I’ve been meaning to post a review of this product but have been crazy busy the past couple weeks. I picked one up after talking with Dave about it as a birthday present for the pup who we’ll just call Houdini for the purposes of this review.
The product is meticulously constructed, durable but the best part, light weight. It packs down easily for transport and easily stores in a closet on a clothes hanger. It has rows of D-rings on each side down the front for additional security to be tied shut with rope. It has a triple zipper down the middle of the front, designed so it can be zipped shut, and then two additional zippers slide up allowing an opening to be placed anywhere along the track. All the points along the product where major stress points occur are very well reinforced.
In discussing the product with Dave, we opted for starting with a standard medium size with the only customization being slightly longer inner sleeves since Houdini’s arms are a little longer. Overall, I’m more than pleased with the finished product.
In action, it was snug and the pup appeared quite comfortable in it. Being neoprene, the same stuff wetsuits are made of, you can expect it to retain body heat quite well so a camping trip during a hot day in the tent was probably not the best time for a first try with it.
The drawbacks to the product were Houdini. I noticed in some spots it was a little loose on him, which I had anticipated going with the standard size but it’s better to be on the bigger side rather than too small since the height is perfect, he’s just on the slim end of the spectrum. Securing it shut with rope seemed to help a little bit until I turned my back on him for a few minutes and he escaped! I should have expected that given I’ve seen him methodically work his way out of some mildly intricate rope bondage but after thoroughly looking the product over, I have my suspicions about how he did it.
The average person would definitely have a hard time getting out of the sleepsack, and would take a decent amount of time to escape. My theory is that Houdini managed to contort himself just right to pull an arm up out of the inner sleeve and free it to get to the zipper. Bad puppy, no biscuit!
Some thoughts I have on enhancing the standard product for Houdini:
I think if it’s taken in a little, that may create a little more compression on the arms and shoulders that would make it less easy, but then the item would be sized specifically for him which could be a drawback for fitting anyone else.
Another thought I have is potentially adding additional sections to the sleeves bringing them up so they cover the shoulder, making it more difficult to contort and get an arm free inside to get at the zipper.
The final thought I have is the addition of some strategically placed D rings inside the sleeves that a standard pair of locking bondage cuffs could be attached to. This would prevent him from pulling his arms out of the sleeves altogether without using a tremendous amount of force that would have to bust the D rings off in order to get free.
All in all this is a great product, and the winning points for easy storage and significantly lighter weight for travel make it an excellent choice. Bonus points for the significantly lower cost than leather and vegan friendly!