I really like my new Tomtoc travel sling. It’s made out of quality materials, is comfortable to wear, and can carry a good amount of stuff while being light on your shoulders. Making it a great sling for travel and walking around all day.
The sling has a front pocket with a keychain, if you want to use it, but I put small loose items like camera batteries and coins in it. At the rear of the sling is a security compartment that sits against your chest, this is where I put my passport or you could put larger denominations of foreign currency if you have them. The rear compartment is great for things that need to be kept secure as you can feel them against your chest and the compartment is reasonably hidden. It’s most likely not even obvious it is there to someone who doesn’t own this sling. This compartment is for whatever you need to keep secure.
The main compartment is spacious and contains two mesh pockets for organizing as well as a divider that runs the length of the sling to keep things separate if you’d like. I like to put bulkier items in here to save carrying them in my front pocket. I often put my wallet or a small mirrorless camera in there.
It feels like the Tomtoc sling is Made out of quality materials – Cordura nylon and YKK zippers are listed on the product tags. It doesn’t feel like they have skimped on the materials of this item, it feels quality. I’ve owned mine for a year now with three trips under its belt and it’s still in great condition. The main point of a sling is to put stuff in and take stuff out. This means opening and closing the sling a lot during a trip. The zippers on this sling are all YKK if that matters to you and all worked smoothly out of the packet and still do on my copy one year later.
The Sling uses a regular, albeit large, buckle and sits horizontal across your chest when worn the intended way and diagonal when worn across your back. This makes it easy to put things in and take them out and will probably suit a lot of people to wear it this way. However, I tend to prefer my sling to be worn diagonal across my chest so I just swap the shoulder I use it on.
When I first got the sling I took it on a short beach holiday and wore it mostly on my back, in the intended diagonal orientation, swinging it around when I wanted to get something out. It is very comfortable to wear and works well but I would only wear it this way in a safe, less densely populated, location. While traveling in crowded cities I would want to wear it on my chest diagonal style, especially if it was carrying my passport or other valuables.
I don’t think I’m alone in preferring to wear a sling cross body and this sling works fine this way too. The only downside is it’s not as easy to get stuff in and out but I think that would be the same with any cross body sling so it’s no problem for me as I just find it more comfortable to wear this way.
Bottom line it is fine to wear the Tomtoc sling either horizontal or diagonal across your chest, you will just get the full benefit of the design if you wear it the intended way.
So how does it compare to the competition. I considered buying a more expensive sling with a flatter base that would fit a mirrorless camera with small lens in the main compartment better. But that sling was quite a bit more expensive so I decided to go with the Tomtoc sling.
The Tomtoc sling has its seam at the base, so it is not flat at the bottom of the sling. While a sling with a flat base would be better for carrying a small sized camera I didn’t think the extra money would be worth it for how often I would want to carry a camera in it, neither is it a big deal for the occasions I do want to carry a camera in it. As far as value for money goes it the Tomtoc sling is a great deal in my opinion.
Below I will list some important points to consider when you are deciding whether to buy the Tomtoc EDC sling.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Made with good quality materials, cordura nylon, YKK zippers | Base of the sling is not flat. Other, more expensive, slings will hold a small mirroless camera better I think. (Although I can fit a fuji xt1 w/ 27mm pancake lens in – just) |
| Good value sling compared to competitors | Designed to wear horizontal across chest. (pro or con depending on personal taste) |
| Good organization with plenty of pockets and storage space | |
| Sling designed to wear horizontal across chest. (pro or con depending on personal taste) – *I wear on opposite shoulder with sling diagonal across chest with little downside |
