The second consideration: I'm a dad with two little ones, both in diapers, so it's a necessity that I have stuff on hand to address their baby problems. I figured since I have to carry a diaper bag around anyways, I may as well consolidate the few items I regularly need from my 3-day pack into an EDC diaper bag.
Enter the Tactical Diaper Bag.
The bag itself is a Maratac Extreme XL EOD bag (County Comm). It's in Coyote, like everything else I own, but the cell phone doesn't do it right. I gave a brief review of it in another thread, but I'll recap it here:
I wrote:Good points: Large amount of space for the price (almost 1000 cubic inches). Lots of PALS webbing. Really really beefy zipper which allows for guilt-free tear-open. The strap that came with it is awesome. And, even though by all accounts it may be considered a "man-purse" when in normal use, I don't look like a complete bitch when using it (or at least, I don't think I do). Also, worth noting is, like always with County Comm, blazing fast shipping.
Bad points: PALS webbing is inconsistent in the space between stitches, sounds like no big deal but it actually kind of is when you're trying to feed things through it. It has straps on the reverse side to connect as a MOLLE attachment, though I can't honest-to-God think what you would attach it to, so it's actually nearly worthless. It has PALS webbing on the underside, but not the sides, which doesn't make any sense at all to me. Finally, and probably the most important, it is single stitched throughout; it will not enjoy a substantial amount of durability under really heavy use. However, all this comes back to one final good point... It is only $32.
It's a pretty nifty idea and a very handy bag, when you need such things. However, the design could use a large amount of improvement. I am considering walking it over to Tactical Tailor and having them perform some improvements, such as double-stitching and adding PALS webbing as well as some loop panels to the ends.
Its contents usually contain enough diapers for my kids as well as a spare change of clothes, a sippy cup and disposable wipes. However, it wouldn't be suitable for posting on ZS without a proper amount of "be prepared" gear. And, here it is (complete with blurry monster thumb approaching from the left):
- Convenience: Spare NWU undershirt, 2x blousing bands, 4x NWU buttons, 1pr crew socks, 1pr spare boxers (not shown, ha ha), stain removing pen, ink pen & mechanical pencil (external to bag), Rite-in-the-Rain notepad
- Hygeine: Microfiber towel, ditty bag which holds a shower kit (travel size shampoo, body wash, deodorant, shaving foam, safety razors and nail clippers), Gold Bond powder, Wet Ones travel pack, waterless hand sanitizer, SPF 55 roll-on sunscreen, A+D ointment
- Survival: Coleman 3xAAA LED flashlight (carried external to bag in Tactical Tailor knife pouch), Swedish firesteel, Jetscream whistle, box 32 strike-anywhere matches, Cyalume 12-hour lightsticks (secured with 2 ranger bands), 25' OD strapping material (secured with ranger band), 50' black 550 paracord, pocket sharpening stone from County Comm, 8x Katadyn MicroPur tablets, emergency blanket, shemagh, mini-Bic, standard size Bic (external to bag)
Points to note: I have a knife as part of my EDC, a Victorinox OHT. I took a badass pic of it and my other EDC pocket stuff (4 1/8" straight pry widgy, LED keychain light, kubotan) but it didn't ever feel like uploading. Secondly, the irony of having water treatment but no water container is not lost on me, and is a problem I'm working on resolving (probably by way of a 1qt USGI-style canteen - a regular Nalgene is too huge for this). Thirdly, there is a pouch mounted to the back of the bag which contains a boo-boo kit which is basically nothing but various bandages and children's Tylenol.
Let me know what you think!
