Normally, you don’t hear lengthy descriptions about the seemingly mundane rings that attach your camera strap, but there’s a little bit of a story behind these, so here goes: When we started development on our F1 Series camera straps, we were shocked at how difficult it was to find strong, round, smooth split rings.

All of the US-made rings we tested were strong — but had jagged, angled ends. That’s because US split ring production is aimed at the fishing tackle industry, where angled ends make them easier to thread onto fishing line and lures … Not great for camera straps though.

Most of the imported rings we tested had nice smooth ends, but failed our strength tests miserably (yes — we test everything). Some of the “strong” imported split rings failed at under 20lbs (9.1kg) … Not good!

We weren’t content to settle for either, so we developed our own — and after many months of prototyping, we’re happy to report they tick all the boxes: strong, smooth, and made to the highest tolerances in USA.