(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Bluesky. And her latest book, The Atropine Tree, is now available!)
These days, we are plagued by a scatter of gadgets. Doodads, thingamaobs, the detritus of modern life, where every device has a charger, an adapter, a widget. And to contain all this madness, we need pouches! Clever ones.
The Hightide Nahe Soft Gadget Pouch in the small size surprised me, because when it arrived, my first thought was "oh no--that's way too small" and then it wasn't. It just looks like it is. Very sneaky.
The pouch is made from a nylon canvas and is available in several colors. All have a black zipper with a single zipper pull that has a rubber grip that fits a hooked finger perfectly. The pouch is triangular in profile, with a wide base. The top is narrower when zipped shut, but it opens wide as a whale's mouth, so it's easy to see inside and access your tools. The opening is reinforced with metal bars to help it keep its shape, and they also act like a roll-cage in your bag, protecting the contents of the pouch from your notebooks and water bottle.
Inside the pouch, there is a soft black lining with a velvety texture. There are mesh slip pockets on the inside of each wall, and the center of the case has a separator that sticks down with Velcro, so it can be removed or adjusted as needed.
The mesh pockets are perfect for small accessories you need to keep track of, and the main compartment is perfect for larger gadgets. It fits a typical phone perfectly, or a smaller digital camera. It's just long enough to fit a handful of gel pens also, though longer pens would not fit. While the case is somewhat reinforced by its structure, it is still a soft case, so not ideal for extremely delicate things. My small digital camera fits on one side of the divider, the flash attachment on the other side, and the memory cards and spare battery go well in the mesh pockets.
The Hightide Nahe Soft Gadget Pouch Small size sells for $32 on Jetpens. The larger size, which can fit a small notebook, sells for $43. I do feel like these are on the pricey side. There are pouches of similar quality with more features that cost less than this one. I do think it's a good pouch, though, and its deceptively large capacity and wide mouth are strong points in its favor.
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