Fare thee well, snaphook!

[Janine]

This what it says on the OP product page:

"If you have another bag, that's ok — just don't use the little plastic snaphook on the pouch or break it off."

Has anyone done this? Did you cry afterwards? Or were you instantly uplifted?

I have a mind to break the snaphook off of my Clear Organizer Wallet so that I can stuff it in my pocket. (I tried stuffing it in my pocket as is, and the hook got in the way.) I think I will also enjoy carrying my wallet in my SE more because the hook gets in the way in that small bag if it's not clipped to anything. I never clip the wallet to a keystrap, so I don't think I'll miss the hook.

But of course I want to preserve the ability to clip it to a hook later. I think the hook of a keystrap will slide into the fabric loop left by the missing hook on the wallet, but the hook is a little smaller than the loop so I think this might not be an optimal solution.

Has anyone experimented with putting some kind of removable o-ring in that loop instead of the hook assembly? It would have to be a removable one, since the o-ring is being installed after the loop was sewing shut.

And in case anyone at TB is watching, I would love to be able to custom order pouches with o-rings instead of snap hooks. I don't know if it's feasible for you to do this, but I think the arrangement would work very well: o-ring on bag, key strap with hooks on each end, o-ring on OP. No extraneous hardware. Minimal. Tidy. I realize that I won't be able to clip the OP to anything without the help of a key strap, but that doesn't bother me.

[dlg]

And in case anyone at TB is watching, I would love to be able to custom order pouches with o-rings instead of snap hooks. I don't know if it's feasible for you to do this, but I think the arrangement would work very well: o-ring on bag, key strap with hooks on each end, o-ring on OP. No extraneous hardware. Minimal. Tidy. I realize that I won't be able to clip the OP to anything without the help of a key strap, but that doesn't bother me.

Oooh! This! The snaphook-snaphook connection always seems so darn long and fiddly.

[mitt]

I have popped the snap hooks off before, leaving behind the "ball-on-a-stick/ring" part for possible future reattachment. The plastic is pretty stiff, so it wasn't easy to pop them off, but they did come off with no apparent damage. Doing this does make them noticeably less obtrusive, if you don't need to attach them to anything.

[Janine]

I think I want to break off the ball-on-a-stick/ring, too. Does that make me a rebel? :-)

[backpack]

Well, I would not dreeam of altering any TB product in any way because of their perfect design.

I would not mind if Tom and Crew decided to design/make O-rings only Pouches, in addition to the ones they are already making.

Tom Bihn Pouches are the greatest invention in purse accessorizing since the compact mirror but the little snap hook says casual, no matter how you slice it.

Ring only Pouches would be geared toward people who carry them in their pockets or Little Swift/Co Pilot owners who want to put their Classic dress up on.

While the Little Swift can run the gamut of 20's to 90's vintage dress up, the Little Swift with its zippers and boxy shape is perfect for 50's,60's and beyond.

Note: I don't have either of those bags and imagine their roles in my Tom Bihn bag collection.

[Janine]

Well, I would not dreeam of altering any TB product in any way because of their perfect design.

And oh, how I wrestle with this dilemma because of exactly what you said. I keep thinking that the reason I'm not loving the way my pouches hook to things is because I haven't "gotten" it yet.

[dlg]

I guess if you snapped off the plastic bits you could find a suitably-sized keyring at your local hardware store. Hmm, I may have to go shopping.

[backpack]

What I do is use key rings and novelty C-clips in addition to the TB Keystraps, Clips on the TB Pouches and O-rings on the TB bags.

[Janine]

The smallest key ring I found was 5/8" OD, 1/2" ID, which would be a little bigger than the plastic doodad but not too bad. I also found these:

Keychain Strap, Bag Strap, Purse Strap, Hangbag Strap Open Gate Rings - usalanyards.com

which I think look nicer than that split rings. I ordered two of the black nickel ones to test out once I work up the courage to deface one of my pouches.

[Lani]

I'm terribly sorry but I'm drawing a blank. What exactly is a snap hook?

[Janine]

Hey Lani, they are the little clips on the end of key straps and attached to organizer pouches.

[Janine]

Baaaaaaby steps.

[daisy]

I'd either have to remove them from all my pouches or none.. I've become used to clipping the hooks together when attaching a pouch to a strap and don't think I'd feel the need to remove any of the hardware ... if you just place the flat 'catches' of the 2 clips together they connect very easily and it becomes second nature after a while.

That said, I don't carry pouches in my pockets. I tried using a TB wallet for a while and went back to a bifold wallet as I prefer to have my notes flat rather than folded. I use the wallet to store my seldom used cards, which are mostly left at home.

I do use split rings (keyrings) in my ristretto, SCB and a non-TB bag when I carry pouches in them. One strap, several pouches.

[dorayme]

Baaaaaaby steps.

Inconceivable! ~ I LOVE he princess Bride BTW.
Now that you've done it, what are your initial thoughts? I think the ring you ordered will look much nicer than the ball stick thingie, but it's so small, to the untrained eye it's probably unnoticeable.
I have had some similar sentiments of the snap hook on snap hook or snaphook in non TB pocket or bag feeling bulky, but on he other hand sometimes I want to not use a keystrap to snap in a pouch or wallet. When i tried to use several keystraps in one compartment, they tangle on each other, i.e. inside my Swifts or Little Swifts. Clipping directly to one of the many orings makes the bag more tidy inside. I think the keystraps like to live alone, one per compartment in my bags.
I'm curious how this works out, I may bust mine off in favor of rings too.

[Janine]

Initial impression: favorable! A round ring would be a lot prettier, but the ball-stick-thingie isn't bad. I stuffed my wallet in a jacket pocket today and it was fine. I carried it in another bag, too, and all seems to be well. I think I'm going to give this a few more days before I declare success, though, because we damaged the hook trying to get it off. Until I find a better, gentler way to remove the hooks, this is a one-way operation.