I’m talking about the ubiquitous plastic clips or buckles that are closures on a lot of back-packs, camera cases or anything else that is a function over form kind of design. There is a female piece and a male piece and the male piece can be pushed into the female piece and has two prongs, one on each side or edge, that have to be squeezed together for removal or extraction. Is there a proper, technical name for these things so that I can search for them easily online? Thanks
Plastic side release buckle.
Yes! Thank you so much. I had absolutely no idea but I’ve been using them for 40-some years.
Fastex is the trade name for the buckle.
Much like Kleenex, I’ve always called any version of those a Fastex buckle.
They’re also used with a “safety belt” for the kiddie seats on grocery carts.
It’s funny but, despite the fact that they’re everywhere and I’ve got them on a variety of things (I’ve even bought them and nylon webbing to make utility straps for my bikes), I’m not sure that I’ve actually called them anything.
Yeah, they kind of popped onto the equipment scene overnight, and then they were used everywhere metal buckles used to reign. I liked them at first, but they tend to become very brittle with age and the prongs break, especially in cold temperatures.
No, the trade name is Side Release Buckle, the company that makes them is (ITW) Fastex.
I’ve always heard them referred to as parachute clips. No clue as to why.
I have a tendency to remember useless trivia, and I remember the first time I saw them, in 1983, when one of my colleagues was showing me a new backpack and the new cool clips on it.
I guess it depends on the make as well as I’ve experienced the opposite; after 20 years of cycling (including - 20 C winter riding) I experienced prong breakage on a set of Ortlieb panniers. Ortlieb gear is basically bomb-proof so I suspect that they source better equipment.
JoAnn Fabrics stores call them “parachute buckles.”
Hmm; my bicycle messenger bag has a metal buckle but it looks exactly like a seat-belt buckle: a thick metal tongue with a hole in it, and a female buckle with a spring-loaded button you have to press to release. There is nothing that can conceivably “break off”.
ETA: OK, that is just the strap, though. The flap has a couple of Fastex buckles which are 100% plastic, albeit they are relatively large buckles and the plastic is pretty tough.
I used to work in a shop that made a lot of different plastic side release buckles.
We made buckles for all kinds of cool stuff: military bags, pet collars, fireman’s helmets, and more.
A lot of the molds had an insert with a brand name in the center of the buckle, so we swap out different inserts to make several brand names with one mold.
If you look at a plastic buckle with no branding on the face, there’s a good chance you will see a rectangular outline in the center. This is just a blank insert.
I still see buckles I used to make. I most recently saw one of my old buckles on a soft Yeti cooler. It was a generic buckle, no branding, and I was surprised that Yeti had cheaped out on it. Strong material though.