Cub and Company is one of the strap makers in the United States joining the growing list of those getting involved in the fashionable accessory game. Made in Long Island, NYÂ by photographer Joel Chavez, these straps have an alluring vintage appeal to them while maintaining a semi-upscale aesthetic that would appeal to those looking for something with a youthful edge. We wouldnât exactly call them hipster, but weâd sure as hell say that theyâre for the discerning shooter.
After our initial blog post, we called one of their Shooter Camera straps in for review. And in summary, let’s just say that it’s staying on my Fujifilm X Pro 1.
Pros and Cons
Pros
– Absolutely beautiful craftsmanship
– Not that tough to get onto the camera
– Quite a bit of protection, we’re guaranteed this thing won’t fall off
– Wraps around the wrist extremely comfortably
– Affordable, and one of the more stylish straps out there.
Cons
– Not adjustable in terms of length
Gear Used
We fashioned the Cub and Co Shooter Camera strap on the Fujifilm X Pro 1.
Tech Specs
From the site’s about page:
Each strap and holster is made by hand, from scratch, with pristine quality full grain leather. The leather is initially hand treated and waterproofed with bees wax and natural oils, then meticulously buffed and finished to a beautiful sheen. Similarly, each piece is hand-stitched using the strongest of waxed linen threads, and reinforced with beeswax.
Ergonomics
The Cub and Co Shooter Camera strap is made of leather that is hand-sewn and polished with beeswax to give better strength. Tap and Dye does a similar method with their construction–and they’re also based here in NY. One of the first things that you’ll notice when you handle the strap is the big giant shoulder pad. It’s massive and there is no comfortable/cushioned padding on it, so right off the bat were’ going to tell you to not use it with a heavy camera or with a heavy lens. Instead, mate it to your mirrorless camera and put a nice prime on.
Joel’s touches with the X on both sides of the pad are a nice aesthetic that once again harken back to the style that we talked about before.
To attach it to your camera, your camera will first need strap lugs for rings. You’ll need to slip the holder over it and then slip the split ring through the strap lug. Tap and Dye’s was tough to do because of how thick it was, but Cub and Co has it down to a science.
The inside of the strap itself is very comfortable and soft to the touch. It’s awesome if you’re trekking out wearing a wife beater during the hot summer days or if you want to wrap the strap around your wrist. In fact, this strap gives the best comfort of any of many others when wrapped around the wrist.
To ensure that the strap doesn’t break, there is hand stitched webbing around the area where the strap hooks around the ring. It gives it a rougher and more unpolished look–but that is part of the aesthetic.
Build Quality
We’ve got no complaints about the build quality of the Shooter Camera strap, but making it adjustable in some way or form would have been a nice touch. However, we’re not sure how it could have been done given the design.
Ease of Use
For the photographer that loves the look of the strap and pimping their camera out with a nice accessory, you’ll be happy to know that getting this strap on isn’t so tough to do–it took us less than three minutes. It is also extremely portable if you choose to put your camera into a bag of some sort. The softness of the strap ensures that it is still extremely pliable, and so there is no need to break it in at all.
When wrapping it around the wrist for daily street walking, it is also extremely simple and the strap curls around your hand/wrist and the pad acts as a rest of some sort. It’s really quite awesome and fun–and remains stylish in real life use.
If you want to take the strap off though, you may have a bit of trouble due to the way that the holders around the lugs are designed. But for the most part, we don’t want to take this off. It is a perfect and fashionable accessory for the X Pro 1.
Conclusions
We don’t really have much of anything bad to say about the Cub and Co Shooter Camera Strap. It is comfortable, practical, and flexible for most work. Plus, we really took a liking to the padding after a while for both wrist use and shoulder/neck use. It’s beautiful, and the only thing that we would recommend is a matching half case. If you’re an X Pro 1 user, we can’t recommend any other strap.
You can get yours for $65.00 on Cub and Co’s Goods section.
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