If people never reinvented the wheel, we'd have no pneumatic tires, semiautomatic guns, and waffle irons. What a shame it would be! If you've never heard of SoftTie before, mark this day in your calendar because you're about to find out how creative the Austrians got with a simple utility strap.

The uses of utility straps are already virtually unlimited. The SoftTie Straps fill the gaps to make everything in the universe possible if you only have the imagination for it. Here are a few ideas:

• Attaching gear to pipes and tubes: railings and handles on vehicles, bicycle or motorcycle frame tubing...
• Binding skis together: like Voile Straps, which is another product that does the same thing
• Attaching accessories to a government-issued rifle - without leaving marks that could get you into trouble
• Friendly interrogation exercises with the spouse or squaddies - remember to agree on a safeword

The straps can be daisy-chained together for doubling or tripling the length. They also slip right into a column of PALS webbing so you can always keep a few of these handy.

Improved through details

So you have to tie stuff together. You've done it several times before, you're good at it, and it's not really a problem. Could the straps be improved? We believe so. Military-grade utility straps are already resistant to weather and UV radiation so that goes without saying.

It's elastic

The SoftTie Straps have stretch. Not like a rubber band or bungee cord: it takes a solid pull to see anything happen. As a result, you get a good pre-tension to make your gear stay put even on rocky roads.

When forced, the material stretches a scary amount and still returns to its original length. It takes stretching to four (4!) times the original length to break the strap.

It's leathery

The surface of the straps is just a wee bit tacky, but not at all sticky. It's not hard like plastic nor soft like silicone. It's just right: does not collect dust or fingerprints, yet provides high friction on smooth and rough surfaces. As a result, wear on the surface finish is reduced.

It holds true

We've all seen various webbing buckles slip when the strap wasn't quite tight enough and was subjected to stress cycles. The buckles on these stardust unicorn straps eliminate the problem with the oldest solution in the book: put a pokeable thing into a suitable hole. The buckle is shaped to press the excess strap neatly down.

"But the adjustment has steps in it, what if I don't find the right one?" -Shut up Glockilocks! The stretch allows you to reach the next hole if the previous wasn't quite tight enough.

Limitations

Yes, the good comes with a trade-off and you should not rush to get rid of your ordinary utility straps.

If you must carry the weight of an adult, the SoftTie will be too elastic for the job. Consider something like the Finnish M05 Utility Strap instead, they are probably ten times stronger for those utterly non-OSH-compliant stunts we sometimes must commit in the field.

It is also known in the state of Cancer to cause California, probably. We can't keep track of these anymore so better slap this warning on everything.