HSGI Soft Taco StuffIt Pouch Review

HSGI is an incredibly well respected brand and their kit has been widely used by those at the sharp end for many years.

I believe in the brand and I wanted a StuffIt pouch, so theirs was an obvious choice.

Here’s the product description of the Soft Taco from HSGI. Personally, I think concentrating on its use as a bottle holder is woefully underselling this wonderfully versatile piece of kit:

“The Soft TACO® was designed to holder large cylindrical items. Being soft sided; it will expand and collapse to generous levels. The Soft TACO® will securely keep our 32oz HSGI Liberty® Bottle, or other items securely attached to your belt or pack. Like other TACO® products, this pouch maintains a positive grip on your essentials while providing easy access and storage.

Covered by HSGI’s® Lifetime Warranty. Made in the USA. MALICE™ Clips Included.”

I ordered. The pouch duly arrived from Tactical-Kit. It’s always that simple with Tactical-Kit. I really don’t know how they do it. They sell HSGI kit at great prices and deliver next day pretty much every time.

The package was a bit bigger than expected, which made me feel like I’d made a mistake. But, the pouch is presented on a rather professional cardboard backing, which bulks things up.

The pouch comes with two long MALICE clips in black. I ditched these in favour of short ones as the pouch was going on my belt. I was still surprised how big and beefy the pouch looked, but once installed on my belt, it not only looks to scale but functions great.

Tacos: difficult to install, right? Well, they certainly can be tricky to the uninitiated but if you have a bit of patience and the right tools, they are not too bad. You just need to work the MOLLE backing open with needle nosed pliers; but don’t worry, it’s tough as old boots. I used a blunt knife to help feed the MALICE clips through the pouch’s backing. I then used the needle nosed pliers to drag the the MALICE clips through the MOLLE as I was weaving it. Again, the pouch (and hopefully your platform) can take it. Since I’ve previous experience with Tacos, the Soft Taco didn’t feel too onerous at all.

This video should be a big help:

The Soft Taco is one implementation where I 100% agree in the use of 1000D. This pouch is going to have to endure a lifetime of having stuff rammed into it, so it needs to be flexible but very strong. For this reason I don’t think 500D would cut it here. Because of this, next to other recent pouch purchases, the the Soft Taco feels heavy…but also satisfyingly bombproof.

I’ve added a Grimloc to the outer top lip of my Soft Taco, to allow for a few more options when securing objects. It also better enables me to pull the mouth of the pouch wide.

If you’re not familiar with the Taco concept, it’s like a corset which is elasticated with shock cord. The shock cord binds the 1000D corset, allowing it to expand and contract around irregular shapes; including, but not limited to, bottles, mags, gloves, base layers (you can perhaps detect how I’ll be using mine).

The tightness of the shock cord and thus the retention of the pouch, is user configurable:

There’s also an independent shock cord retainer at the top. Again, this is user configurable. It can be looped over bottle tops or stretched over the mouth of the pouch and (with my setup) secured by looping it over the Grimloc.

The shock cord will probably be the first thing to wear out, but it’ll take donkey’s years. When it does wear out, the shock cord is easily replaceable.

Heavily reinforced base: