Dear Cactus team,
I’ve been a fan of your gear for years, proudly wearing your Supertrousers and jacket pretty much everywhere and singing the praises of these garments to anyone who will listen – but it’s the remarkable performance of one of your smaller products that has finally prompted me to write a long-overdue testimonial to the quality of what you make.
More years ago than I care to remember I purchased my first piece of Cactus Outdoor equipment – a black and blue pod wallet. For more than a decade it accompanied me everywhere, protecting a succession of cell phones from the elements and occasional impacts associated with running, mountain biking, and several thousand earthquakes until one fateful day in December 2012 when it mysteriously disappeared somewhere between my home and my then place of work at Knox Church on the corner of Victoria Street and Bealey Avenue. I was more upset at the loss of the wallet and the military issue dog tags it contained than I was at losing my ageing iPhone – but after searching everywhere I could think of, I reluctantly accepted that it had gone, bought a new iPhone (which was sadly too large to fit the Cactus pod wallets then available) and moved on…
Imagine my surprise when, on a warm spring afternoon in October 2014, two friends from the Knox Christchurch congregation appeared on my doorstep with something very familiar: the pod wallet I had lost nearly two years before. In anticipation of the rebuilt church re-opening, a working bee had been held in the car park and garden, in the course of which my long-lost pod wallet came to light. Opening it revealed a five-dollar note still dry and able to be used as legal tender, several business cards and an emergency contact card a little worse for wear but still clearly legible, my dog tags and an iPhone 3 still in working order – and all this despite having been exposed to rain, wind, and several snowfalls throughout 2013 and most of 2014. The zips, whilst a little ‘crusty’, still functioned, and after a gentle wash, my vintage pod wallet looks almost as good as new. My dilemma now is whether to bequeath my trusty pod wallet to my wife or son, both of whom have laid claim to the old iPhone – or to keep it and put it to some other use. One thing is certain: given how well my old pod wallet withstood the ravages of time and nature, I will certainly be paying a visit to Cactus to see whether one of the latest batches of pod wallets is capable of housing my now ageing iPhone 4!
Yours in awe and respect!
Geoff King
