REVIEW – I can’t say why I have not jumped on board and gotten an EDC pouch up to this point. I have purchased them as gifts multiple times in the past for others, and every time I think how nice it would be to have one for myself. But, for some reason, I just never pulled the trigger. It might have been a bit of decision paralysis as there are just so many options to choose from. Luckily, I no longer have to make a decision. In comes the Roaring Fire Gear Smolder Waxed Canvas Organizer Pouch. And boy does it organize!
⬇︎ Jump to summary (pros/cons)
Price: $46.99
Where to buy: Roaring Fire Gear
What is it?
The Roaring Fire Gear Smolder Waxed Canvas Organizer Pouch is an EDC organizer pouch for all your EDC organizing needs. There is not much more to it really, and that’s a great thing actually.
What’s included?
- Smolder Organizer pouch
- Warranty card
Tech specs
- Dimensions: 7.87” x 6.1” x 1.77” （20 x 15.5 x 4.5 cm）
- 12 elastic loops
- Outer zip pocket on front
- 2 interior insert pockets
- 1 mesh zipper pocket inside
- Interior key loop with included carabiner
- Brass YKK zippers
- Velcro section on front for patches
Design and features
The best way to go about this might be from the outside in. And to start off, this is a heavy pouch. In a great way. It feels substantial and durable. I stuffed it full of things and chucked it across the room and driveway numerous times and everything seemed great. Seriously! Although I wouldn’t recommend doing this on the daily, filled with your most expensive EDC items. I put mostly budget stuff in it for that test.
The color on the website is a little misleading. The stated color says “rustic brown”, and it is very much brown. However, the picture makes it look like a green color in the product shots. So just know that this is in fact a two tone brown pouch. No green to be found.
I’m not really a huge patch guy, but they did put a Velcro section on the front in case you want to rock a patch on the outside.
I really like that the branding on the front is as minimal as it is. It’s a small leather patch at the top front of the pouch with the company name and logo. It does feel like maybe it’s not the highest quality leather, but it looks good nonetheless.
At the bottom, you will find two loops on either side of the bag. I’m not sure what these are for, but it’s nice that they are there. I could use them to attach a strap for shoulder carry, I guess, but then the bag is hanging upside down.
On the back, you will find molle attachments. I don’t have any bags with molle attachment points, but I like that you could if you wanted to. Actually, I do have a weighted exercise vest with attachments. I guess if I wanted to carry some additional things while working out, I could…
The bag is not all that symmetrical. The bottom right corner on the front is more of a wide curve as opposed to the tighter bottom left corner on front. I don’t think this is a negative, really. It feels more handmade. Whether it was or not. It doesn’t bother me, but it may bother you.
Also, on front you will find the first zippered pocket. It is relatively thin, but you can still fit a decent amount of things in there. For a while, I had my wallet in it, and it’s not exactly a thin wallet.
About those zippers, they are YKK, so very robust and work well with smooth operation. Not once did they hang up on me while using the pouch. The zipper pulls are paracord with what looks to be heat tape shrunk around the tied-off ends. Very easy to grab.
And then we use those zippers to get into the bag. The first thing you will notice here is a fold-out flap that houses a mesh zippered pocket. I’m sure there are those that will use it, and I tried to be one of those people, but in the end I just couldn’t find a good use case. I may even cut mine out eventually. It feels a bit thrown together as an afterthought to add one more thing inside. That’s not to say it’s of poor quality; just that I didn’t find a use for it myself.
The next thing that jumped out at me was a small interior elastic loop with a cheap little carabiner attached to it. I really don’t care for this at all. I dislike cheap carabiners that come with everything these days. Charge me more and put something of substantial quality on your product. Sorry. I’m saying that to all companies, not just Roaring Fire here. This Carabiner snagged on the mess pocket/panel and ripped it a tiny bit. Not enough to cause a hole, but I definitely took the carabiner off right away and stopped using it all together.
You have a plethora of elastic loops here. There are 12 in total.; 4 small loops, 4 medium sized loops, and 4 large loops. They are great for things like pens, small flashlights, and knives.
On each side of the opening, you also have large deep pockets for larger items like a pocket-sized notebook, or say a med kit.
And that’s it. Not to say that it’s underwhelming at all. It’s just simple and does what it’s supposed to do well; it securely organizes your EDC items for accessible and easy carry.
I put as much stuff in it as I carry around on a normal day, and then some. And I still had plenty of room for additional items. I almost felt like I was wasting space that could have been used to carry more. I just didn’t need that extra space.
The one thing I was really bummed about that didn’t fit in the pouch was my journal. I use a Stalogy 365Days A6 notebook. It’s a chunky little guy with a ton of pages in it. It was so close to fitting, but was just a hair too large as I was trying to put it in one of those pockets on the inside. This is not a downside of the pouch itself. Just that it wasn’t quite large enough for the notebook I like to use. If you use anything in a “pocket” size (3.5in by 5.5in i.e. Field Notes) then it’s going to be a perfect fit. And if I’m not keeping my notebook in it, I’m not going to keep my main pens in it, but I did put a backup pen in it just in case.
After reconsidering and thinking about it more, it will actually fit my journal if I just toss it into the middle section of the pouch, and not in any of the interior pockets. That actually shifted my whole approach.
The Smolder waxed canvas pouch turned into my journal pouch pretty quickly. It holds all the pens I like to use (which is way too many), a brass ruler, a small Swiss Army knife, just for good measure, and that journal I mentioned earlier. And when I want to go extra light, I can hook my keys on it, and still toss in my Boox Palma for reading.
Final thoughts
And that’s where it clicked for me. I don’t really need a pouch for all my daily EDC items. Most of those things will fit in my pockets. Even though I don’t care for massively loading out my pockets too much. I love this thing. Before I had to decide if I was going to take the journal with me, as it’s just a bit too bulky to throw in my pocket. Now I just grab the pouch and head out. I have everything I need depending on what I’m recording.
It’s a tad expensive compared to say a Maxpedition pouch. However, the Smolder is a little larger, has more attachment points on the rear, has better zipper pulls, and a tad more organization overall. So I guess that extra cost is worth it in the long run if you need it.
I highly recommend the Roaring Fire Gear Smolder pouch if you are considering it. Just note the dimensions and do some measuring before you purchase to make sure all your items will fit, and you will not be disappointed.
What I like about Roaring Fire Gear Smolder Waxed Canvas Organizer Pouch
- Rugged and durable
- Loads of organization
- Great zipper and pulls
- Well built
What needs to be improved?
- Forgo the cheap carabiner
⬇︎ Jump to summary (pros/cons)
Price: $46.99
Where to buy: Roaring Fire Gear
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by Roaring Fire Gear. Roaring Fire did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
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$28.99 (as of September 29, 2025 18:39 GMT -04:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
