Quick Start Guide
Bag Accessory: Universal, Retractable Shoulder Strap
Step 1
Attach the MouseStrap® to your bag, with snap-bolt trigger mechanisms — the sliding thumb posts — turned outward (recommended).
Step 2
Use the included quick link, if needed, to enable the retractor to sit level on top of your bag. In many — if not most — cases, it won’t be needed.
Step 3
Hold the bag down with one hand, if necessary, while deploying the strap with your other hand. Lighter bags will require this, while heavier bags won’t.
Step 4
Place your upturned, open hand under the shoulder pad. Keep your hand level, to avoid twisting the strap.
Step 5
Push the pad up the strap to deploy it. (It works best if you do it quickly – with authority!) As you push, you will draw the remaining strap out of the retractor. The weight of your bag should keep the strap extended.
Step 6
When setting the bag down, guide the shoulder pad with an upturned, level hand to a central landing spot. As you do so, the strap will slide through the pad and into the retractor.
MouseStrap® Usage Suggestions
There’s a little technique involved in using a MouseStrap®. Once you’ve learned it, it’ll become automatic. And, rest assured, it’s worth learning. Because, while using a MouseStrap® may not be as completely unconscious an act as grabbing an ordinary shoulder strap, the MouseStrap® will never be the kind of nuisance an ordinary strap is, either.
- Snap your MouseStrap® onto your favorite bag. Ideally, the retractor housing will sit level on top of your bag. If the housing is angled up, the attachment ring on the end of your bag is too far from the top of the bag, and you will need to use the included quick link to extend the “reach” of the D-ring snap bolt on the housing. Attach the quick link to the attachment ring on your bag, and then attach the snap bolt of the retractor housing to the quick link. Hopefully, this will allow the retractor housing to sit level on your bag.
- We suggest attaching the MouseStrap® to your bag in such a way that if you normally carry your bag on one side (of yourself) as opposed to the other, the retractor housing will be at the rear end of the bag. Of course, this is entirely up to you.
- To deploy the strap, gently hold down the bag with one hand – unless your bag is fairly heavy, in which case you won’t need to bother — and lift up on the shoulder pad with the other hand, sliding it up the strap.
- To raise the shoulder pad and pull out the strap in one smooth motion, we’ve found that it’s best to hold your hand palm-up under the shoulder pad, and sort of “push” the pad up the strap from the trailing end (of the pad). This seems to work better than holding your hand under the middle or leading part of the pad. And keeping your hand open and under the shoulder pad is better than wrapping it all the way around the pad, which will create enough friction to make for slow going.
- When you deploy the strap, try to keep your hand level under the shoulder pad. Raising the pad at an angle tends to make the strap twist or bunch up, which makes it harder for it to slide through the pad.
- Likewise, when setting your bag down, try to keep the shoulder pad level as you take if off your shoulder and lower it to the top of the bag, guiding it to a landing spot near the center of (the top of) the bag.