Die deutsche Version dieses Reviews kann im Tacticalforum gelesen werden.
Michal of SCDTV was kind enough to borrow me his Survivaltech fanny bag for some time, to give me the possibility of writing a review for you guys. Below you can read my impressions about the bag and hopefully get a detailed picture of it.
This bag is being made specifically for Survivaltech.pl by the polish company Specops.pl using high quality American materials. Within the bag you can find different features and concepts – that is why I am going to describe the bag to you step by step before I’ll give you my opinion.
Specs:
- Material: 1000D Cordura in PenCott Greenzone
- Hardware: Buckles, D-Rings etc by ITW Nexus, Zippers unknown
- L x W x W: 17 x 16 x 6 cm
- Weight: 275g
Overview:
The bag features a small panel at the front, a main compartment, a reach through opening in the back and another panel at the backside. It is MOLLE compatible and can also be worn as a chest rig with some detachable straps. Additional you will find flaps/or wings on both sides with additional MOLLE and PALS webbing.
Front:
The front end of the bag is equipped with velcro – to be exact there are two MOLLE straps combined with loop velcro. That way you get a velcro area and a MOLLE compatible front for additional accessoire pouches or just room for pens and Chemlights.
Right above it you will find the zipper closed opening for a small panel. In it there are three loops of elastic webbing to give you a minimum of organisation. Since the panel is quite narrow, there is only room for flat objects without adding too much bulk. A Glock magazine would fit inside quite nicely, but only in the middle; on the left and right side it would prevent the panel from closing. This is only an example to give you an idea of the measurement of the panel. Nobody is saying that it is specifically designed to carry mags.
Main Compartment:
The layout of the main compartment is really thought through in my opinion and offers quite some possibilities to efficiently store away material.
On the back end of the inner compartment you will find a slip pocket which has enough room for notes and flat objects. There is even enough room for a small israeli bandage – mind you with loss of volume in the rest of the compartment. Directly above there is a small paracord loop for lanyards, gearkeepers and keys.
On this slip pocket there are mounted four loops of elastic webbing, leaving you with countless options of items to put into. For the pictures I chose to put some pens, a multitool and a spork into it to give you an idea of size and fit.
The front end of the main compartment also features a slip pocket as well as two mesh pockets sewn on top. As always one might want to put those items in there, which need to be identified immediately. I for myself put a lighter in there as well as my personal pill stash. In between front and back end of this compartment there is enough free room for additional material, as long as you do not fully use up the room with the two slip pockets.
At the bottom you will find a drain hole to let sand and water in and out – depending on your view in regard of these things.
Back:
Here you will find a zippered panel on top for flat objects and notes… you know the drill.
Below of this pocket there is MOLLE webbing for a possible attachment to packs and vests. Two rows with four channels are there to attach the pouch to four MOLLE rows. The straps for the webbing are sewn on and feature the same closing method like the products of UW Gear – a reinforced flap that is being plugged into the MOLLe channel to serve as a barb. Silent, simple, effective.
Wings and reach through channel:
The wings on the pouch not only positively affect the wearability, it also offers additional possibilities for MOLLE attachments. I for myself have been using these areas to mount my ZT0180 on the bag using the Spec.Ops.-Brand Combat Master Mini sheath.
This can be done in different ways as you can see in the following pictures.
Furthermore there is a 1 inch wide strap sewn to the wings that serves as a waistbelt for the bag. If you do not want to use the bag as such then you have the possibility to stow away the wings in the reach through opening at the back of the bag. To do that effectively there are loop velcro areas on the wings and hook velcro in the channel.
Of course you can also use this reach through opening to carry longer objects or scarf etc.
Chest Rig option (optional):
The bag can also be worn as a chest rig if you do not want to hang it at your side or if you are already carrying something at your hip.
For this purpose you can mount special ITW Nexus buckles on dedicated points around the bag. This is possible because of small slits in the buckles, which were specially designed by ITW to be able to do field repairs for broken buckles without cutting open the straps (but that is a completely different story).
The above mentioned waist strap is being used as an additional fixing possibility in this carrying method.
The straps that came with the bag had a different color and were quite short. I do not know if this was intentionally or if Michal modified them to his needs. Insofar I cannot give you any infos on this. For me personally the length was suffice and it was quite funny to wear the bag that way although I wouldn’t do it on a regular basis. As far as I can tell from the Survivaltech homepage, you have to order the straps for the chest rig option separately!
Miscellaneous:
There are two more details worth mentioning:
On the one hand there is a D-ring on top of the bag right in between the attachment points for the chest rig buckles, and on the other hand there is a webbing loop at the left side of the bag (from the users perspective POV) which is large enough for a hand. I am guessing this is meant for reaching back and bringing the bag to the front if you carry it on your hip. That or the simplest of all uses… carrying the bag with your hand.
Manufacture:
As mentioned before the bag was manufactured by Specops.pl, a polish company from which I only heard good things. This product is the first of the company I got my hands at and I can only agree that they are manufacturing top notch gear.
It feels like a small tank. Everything is sewed on tight, the stresspoints are reinforced with bartack stitching and the materials speak for themselves. Even though the zippers do not have any company markings on them, they are massive and easy going like I only know it from YKK.
All the seams are near and the edges are sutured with binding.
Conclusion:
The Survivaltech fanny bag Mod.02 is another exciting example for all the interesting stuff that is going on with Polish gear companies. In my opinion this bag should be of interest for everyone who wants to go out with the bare necessities. Other than that it should be clear that the simple capacity as a fanny bag in the urban city jungles will be fulfilled without a problem.
I personally would like the main compartment to be better accessible. It would be nice if it could be opened at least to two thirds or even like a full clamshell with a drawbridge design – with a little bit of shock cord that keeps it open. That way one would have a better access to the really thought through organisation possibilities inside.
Other than that I can’t complain about anything else. I would like to say thanks to Michal from SCDTV for borrowing the bag to me. Check out their channel and also the video they shot of the bag. In it you can see the chest rig application and also the reach through opening much better than I could show it in pictures.
Thank you for reading! Until next time!