Gear Review: The SPIbelt

Travelers have all sorts of ways of hiding valuables on their person — passport pouches, hip belts, fanny packs, even custom sewn pockets. On such option is the SPIbelt, the Small Personal Item Belt (pronounced spy-belt).

The SPIbelt is small, lightweight, slightly-hipper-than-normal fanny pack. The SPIbelt is made of very stretchy nylon so, despite its tiny size, it can hold a surprising amount of stuff. I was able to cram a passport, keys, money, ATM and credit cards and even a tiny bottle sunscreen into the SPIbelt. Of course when fully maxed out getting things in and out of the SPIbelt is little difficult — particularly large flat items like a passport or iPod.

The elastic waistband is reasonably comfortable and when snugged down it helps to ensure the SPIbelt doesn’t bounce around too much when you’re walking (or running, which is the original market for the SPIbelt). Thanks to a rather clever design choice, the content pouch expands both above and below the actual belt, which helps keep it balanced and stable against your body even when it’s full of stuff. There are, however, limits to that stability — the heavier the items you put in the SPIbelt, the more it will move around when you do.

If you’re the type that likes to run while you’re traveling the SPIbelt is one of the best ways I’ve seen to take hostel keys and bit of cash without the bulk of a larger bag weighing you down. I asked my wife (a runner) to test the SPIbelt on her morning runs and I haven’t seen it since (though she did say that running with her Droid phone made the SPIbelt too bouncy, so again, you can get a lot of stuff in there, but not without some tradeoff in comfort).

The SPIbelt with passport, credit cards, cash, and keys

In terms of hiding things on your person, custom pockets sewn to the inside of your shorts (or pants) is much more low profile and probably a bit more secure in the end, but the SPIbelt offers versatility you won’t get with the homebrew solution — it’ll double as a running pouch and there’s even a waterproof version that solves the old question, what do you do with your keys when you go swimming or snorkeling?

The SPIbelt retails for $20 and comes in a variety of configurations. Some variations are a bit more expensive (the waterproof variety is $27, which includes a plastic liner bag), but for what it is the price is reasonable. If you’re interested, head over to the SPIbelt website or, if you’d like to see it in person, head to your local specialty running store, which typically carry the SPIbelt.

Posted by | Comments Off on Gear Review: The SPIbelt  | September 21, 2010
Category: Travel Gear

Comments are closed.