A quest for the perfect water bottle belt, Part 4

Nathan Elite 1 Plus

Fri, Dec  2, 2011 - By Mike Muha

There was one word for it: sexy. The Nathan Elite 1 Plus looks really cool. At first glance, it has lots of nifty features: angled and insulated holster, water bottle, pocket, gel flask and holder, and shock cord to hold loose ends. Is this it? Have I finally found the perfect water bottle belt? 

Nathan Sports Elite 1 Plus Water Bottle Belt

Belt management system

The Elite 1 Plus has a similar but better designed belt management system than the Ultimate Directions Access Gel. You still roll the excess belt, but then use a Velcro tie to keep it in place. Quite effective.

Gel flask and holder

Also like the Access Gel, the Elite 1 Plus has a horizontally placed gel flask holder and 5 oz. flask. The big difference: there's a stretch loop that you pull over the flask to keep it from falling out of the  holder. Score 1 for Nathan Sports! The flask is not going anywhere until you unclip it.

The flask itself is perfectly fine. The yellow top is made of soft plastic which may be nice on the mouth, but I found it more difficult to push back down after a feed.

The pocket

The pocket wraps itself around the holster. Looks cool. Doesn't hold much. In fact, I could barely get it to hold two tins of wax. Your iPhone and Droid are not going to fit. At all. Even if the pocket is otherwise empty.

The pocket does have a key clip. I'd suggest keeping a single key on it so you have room for anything else.

The pockets are perfectly adequate for skating, running and rollerkiing where you don't need to carry wax (or phone or camera).

You might notice that the zipper has nothing to hold onto. There was a short loop of cord, the ends inserted into a plastic pull clip, but the ends pulled out in the first week. I still have the cord...somewhere. I think in my car...maybe. If I can just find it, maybe I can use a little epoxy to glue the end back into the clip.

Shock Cord

The shock cord turns out to be pretty handy. It's great for storing a ski vest or light shell after warming up. I've even tried it to hold a cork and my cell phone...but was always checking to verify I hadn't lost them.

If you look closely at the middle picture, you may be able to tell that one end of the cord has pulled loose from the clip. It pulled out the first time I pulled on it. Nathan Sports needs to use better glue.

The water bottle

The 22 oz water bottle is standard size but has a finger loop and the same soft mouth piece as the gel flask. I don't like the mouth piece - It's harder to close than a regular bottle. I don't really need the finger loop (with quick release clip) since I don't plan to attach it to a pack. I still use it, occasionally, when all my other bottles are dirty. But it looks cool!

The holster

The bottle slips in and out fairly easily. And you can rotate the belt forward easily enough to access the pocket.

Decent belt for the skier that travels light. I'd use this for a skate marathon anytime. Classic skiers out for a long ski may want to look elsewhere. Keep some epoxy around to fix the various cords...