Review: Silent Whisper

selectivebeef, a friend and longtime supporter of everyday-carry.com, recently reached out to me, offering products from his new line of high quality, hand-crafed, military-inspired leather goods and accessories called Silent Whisper. Immediately impressed by their offerings, I opted to review what I felt would be most relevant to the average EDCer — a zipper pouch and a carabiner keychain. The Silent Whisper team graciously assembled and sent me their Supplier and Vertical Sustainment pieces for me to review.

「AF-W01-007」SUPPLIER Snakeskin Zipper Pouch

The Supplier struck me as a good candidate for EDC as its design offers some universal utility — a zipper pouch can be used to carry a variety of essentials in a simple way. It has appropriate dimensions for EDC purposes, coming in at 10cm tall by 13cm wide. A pouch this size could easily accommodate cash, credit cards, extra small notebooks, and coins. The pouch is well-constructed in every way and can provide moderate protection to things like earbuds, small electronics, cables, smaller pocketknives, etc despite using a supple, buttery snakeskin leather throughout. While the leather is pliable, I’ve found objects that are thin or flat carry better in the pouch in general. So, things like extra batteries, flashlights, and other irregularly-shaped essentials might not fit as well or could be difficult to remove from the pouch.

Its contents are secured by a YKK zipper and attached to cowhide leather, stamped with the Silent Whisper logo. Opening and closing obviously requires both hands, but is otherwise effortless. Internally, it lacks any additional pockets, slots or organization otherwise. I keep cash, cards, change and hearing protection in mine, and it fits just fine in either the front or back pocket of my jeans. Overall, the pouch is functionally fairly simple. This is not necessarily a bad thing — depending on your needs, simplicity could serve better. What really sets it apart is its quality, fit and finish. It would do well in an urban EDC, especially in one that appreciates utilitarian design and understated luxury.

「AF-K01-001」VERTICAL SUSTAINMENT Spec Carabiner Keychain

The other product I received is their Vertical Sustainment piece. Like the Supplier, its design blends both simplicity and sophistication. In essence, it’s a carabiner, a leather tag and a split ring for keys, but in execution it boasts robust spec iron hardware and high quality Italian cowhide leather, with superb fit and finish. The carabiner itself is tanky — I have plenty of confidence in its gate strength to secure my keys. However, the gate resistance is not so great that clipping and unclipping becomes difficult. The gate also has some pseudo-jimping texture for better thumb grip, which was some attention to detail and user experience that I appreciated. A decently sized black coated split ring is used to attach keys. I’ve observed some of the coating wearing off from constant contact with keys, which is not particularly surprising in coated hardware.

The split ring is held by loops in the leather tag, which have multiple pieces folded over and burnished at the edges for a sleek finish. Interestingly, the folds on the backside of the keychain provide an area for a pocket clip attachment. I used a slim and light Victorinox moneyclip/knife here to add some more utility without affecting the footprint of the keychain too much. Combined with some keys and a flashlight, I have a fairly minimal but complete “core” EDC on the Vertical Sustainment piece alone. As a disclaimer, the leather loop isn’t explicitly designed for pocket clips, but I’ve tried other knives and they do well attaching there — but keep whatever’s attached light to reduce the risk of it slipping off, and to put less strain on your ignition should you keep car keys on here. The keychain is a good length to tuck into a back pocket, which I recommend doing not only for security and retention, but also to dampen the clanking noise keys swinging makes. At 3.5cm wide by 14.5cm long, it’s not the most compact keychain solution, but it makes up for that in its substance and robustness. I don’t have that anxiety of losing my keys that I get with smaller alternatives like S-Biners, McGizmo Clips, and dollar store non-locking carabiners.

The guys at Silent Whisper have only recently begun producing their line of bags, wallets and accessories, starting in 2013. At the conclusion of my two-week testing period, I’m confident in their products. With prices at 70USD for the keychain and 115USD for the zipper pouch, they might not be practical for many EDCers’ budgets. However, you definitely get what you pay for in these high quality, hand-crafted, uniquely beautiful accessories.

PURCHASE @ GG-STORE:

「AF-W01-007」SUPPLIER

「AF-K01-001」VERTICAL SUSTAINMENT

by Bernard Capulong on Monday, Feb 10, 2014