Review: Chicken Tramper Ultralight Gear Sh!t Kit

Design/Aesthetic ★★★★★

The Sh!t Kit, which is a bag from Chicken Tramper Ultralight Gear designed to carry your trowel and toilet paper, is a genius design and has just as much customization as their fanny packs. For years, I’ve tried to find an easily accessible spot to store my trowel and TP while on the trail. I wanted to keep it on the outside of my pack to keep the rest of my gear clean but didn’t want my TP getting soaked if it rained. CTUG have created the ultimate solution to this dilemma! I can now keep everything easily accessible and not have to worry about my trowel stabbing things or getting dirt on the rest of my gear.

Functionality ★★★

At first glance, the Sh!t Kit seems like a novelty or luxury item but it very quickly became something that I didn’t want to hike without. The simplicity of grabbing one thing off the outside of my pack and being able to calmly walk into the woods to dig a cat hole is one that I have grown accustom to and I think it would be hard to switch back to the ways of frantically trying to track down the tools of the trade while my high calorie hiking diet tries to commit mutiny. There is a bit of a flaw in this system though… When you open the kit and stick you hand in to retrieve your TP, the velcro that is used to keep the bag closed grabs a hold of the back of your hand and ends up scratching the Sh!t out of it or shredding your precious toilet paper as you pull it out. I’m hoping that in the next iteration they find a different solution to keeping the bag closed because it would make the kit much more enjoyable to use.

Durability ★★★★★

This kit seems to be built to the same standards as their fanny packs and even though the one that I reviewed was a prototype, the attention to detail shows. There’s not a whole lot else to say about the Xpac material that CTUG uses to construct their gear. It’s waterproof and damn near indestructible. I haven’t torture tested the Sh!t kit by the way I did their fanny pack but they’re made of the same material and I couldn’t believe how well Xpac stood up to the volcanic rock scattered around Mt. Adams.

Value ★★★★

When it comes right down to it, the Sh!t kit is definitely a luxury item and an ultralight purist might laugh at you for spending $30 on something that does the same job as their ziplock bag. But you’ll be the one laughing when their thin plastic bag fails and they have to wipe with soggy toilet paper, which I’m convinced is one of the circles of Hell that Dante forgot to include in his book. You just have to decide how much dry TP really means to you and if you’re on the fence, use GEAR15 at check out and take 15% off to make the pill a bit easier to swallow.