Have I Been Saved or Not?

All my life, I've hated carry things in my front and hip pockets. It was always uncomfortable, sweaty, and bulky. For awhile I wore BDU (military) pants and carried stuff in the cargo pouches near the knees. Then I bought my first fanny pack back in 1985. It was hand made by a San Francisco artisan who normally made shoes and boots. It was the best fanny pack I ever owned. It lasted 18 years until the leather finally thinned out and a huge hole ripped through. I haven't been able to find an off the shelf fanny pack that lasted me more than a year. My lifestyle tends to treat them roughly, and I haven't been able to find any made from tough goat leather. The cheap sheepskin models at the malls are all crap!



Here I am siteseeing in Okinawa. I'm wearing an off-duty/plain clothes police model fanny pack that's designed to holster a pistol in the rear compartment. (The pack has a quick release that literally dumps the gun into your hand when opened. I used this section to carry Yen and my passport.) It's made of heavy ballistic nylon and has so far proved to be very tough. I'll be using this one for a long time.

Just surfing around, I came across the "Hip Holster." I thought mega-cool. Totally Han Solo. I gotta have one! Do they make left-handed and/or double-sided models?


[images from Urban Tool North America]

Then, it occurred to me, fanny packs went out of American fashion in the mid-1990's. If I got one of these, would my geek-factor shoot through the roof? Truthfully, I don't care. Walking around Kokusai-dori, in downtown Naha, Okinawa, I found dozens of shops selling hundreds of styles of fanny packs. And they weren't just for tourists. It seemed like every other person in town were wearing them. (I don't feel so lonely anymore.) These days we carry so much gear (wallet, cell phone, iPod, check book, sunglasses, keys, rescue breathing kit - yeah, I have First Aid/AED certification) that we need something more than our pockets and something less than a back pack/shoulder bag.

I'm always on the look out for a good fanny pack because I know I go through most like Swiss cheese. Pity I haven't been able to track down that guy in SF who made my first one. That really gets my goat!