Whippa Wollemi Removable Hipbelt Pocket Review

Overview

The Wollemi Removable Hipbelt Pocket is a purpose-built accessory pocket from the Australian pack maker Whippa (made by Summit Gear in Katoomba, NSW), designed to snap onto the hipbelt of the Wollemi 90 Ultralight Expedition Pack. It’s aimed at Wollemi owners who want quick-access storage for a phone, snacks, or other small items without digging into the main pack — and it’s worth noting that the hip-belt pockets on the Wollemi are removable, and stock standard the pack doesn’t come with pockets included, so you have to add at least one separately.

Key Specs

Spec	Detail
Weight	35.0 g (single pocket)
Materials	UltraStretch and UltraGrid
Handedness	Left or right hand versions available
Attachment	Slides onto hipbelt, secures with hook-and-loop (velcro)
Compatible pack	Whippa Wollemi 90 Ultralight
Price	~$36 AUD

Performance

This is a small, single-purpose accessory, so there isn’t a deep well of independent long-term reviews to draw from — most of what’s out there comes from the manufacturer’s own listings and a couple of gear-magazine writeups of the Wollemi pack itself. But there’s enough consistent detail to get a good read on how it performs.

Fit and capacity. The pocket is large enough for the biggest smartphone plus any snacks you require on the way, which tracks with how most hipbelt pockets in this category are sized — think “phone plus a bar or two,” not “phone plus a water bottle.” One reviewer who tested the full Wollemi 90 setup specifically called out the hipbelt pockets as huge, and said he loved them, which is a good sign if you’ve been burned by the cramped, barely-fits-a-phone pockets that ship with some other ultralight packs.

Attachment and security. Installation is straightforward: you slide it onto the hipbelt and velcro it into place. That’s about as simple as it gets, and it means you can move the pocket between left and right sides or take it off entirely when you don’t need it — useful if you’re doing a lighter resupply stretch and want to shed every gram you can. The tradeoff with any velcro-and-slide attachment system is that it’s only as secure as the hook-and-loop patch itself; over hundreds of miles of hipbelt friction and repeated on/off cycles, velcro can eventually lose some grip. I haven’t seen long-term durability data on this specific pocket’s velcro, so treat that as a general category caveat rather than a confirmed issue with this product.

Materials and durability. This is where the pocket punches above its weight class. It’s built from the same UltraStretch and UltraGrid fabrics used elsewhere on the Wollemi, and one detailed pack review noted that UltraStretch is a 4-way stretch mesh woven with UHMWPE fibers so tough that a factory auto-cutting machine couldn’t cut it — it had to be hand-cut with carbon shears. That’s a genuinely unusual level of overbuilt toughness for something as small as a hipbelt pocket, and it suggests this thing will outlast the abrasion and snagging that typically kills stretch-mesh pockets on brush-heavy trails.

Weight. At 35g for a single pocket, this is competitive with — and in some cases lighter than — comparable accessory pockets from other UL pack makers. For reference, the same pack reviewer weighed a pair of these pockets at 52g as tested, which lines up reasonably well with two 35g single units accounting for minor packaging/hardware variance.

Compatibility. The obvious limitation is that this pocket is designed specifically for the Wollemi’s hipbelt geometry. If you don’t own a Wollemi 90, this isn’t going to be a universal add-on — it’s a companion accessory, not a standalone product.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Genuinely tough UHMWPE-reinforced fabric — built well beyond what you’d expect for the weight
• Large enough capacity for a big phone plus snacks, unlike some undersized stock hipbelt pockets
• Simple slide-and-velcro attachment, easy to remove or relocate side-to-side
• Low weight penalty (35g) for meaningfully more accessible storage
• Left/right-handed options let you dial in your setup based on dominant hand or pole/camera habits

Cons:

• Only fits the Whippa Wollemi 90 — no cross-compatibility with other packs
• Velcro attachment is convenient but a known weak point for long-term security on other packs; no independent long-haul durability data available yet for this specific pocket
• Sold separately as an add-on, which stings a bit given it’s arguably a core feature most buyers will want
• Very little independent, hands-on user feedback exists yet (mostly manufacturer copy and brief mentions in pack reviews)

Who Should Buy This

This is a near-mandatory add-on for anyone who’s already bought or is planning to buy the Whippa Wollemi 90. Given that the pack ships without hipbelt pockets and you’d be crazy not to add at least one, most Wollemi owners doing multi-day or expedition-length trips will want at least one of these for quick access to snacks, a phone, or a headlamp without breaking stride. If you don’t own a Wollemi, this isn’t relevant to you — look at your own pack’s compatible accessory pockets instead.

Verdict

For Wollemi 90 owners, this is an easy, low-weight upgrade that solves a real gap in the stock pack — quick-access storage — using surprisingly burly materials for something this light. I’d call it a 7.5/10: excellent build quality and sensible design, docked slightly for being sold separately and for the lack of independent long-term wear reports on the velcro attachment. If you’re running a Wollemi, just buy one (or two).