Pouches: So Hot Right Now

By Phil Spano

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They’ve been popping up on your feeds for quite some time now. The EDC community is flooded with these things. If you’re lucky, you can get one from some big name brands and then you can take all your ranger eye patches and slap them on there. Yep, we’re talking about pouches.

I was against them in the beginning. I thought they were the silliest trend I’ve seen in my time in the community. I’ve seen trends come and go and come back again just to die off again…I’m looking at you coins.

I’m still not the biggest fan of the EDC pouch, but I’ve grown to learn of their importance to someone’s kit. They do have value, and I’m not talking dollars.

While I’m still not one to carry my gear in a pouch, I do have a few different ones from all different makers like Ugly Yellow House(UYH), ZeroFeud, Long Hunter Supply, and Dickinson Trading Post, just to name a few. 

I still think they’re kind of silly. Imagine being on a jobsite and you need to cut some zip ties and you tell your work buddy, “Hold on a sec!” While you grab your pouch out of your pocket, unzip it, pull out your knife, cut the thing, put the knife back in the pouch, zip it back up, and shove it back in your pocket? He’d probably laugh at you and rightfully so.

These things have a time and place where they become appropriate. Some are used mainly as a wallet, some are used to hold a first aid kit, and others for a fire kit or edc kit. They do have their uses and I’ve grown to appreciate them and the ones I use most often are from a small company called Dickinson Trading Post.

I have four different pouches from DTP all varying sizes and types from his clam pouch, which is a zippered closed pouch with pockets on the inside to hold your gear in place, to his grenade pouch which has a zipper on top and it is just wide open on the inside.

All of these pouches have a purpose in my life and I’m glad I put ego aside and picked them up. The clam pouches I have hold some gear. The smaller pouch has an EDC kit with a knife, multitool, flashlight and pen, and if I ever need to just grab something and go, it’s an always ready for whatever adventure I’m going on that day. 

The bigger clam pouch comes with me every day. I hide it inside my backpack and in it I have a first aid kit and some EDC tools, like a prybar, knife, and multitool. This one gets used the most since it has the first aid kit in it and I’m clumsy. Working in the HVAC field has me getting cuts and scrapes all over my hands and arms all the time and this kit comes in clutch when I need it.

The other 2 are for general items. The grenade would make a good Dopp kit for traveling, so if you need to carry some small travel supplies, the grenade would be perfect for you. It could also dub as a wallet for when just running out or for beach or woods trips as it has a cinch bead with a lanyard to wrap around your wrist so you don’t have to worry about losing it. 

The long flat pouch, I don’t know the name of it, is actually really useful for work. I can keep small drill bits and wire nuts and other connectors in it and it has a big lanyard hole in the corner that I can put a carabiner on to clip onto my tool bag.

All of these pouches are very well made, in the USA, and basically individually. They’re made by hand in small batches, one by one which makes each one unique in some way so that every pouch is pretty much a one of one. Most of them come with hook and loop so you can attach your patches to them to make them truly personalized.

Check out the Dickinsons Trading Post website and follow them on Instagram to find the latest color drops as they’re always doing something awesome over there. Carry your gear organized and in style with a pouch from Dickinsons Trading Post.