Clakit is a company that has created a product that transforms backpack straps into easily accessible, secure storage. For photographers who are used to carrying around their gear in a backpack and want to keep their smartphone or documents in a convenient location while traveling, these pouches are something to consider trying out.
The Strap Pack is a pouch for phones, water bottles, passports, and more, clipping onto backpack front straps and providing a simple way to access important items without stopping and taking off the bag. Valuables are always within sight, reducing the risk of theft, and since smartphone cameras are being used more today, it’s available in an instant.
The Photo Argus used one of the pocket storage Strap Packs while hiking and traveling over the last couple of weeks, and although this isn’t a product that is designed specifically for the professional photographer, we felt the added convenience of using our smartphone camera and quality, easy-to-use product deserved a plug on our site. In our experience, smartphones typically have always gone in our pockets, bags, or were just carried around, as taking an inordinate amount of digital images about our daily lives is extremely important, and the phone camera is the best way to do that. We can honestly say the Strap Pack made that Instagram moment obsession much easier to accomplish.
What we really found convenient with the Clakit Strap Pack was the ability to hold items like memory cards, backcountry permits, and any other miscellaneous items that we use during our adventures outside or while traveling with all of our photo gear. Not having to stuff our pockets or take off our backpacks was actually pretty nice. And since we were practically always carrying a backpack with all of our photo gear, it was an easy, affordable addition to the current setup.
Larry Schessel, the Clakit founder, had this to say about his products, which were inspired by his frustration to have to stop and remove his backpack every time he wanted to take a picture while hiking.
“Backpacks are great for carrying things on your back. But they are inconvenient for accessing gear you often need like your smartphone for pictures, water and snacks. They also leave you at terrible risk of pickpocketing. Storing gear on the front pack straps just makes more sense. But most backpacks do not have front storage or the pockets are so tiny nothing fits inside them. StrapPacks make it easy to add secure strap storage to the front of any backpack.”
StrapPacks are pretty affordable, less than $20, and are available on Amazon or the Clakit website, www.clakit.com. The patented clip that comes with the case can also be purchased separately to use with other types of pouches or to mount your GoPro camera.
Yeah, it may not look incredibly stylish having a larger than normal pocket on the front of your backpack strap, but being able to access our phone and other important items conveniently made this a product we’ll be using for a long time.