Why I Designed the Holster Lock: From Zip Ties to a Purpose-Built Solution

Roughly 10 years ago, I was introduced to the Spider Holster.

Back then, these holsters were primarily designed to keep cameras secured to your belt under what I would consider fairly normal conditions. The conditions I put mine through were a little different.

I was using it to carry scaffold tools while climbing around steel structures in temperatures ranging from -40°C to +35°C, through dirt, dust, rain and snow.

The holster itself worked incredibly well for carrying tools, but I kept running into one problem: a hard snag against a steel beam or other structure could bend the belt clip open and leave it permanently deformed.

My original solution was simple: zip-tie the holster to my belt and hammer the clip back down every once in a while.

It wasn't pretty, but it worked.

And I used that solution for years.

Ten Years Later, the Same Problem Came Back

Earlier this year, I ended up working with the same guy who originally introduced me to Spider Holsters.

He was still trying to convince other tradespeople to make the switch—and so was I. I genuinely love these things. They're lightweight, simple and much more convenient than carrying certain tools in a traditional pouch, especially with tool tethers.

Our employer even happened to be handing Spider Pro Tool Holsters out at the tool crib.

But as more people started using them, I kept seeing a familiar problem.

Someone would catch their tool on something while moving around the scaffold, the holster would take a hard pull, and eventually the belt clip would open far enough that the holster could come off with the tool still attached.

I showed a few coworkers my old zip-tie solution.

Nobody seemed particularly interested.

I couldn't really blame them.

There Had to Be a Better Way

That's when I decided to make something that didn't look improvised.

I wanted a solution that looked intentional—almost like it had been part of the holster from the beginning.

More importantly, it had to survive actual industrial use.

That meant climbing, crawling, snagging tools on steel, working in extreme temperatures and generally putting it through the kind of abuse that happens during a normal day of scaffolding.

After taking measurements and making a handful of small adjustments, I came up with the Holster Lock.

I eventually designed two versions: one for the older-style Spider Holster and another for the Spider Pro Tool Holster.

And unlike the zip ties, these actually got my coworkers interested.

Testing It in the Real World

I've now tested the Holster Locks on both the regular and Pro holsters, and so far they've held up extremely well.

Testing hasn't been completely uneventful, either.

During one particularly hard snag with my spanner wrench, the slide-on version of the regular Holster Lock was pulled off. The lock itself wasn't too damaged and could be reinstalled and used again, but after that I decided to switch to the bolt-in version for my own setup.

That's part of the reason I test the things I design at work instead of assuming they'll perform the way they do on a computer screen.

So far, the bolt-in Holster Lock and Pro Tool Holster Lock have stayed exactly where I want it.

From two zip ties wrapped around a belt clip to a purpose-built part that I now use every day, the Holster Lock is a pretty good example of why I started designing products in the first place:

Find an annoying little problem, build a better solution, and then put it to work.