I bought this for a number of reasons and one of the important features was the pocket which, IMO, is not functional. I like the fabric, the Velcro, and the design concept, but not the pocket and not the bottle.
POCKETS: Unfortunately, this is a failure. The pocket is WAY too small and does not expand at all. There's no way you can fit a phone in there and even my iPod touch is SO tight I feel I might break it and forget about taking it out to take a picture along the way; it takes at least a minute to get it out since you have to take the water bottle out, put the device in then smash the water bottle into the holder. If you are doing it with mittens that stick to the Velcro make that 2 minutes to get anything into the pockets. Even a tube of ChapStick would be a task requiring you to stop to remove the bottle to get enough room for retrieval. No, this is not a good design. And there are TWO pockets. Hahaha, there's no way you could put stuff in both pockets other than super small/thin stuff like a couple dollars, ID, ChapStick, 1 GU and a key (maybe). On the positive side the seams are very strong to handle the amount of stress they take trying to use the pocket.
STRAP: I like the 2"wide Velcro closure for the most part. It's easy to get a snug fit and it's comfortable on my hand. It is not the best however for winter running if you wear mittens or any glove that isn't "slick" because the Velcro sticks to your gloves (a small annoyance, but the mittens can really get…
