laptop bag, and I waltz right through the metal detector.

When you check Magellan's or similar sites, you don't find many choices when it comes to metal-free belts like this. Usually there is just one style in either brown or black. On the Beep Free site, there are a variety of styles and colors and you can even choose the belt buckle finish.

Now I won't tell you that this is some elegant, finely crafted belt you would want to wear with an Armani suit. It is around 25 bucks after all. When you get within a couple feet you can tell the buckle is faux-metal and really plastic, but if it really bothers you they sell a real nickel buckle that you can switch out in your hotel room. That way you can still avoid packing another belt for meetings or presentations.

A True Carry-on Bag: Tom Bihn Aeronaut

If you've ever stood in a line of people in the connector between the airplane and the airport, waiting for your gate-checked bag to arrive from the luggage hold, you know that the phrase "carry-on bag" is not a strict one. The Eagle Creek 22-inch Hovercraft bag I reviewed earlier, for example, is technically a carry-on, but only for the largest jets. And if a gate agent ever made me stick it into one of those frames by the gate, no way it would fit.

This Aeronaut bag from Tom Bihn is a different story, as you can see from the airport gate photo I shot above after it was fully packed. It fits easily and it even "meets Heathrow requirements." I used this bag on a four-day trip to Albuquerque and Santa Fe, which it turns out is not a very warm place to be right now, so I had to pack some warm things.

Amazingly though, it holds 45 liters (2700 cubic inches). I packed all I needed for a four-day trip and still had room to spare. I'm talking a pair of shoes, a fleece jacket, four shirts, three t-shirts, three pairs of pants, a bathing suit, two hats, underwear and hiking socks, an extra belt, a deck of cards, a thin nylon daypack, and chargers for my gadgets. It holds far more than I expected when I first loked at it.

It weighs about two and a half pounds empty, which is less than half what any "lightweight" carry-on with wheels weighs. You can pay an extra $20 for a shoulder strap if you don't have one already, but it has regular handles and zip-away straps that make it work as a backpack.

This is one tough bag I expect to put through its paces for many years to come. The best zippers, the toughest ripstop nylon, and made in the USA on top of it. It also works with the Tom Bihn packing cubes I reviewed a few posts back. One size of those fits exactly in the rectangular side pockets that are on both ends of this bag, so you can stuff a lot into those and then pull them out and be organized at your hotel.

This Aeronaut bag is not the cheapest one you'll find, but $180 is still a good value considering the workmanship and quality materials. If you're a road warrior that needs to pack a lot for short trips or you just hate handing money to airlines for rapacious extra baggage fees, this can be your "one bag" you can use for every trip. It comes in three colors and you can buy it in Tom Bihn's Seattle store or direct from the Tom Bihn site. Highly recommended.

[Editor note - changed purchase text per comment below: Seattle-only retail availability. Buy online.]

Portable iPod Speakers that Really Crank

I've tried out quite a few portable speaker contraptions for an iPod or MP3 player and most of them weren't even worth mentioning on here, especially when it came to sound quality. The Altec Lansing Orbit speaker is pretty decent and is easy to pack, but with only one speaker you're obviously not getting stereo sound.

This iHome2go IH13 combination water-resistant case and speakers is better than most because it has real speakers that crank out the sound. Real bass! Real cymbals crashing! It sounds as good as most computer speakers in a small room and pumps out enough volume to fill a big living room or work for a backyard barbecue.

Plus the design is pretty inventive. Basically this is a zippered case that keeps your iPod dry (there's a special foam encasement for the Nano) and you can control volume and track forward/backward on the front of the case without opening it. It comes with a strap allowing you to carry it and there's a connection cord for non-Apple music players.

There's one big drawback however: weight. This puppy is heavy, as in barely less then two pounds. If you're hopping into a car or stuffing a light rolling suitcase full of clothes it might not matter, but if you're a backpacker or a carry-on traveler, that might provoke some serious pondering. The other drawback is that this is a wasteful, 4-AA-battery-sucking, landfill-soiling machine the way it comes packaged. It's $40, which is certainly a fair value, but then you find out the AC adapter is $22. Seriously! The adapter is more than half as much as the whole damn stereo system. There's a combination package on their website for $50, but only in pink or green camouflage. For the Army men and women I guess...

No problem though. The connection on the back is (for once) the same one used by most standard electrical devices with an adapter, such as that cordless phone you have in the basement, so just dig up another adapter and spend $22 on iTunes instead. When the AC adapter is plugged in, your iPod will charge as well. There's a warning in the instructions that you must use their adapter, but last time I checked they all let through the same voltage.

The iHome IH13 portable speaker system is anywhere from $32 to $40 at retail depending on where you get it, including at Amazon. I got mine by trading in some "No Hassle Miles" from my Capital One credit card though, so look for it in whatever mileage/points program you use.

