Every time you need something, the bag comes off. You stop, the group stops, you unshoulder it on a narrow path and put it down in wet grass, all to get at a phone that was six inches from your hand the whole time it was on your back.

This one sits on your chest instead.

Here's how it works

It is a small harness pack worn on the front, held on two adjustable shoulder straps with a release buckle at each side. Everything in it is in front of you and inside your field of view, so getting at it does not involve taking anything off. That is the entire idea, and it is the whole of the difference.

The part people do not expect is what it means if you already carry a rucksack. Your waist is taken — the hip belt is doing the work of carrying the pack, and anything you strap over it gets squeezed. Your back is taken too, obviously. The chest is the one place left, and it happens to be the one place you can actually reach while walking.

Four pockets, not one bucket

A main zip compartment across the top, a horizontal zip pocket below it, and two lower pouches closed with buckled flaps. Phone in one, keys clipped to the metal snap hook on the front webbing where you can see them, the small things that usually end up at the bottom of a bag kept apart from each other. There is a ladder of webbing across the front for anything that will not go inside, and a metal grommet at the top corner to run a cable through.

Against your chest

The panel that sits against you is open mesh rather than solid fabric, so there is air between the pack and your jacket. On a cold day that matters less. On a long walk in spring it matters quite a lot.

The gear it replaces

• Taking your rucksack off — the thing you do six times a walk and resent every time.
• A bum bag worn round to the front — which then digs in under the hip belt.
• Coat pockets — four things in five pockets and none of them where you left it.
• Carrying your phone in your hand — until you drop it.

What's in it

• Worn on the chest — in reach and in sight, without stopping.
• Two adjustable straps with side-release buckles — on and off over a jacket, in one motion.
• Four separate pockets — one main zip compartment, one horizontal zip pocket, two buckled pouches.
• Webbing loops and a metal snap hook — for keys, and for what will not fit inside.
• Breathable mesh back panel — air between the pack and you.
• Metal grommet — run a cable out without opening a zip.
• 33 cm wide, 24 cm tall.
• Three colours — Khaki, Olive Green and Black.

Made in polyester. Suitable for hiking with a pack, cycling, the dog walk, fishing, and anything else where stopping to open a bag is the annoying part. It is not waterproof — for wet days, keep what matters in something sealed.

On your chest. In reach. Nothing comes off.