This highly-adaptable bottle carrier designed by ITS Tactical and manufactured by Zulu Nylon Gear can fit almost any EDC water bottle currently on the market, even legacy GI 1-quart canteens. Made from US-sourced materials in the USA, this MOLLE-compatible bottle holder uses a Velcro-adjustable perimeter nylon webbing band at its base and elastic shock-cord keeper at the top to retain bottles up to the size of a 1-liter Nalgene. The MOLLE attachment is a traditional 1″ nylon webbing weave strap with a terminal snap. It uses one channel in width and three high. It can also be configured to fit a 2″ belt by passing the strap under the lowest two sections of weaving webbing. The main body is made from a piece of 2″ nylon webbing folded over a LDPE stiffener. The webbing perimeter band is sewn to the body and uses hook Velcro on one end and loop on the other for diameter adjustment. The tail of the main body loops under the bottle and is captured in the adjustment of the perimeter band by hook and loop sections at its terminal tip to keep the bottle from just slipping out the bottom. The elastic shock cord top retainer has a grippy tab for easy manipulation, and can be adjusted both in girth by tying it larger or smaller (the knot is inside the tab) and height by using one of two slots in the main body. I got the MultiCam version that uses jacquard woven MultiCam webbing and pattern matched Velcro. The snap is a blackened, Mil Spec non-magnetic brass component.
The holder works very well, but with limitations. The minimal design reduces weight and bulk, but while there are advantages to this, there are also compromises. The single-channel mounting allows for a lot of fore-aft swinging, even with a fully-stuffed pack. This is definitely more of an issue on newer “lightwieght” packs with thinner fabric and reduced-sized MOLLE webbing. I mounted it on a Grey Ghost Gear LiteLock lightweight pack that has 3/4″ webbing and the holder swings like crazy. Double-channel width would reduce swing even on lightweight packs, but would bring weight up around 150%. It still swings on 1000D packs with full-width MOLLE webbing, but less. Using a non-cylindrical bottle like a canteen reduces swing because of physical bottle interference with the base pack.
With heavy, fat bottles like the Nalgene 1-liter, the holder sags. This is regardless of whether the pack is lightweight or 1000D, because the top of the main body actually leans away from the pack surface the holder is mounted to. Fatter bottles mean less insetion depth into the holder because the main body that forms the floor of the holder has to extend out further, leaving less vertical length. This means the bottle will rotate out of the carrier once the elastic band is released and makes it easier to remove the bottle; however, when putting the bottle back you have to make sure the band is secure before letting go of the bottle, or you will be picking it up out of the dirt. This is a “holder” after all and not a “pouch”. Because of the elastic band mounting system, the holder can be used one-handed, but the holder has to be mounted low enough for your arm to get your hand into a position to manipulate the tab properly. This can be an issue when mounting the holder on smaller packs that ride higher up on the back. You might have to run the shoulder straps a little looser to lower the pack position. No problem on shoulder bags.
The holder is stiffer than a fabric pouch because of its webbing construction. Because of this, if there is no bottle in it, the bottom loop still stands proud of the pack and has the potential to snag on things. There is also a somewhat high-signature label on the outside surface of the body of the holder that is visible when a bottle is not present. The label is not a big deal, since this isn’t a combat item where minmizing observability is critical. Heck, I’m running a glow-in-the-dark Nalgene bottle in it! A black label is nothing!
My only gripe is the male snap on the main body. Considering the body is two layers of webbing over a plastic stiffener, it would have been nice to have the snap backer hidden inside the sandwich somewhere, rather than being exposed to scratch your bottle. I realize that this is a production issue to have the snap installed last to adjust for sewing tolerances.
Recommended
About $25 plus shipping
Made in the USA
Three out of four hydrated gear monkeys
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