more on bottle bags

I have been corresponding with the nice people at Sea to Summit about bottle bags (see earlier post) that hang from your shoulder on a strap rather than clipping onto your (in many cases non-existent) belt. They were so very kind to point out to me that Nalgene has a range of bottle bags already in existence.

Never having seen them in any Australian store that stocks Nalgene products, I headed over to Amazon to check them out, and see if there were any reviews. There are 4 different Nalgene styles with straps that you can see on the Nalgene website.

A look on Amazon showed that of the four that I could see on the Nalgene website, only one, the Nalgene 32oz Bottle Carrier with Big Pocket, is listed. Of the two reviews, one said it was no good for jogging - well I wouldn't have expected that as it would bounce around terribly. And the other said that it was bulky and not easy to use.

They are a little more substantial than mine, which has good and bad points. I do particularly like how lightweight mine are, and kids do like to carry as little as possible generally! However, theirs are more likely to be able to take a beating! One thing I do notice about them is that the strap attaches to only one side. That seems to me like it would make the thing hang a little funny, with weight going to one side. One thing about my design was because the straps went to both sides, it hung evenly.

Then I found another bottle bag - not Nalgene brand: Mesh 22 oz. Water Bottle Holder And there were once again two reviews, one of which found it terrible for jogging (well, yeah!) and the other which loved it. This one looks like it has the straps going from the top of each side, which will make it hang more evenly. It looks as though it would be much lighter than the Nalgene one too (Amazon says 1 oz as compared to about 6 oz for the Nalgene carrier). The shoulder strap isn't padded, which is a minus.

Then, there was another one that looked pretty good too, the Klean Kanteen Stainless Steel Water Bottle Shoulder Sling (27-Ounce Bottles). You're supposed to use it with a Klean Kanteen bottle (forgive me for never having heard of them...) but as one of the 31 reviewers for this product said, they'd been using other bottles in it quite successfully. Its a little heavier than the mesh one above (at 1.6 oz), and again doesn't have padding on the shoulder strap. The Amazon reviews are quite mixed, and actually a lot of people seemed to be reviewing the bottle, not the sling itself. Many found it very difficult to insert the prescribed bottle in the sling.

So, for all you people who don't have the skills to make your own, there are some shoulder bag style bottle bags already on the market. However, it seems they still may have a way to go before they are as good as we might hope.

Of the three reviewed above, my personal recommendation would be for the Mesh 22 oz. Water Bottle Holder.