Review: PatchPals

These PatchPals are made up of double sided Velcro (or “One Wrap Velcro”). By sliding one end under any section of 1″ webbing, then tucking the opposing end behind the first, the two sides easily attach to each other (the website details this process well).

One of my favourite places to mount it is on the shoulder straps as it means I can share my ‘morale’ boosting with others face on (above shows it mounted onto the webbing on David’s new Litespeed). Their small length allows placement anywhere your pack has webbing, even if there’s not much. It allowed me to customise a Craghopper pack that I had that didn’t have any loop for patches.

The device has a separate rectangle of Velcro stitched on so that the wrapping process doesn’t reduce the amount of attachable area. While this is a clever idea, I was concerned that this would be a weakness of the product. But after some testing, including my 6 month old son sucking and tugging at the patch for a good half hour, I was glad to see that the single bar tack stitching held well and didn’t show any signs of distress (other than being drenched!).

I initially thought the small market of patches available at a 1″ x 2″ size would limit this use of this product, but there are two options to increase its usage. By purchasing two of these minimal cost devices, you can mount these on adjoining sections of webbing and attach a 2″ x 3″ (standard) Flag size patch, of which there is a massive market. Another solution is to use it for Cat/Ranger Eyes which seems to work really well too.