Caffeinated Acrobat straps are made by a straps artist with safety, grip, and comfort as the priorities, and it shows. I trust them quite a lot, find them versatile, and still quite comfy (but not as comfy as some of the microsuede/velvet makes).
Total scores
Price: 7.5
Comfort: 7.5-8
Safety: 9.5
Versatility: 8.5-9.5
Customer Service: 9.5
Cleanability: 9
Aesthetics: 7.5
TLDR: Overall, these are good straps that I’d recommend for higher level straps artists putting a lot of use on their straps who want to have confidence in the quality of the straps they are using for dynamic skills, drops, etc.
Okay, now let’s get into the details
Price: 7.5 – at $311 USD plus shipping these are in the upper-middle of range of prices so a bit pricier, BUT you’re getting straps that have a shelf life of 3 years compared to most other straps shelf lives of 2 years. It’s on par with other Australian straps producers like Habitat Circus, but what seems to be higher quality stitching and materials used.
Comfort: 7.5-8 these are comfier than Alexander straps (covering those soon) but less soft/comfy than Habitat or Lyon (in terms of the cover/sheath). The straps were built by someone with slightly larger hands and so the strap width + keepers are made for a larger hand size. The larger keepers might be an aspect that folks with much smaller hands don’t like as it can be hard to hold it in your hand at the full amount of finger closing grip. For reference, I have somewhat small hands for someone who is 6′ tall.
The width of the straps made them less slicey for rolling/c-shaping/etc, and the diffuse the total pressure on the wrist and carpal tunnel (as opposed to the thinness of Lyon Straps, which gave me finger numbness for the first time in ages).
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Safety: 9.5 – These straps are made with high quality dyneema stitching, and a Nomex tubular twill webbing outer in black and white (dyable upon request), for superior abrasion resistance, grip, and softness. The core is UHMWPE (ultra high molecular weight polyethylene) core for optimal tensile strength. UHMWPE was selected for its extreme strength, allowing for thinner designs that still exceed the desired strength for a set of aerial straps.
I’d give them a 10, but I just don’t have enough long-term data yet to mark them as perfectly safe all the time. He has break-tested all of the different models below, and look at those numbers!
.Versatility: 8.5-9 – these are a range because it depends on your hand-size and preference for thin/wider straps. That said, I did some pretty high level dynamics and rolling on them, and overall they were pretty versatile. While they’re not a soft as Habitat, they felt pretty good to roll on, and I’d trust them more for dynamics than Habitat. In terms of gripping the straps above the handloops, they’re much easier to grip than something like Lyon or Habitat due to the increased friction and width of the straps.
Customer Service: 9.5 – they’re made by a straps artist with a goal of making straps that are safe, grippable, and comfortable. Tim is invested in making the best product he can, and is open to feedback (and he also acknowledges that there is no one right pair of straps for everyone!).
Cleanability: 9 – Tim recommends handwashing using soap flakes or a similar gentle detergent and air drying for a deep clean, otherwise a small amount of isopropyl alcohol to clean small spots.
Aesthetics: 7.5 – getting a solid dye to stick in the Nomex is tough, but that’s the trade off you get with this level of safety and durability compared to other straps.
Overall, these are good straps that I’d recommend for higher level straps artists putting a lot of use on their straps who want to have confidence in the quality of the straps they are using for dynamic skills, drops, etc.