With First Tactical already offering several bag and pack options it is natural they also have some nice pouches to go with them and great to see they put as much thought into them as their other products. Since doing an article on each pouch perhaps would be overkill I thought best to give a good group presentation on ones I've been able to get my hands on so far.
For common features the main construction material is a 500D nylon, although not Cordura specifically it acts comparable and does not come off feeling cheap. First Tactical has also come up with their own PALS/MOLLE attachment system which can be pretty hard to make a new one these days. Using webbing and custom plastic hook ends they work pretty good giving a positive snag point at all times by design. With the hardware being overall low profile they are generally easy to weave through webbing / slots, however doing the final connection hook at the end can take a bit more effort. Since the hooks don't protrude out from the bottom connection they stay out of the way, but then there isn't much to grab onto while doing the last weave. Fortunately if this is a super con for anyone, adding slim pull-cords to the holes in the hooks would be an quick way to make mounting First Tactical pouches easier.
Where appropriate most of the pouches have reversible HD foam sleeves included by default which lets one have padding if desired, or can easily take the foam sleeve out (attached with simple hook and loop) to give back a little more holding capacity. The reversible factor is a nice touch as well letting the user pick if they want a more contrasting interior or just an exterior matching color. Like on their bags, First Tactical has their own textured zipper pulls and use 1" loop strips to give patch mounting capability. On these pouches I wish they just used wider loop instead of 1" strips. The 1" makes sense on the packs since they need to leave room for the attachment slots, however this does not apply to the pouches. Perhaps they just got a good bulk price on the 1" and not a deal breaker issue either way.
TACTIX SERIES 9X6 UTILITY POUCH: Offers a nice General Purpose class size in a horizontal format. Besides the core features, the angled main zipper is a nice touch where just that small angle change can make the zipper quite a bit easier to manipulate. Interior includes a bonus hanging mesh pouch for extra organization.
TACTIX SERIES 6X10 UTILITY POUCH: Similar to the 9x6, however is a GP pouch in a more vertical format. Worth noting the whole back is filled with the attachment system to provide a fairly over the top connection if desired. Also sports the angled zipper opening and interior hanging mesh pouch.
TACTIX SERIES EYEWEAR POUCH: Hence the name made to hold eyewear, instead of the HD style foam it includes a much more rigid sleeve for crush protection and a tethered microfiber cloth. It will hold full size shooter glasses, yet I wish the zipper went down just a little further to allow a larger opening to make removing eyewear easier. First Tactical did however have design intent where one can just keep the pouch open and there would be enough retention to hold eyewear in for users going in and out of different lighting situations frequently.
TACTIX SERIES BOTTLE POUCH – 1.0 LITER: It can hold a good variety of personal hydration bottles especially with modular padding factor. As a nice touch there is an SRB buckle closure for high retention and a hook and loop closure for a faster "on the fly" option. Thinking of the small details there is an interior loop piece to cancel out the hook when not wanting to use that closure mode. The cancel pad even has its own sleeve for storage. When not using the foam sleeve, there is an additional loop piece on the back to allow the whole pouch to be rolled up compactly while still mounted. I'm a little torn to see how little of connection space this pouch gets compared to the 6x10 pouch, but it seems a clear design choice to offer the fold up feature. I'd also like to see the lid a little larger as it can be pretty hard to get a good closure when in a hurry. The current semi-tight lid doesn't give much error tolerance for a proper closure covering the upper sides.
Although imported, these pouches so far are good bang for the buck. For those on a budget the First Tactical pouch series is a worthwhile option to get something that will still last and perform as opposed to the copycat stuff that ends up at surplus stores these days. I think they did a good job taking some fairly simple pouch concepts and still finding a way to make them modern and unique without over doing it. Currently available in Black, Coyote, and OD Green; I mostly show off Coyote, but I was able to get an OD-Green sample as well to display in the last picture.