Rocking iPhone/iPod Devices for your Home, Office & More at iHome!

Packing Cubes From Tom Bihn

Here's another option for packing cubes and I like the looks of these.

The Seattle-based Tom Bihn company is mostly known for its fantastic travel bags. Rugged and Made in the USA, they inspire fanatic devotion. I'm about to become a devotee myself I think. I'll be trying out their Aeronaut carry-on bag for a four-night trip next week and am actually looking forward to packing.

The company also makes loads of neat travel accessories though, including a wide array of packing cubes and gadget bags. I have mixed feelings about the necessity of these organizers, but my post on the Eagle Creek packing cubes before remains one of the most popular posts on this blog, so obviously people like the idea of getting their undies organized.

There's only so much innovation and differentiation you can put into little pouches that zip close and fit into a suitcase, so Tom Bihn's packing cubes mostly stand apart on style and color. They all have a checked pattern and come in either Steel (dark gray and subdued) or Solar (bright yellow). They have good YKK zippers and ripstock nylon fabric. They're mesh on one side so damp clothes don't build up mildew. Here's the real difference though: they're not made in China. If you want to put your own personal stimulus plan in place and buy American, you can do so at Tom Bihn without paying a premium. The cubes are $15 to $18 each and should last a decade or two.

The company also makes a 2-sided clear packing cube that is great when you want to be able to see exactly what's inside or you've got liquids you're afraid could leak onto everything else through mesh. In theory this should work for carrying cosmetics through the security gauntlet at the airport, but it depends on the mood of that day's TSA agent: carry a spare plastic bag in case.

Cute Portable Digital Picture Frame From Royal

Bring your favorite pictures along for ten bucks or less!

Over the years, as a traveling dad, I have found it extremely useful to pack plenty of diversions for the kid or kids tagging along. I haven't sprung for a Sony PSP or a Nintendo DS because I know how addictive they can be even for adults. But I share my iPod classic with my daughter so she can watch cartoons and listen to her favorite tunes. And often I'll pick up a cheap gadget to bring on a trip, something that has the flash of the new.

This little 1.4-inch digital picture frame from Royal is a toy in terms of specs, but at a retail price of $7 to $10, it's a great value. My daughter loves it and she can't wait to hook it onto her backpack the next time we take off, bringing photos of all her friends and grandparents along for the ride.

Set-up was dead easy. There's a mini CD that installs the program on your computer. Then you plug in the device, select the photos you want, and sync it up. The photo frame gets the time and date from your computer and charges up via the USB cord. Your photo library is presented in the software in the normal folder system. When you select a photo the software puts a cropping box over it (which you can move around) to size it for this device. In other words, you get the faces, not a shrunken version of the entire photo.

The picture quality is not going to win any awards, but it's pretty good for the price. You can scroll through the pictures manually, or just sit back and let it go in slideshow mode. After a period of inactivity it shuts off by itself. Thankfully Royal resisted the urge to add a bunch of useless features to it, but there is an alarm clock, so I guess this qualifies as a double-duty item for packing light. The clip also doubles as a stand.

There aren't a lot of good travel gadgets that will cost you an Alexander Hamilton or less. This is one that delivers.

Get the Royal PF140 Digital Photo Frame at Overstock.com

Get it at Amazon

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A Bracelet That Could Save Your Life

Imagine you could wear something around your wrist that could save your life. Imagine that instead of some woven backpacker bracelet you won in a backgammon game in Dahab or that you bought in Panajachel for 25 cents, you wear a bracelet woven from 18 feet of super-strong parachute cord. How cool is that?

OK, so you've got to spend $19 on it unless you have the time and concentration to weave one yourself, but if it gets you out of a jam, that's a pretty cheap insurance policy. Plus it makes a cool conversation piece. That's the idea behind the paracord survival bracelets from SurvivalStraps.com.

Normally this is where I tell you how the gear item worked in practice, but thankfully I haven't needed to rappel down a cliff or spend the night tied to a couple of tree branches. So here's the rundown from the company:

In an emergency situation, you can unravel the bracelet and deploy the paracord for use. If you do use your Survival Bracelet, simply send what is left back to us, along with your story, and we will make you a new one, free of charge (shipping charges will apply).

Whether you are in the woods, stranded on an island, at the range, or running errands around town, you will always have several feet of 550 lb. test paracord with you at all times. Oh yeah, we also think they look pretty great! And since they come in almost 900 different color combinations, you shouldn't have a problem finding something you like! (Check out the colors tab to view our standard color choices.) They come with either a tough plastic side release buckle or a marine grade stainless steel shackle for attachment purposes.

So if you actually have to use it for its intended purpose, they will send you a new one. How many time do you see a guarantee like that? The company also makes belts, lanyards, watch straps, and more. See the whole line at SurvivalStraps.com.