I wanted to review the Platypus SoftBottle during last year’s 100 Nights of Summer Tour, but managed to lose it within two days of being on the road. This time around I got serious, and when I saw the 0.5 liter model on sale for $4.99 apiece, I snagged two. The classic Nalgene water bottle has two big problems for my type of festival flashpacking: it’s bulky and it’s too heavy. These softies from Platypus are much better, as they just roll up when empty.
Find at Backcountry.com for $7.95
Because of their light weight and packability, these are supremely useful festival tools. I usually filled one with water and the other with whisky. Because of the soft plastic design, they can fit into pockets where security would not be expecting a half liter of booze.
After a full season of festivaling — 100 days across Europe to 15 festivals — this water bottle has held up much stronger than most of my other gear. It’s held nine different types of liquid, but still smells fresh after cleaning and I never had any lakeage. It’s also BPA free.
And yes, of course, I did end up losing one of the two bottles. I last saw it in Poland leaving me in the company of a girl. Why wasn’t I with her? Well, that’s another story, and well out of the scope for gear reviews.
As far as I’m concerned, a solid investment of $5