The shoulder strap that came with my Olympus camera was a turd.

To connect it, you had to thread the strap’s ends through the hooks on the sides of the camera. It wasn’t meant to connect and disconnect on a regular basis.

Once attached, even at it’s longest, the strap was just long enough to hold the camera around my neck and in front of both my shoulders, helping me complete my New York tourist motif perfectly.

I considered how I expected to use my camera, and decided that I wanted a wrist strap as the main strap. I ordered a leather strap from Gordy’s and it was fantastic.

Each strap from Gordy’s is custom made with your choice of colors for the leather and twine. I ordered a dark brown leather strap with red leather twine.

The strap hooks on to the camera’s lug mount using a keychain ring. And, like the shoulder strap that came with the camera, Gordy’s straps are not meant to be connected and disconnected.

After a few more months of use, I still wasn’t completely satisfied. Most of the time I was glad to have the wrist strap attached. However, there were regular times when I wished I had a shoulder strap instead.

And, through the summer months when I was often going out to the park or the city with family and friends, I was taking my camera with me. But I wasn’t wearing a big coat with pockets that could hold the camera — I needed a shoulder strap in those situations.

Basically, I needed a shoulder strap and a wrist strap that could each be connected and disconnected easily.

Since I already had a standard black sling from DSPTCH, I got an olive wrist strap to replace my leather Gordy’s strap.

I’ve been using both of the DSPTCH straps for quite a while now and they are fantastic. The build quality and materials used are just great; they are comfortable; and DSPTCH uses interchangeable connectors to attach their straps to the camera’s lug mounts. This makes it easy to connect and disconnect the shoulder strap and the wrist strap — swapping them out takes about 20 seconds, and the connection is quite strong.

The wrist strap is made of military-grade nylon cord (the same kind they use for parachutes), braided, and with a steel clip that slides on one end, tightening the strap via the weight of the camera.

The sling is adjustable up to 4 feet. I have it just the right length so I can hang the the camera over one shoulder and then around and across my body. It’s long enough that I can then lift the camera up to eye level and shoot without having to readjust the strap or bring one arm though the loop.

Getting the two straps from DSPTCH runs about $80. Not a bad deal considering their usefulness, quality, and versatility. Definitely recommended.