Tether restraints - suspension kit by Cal Exotics - review by Fanny

These leopard print tethers are sure to spice up your sex life. (That's if it's not TOO spicy already!) These inexpensive, slightly flashy, velvety cuffs are a great addition to a growing sex toy collection. They're a very good beginners BDSM product, but definitely not made for any kind of advanced BDSM. The set comes with four tethers. This means that you can cuff both wrists and ankles! I really like that it comes with four tethers. For such a cheap set, this surprised me! There are many cuff products out there that cost much more and only come with two!

The structure of the tether is pretty basic. It's essentially a cuff with a long strap attached to it. These tethers are made out of relatively cheap materials. The fabric is a faux fur. They have a sort of cheap velvety feeling, but are relatively soft. While the touch of the fabric is pretty soft, the fabric itself is kind of stiff, but not in an uncomfortable way. The cuffs are held on by around 6 1/2" of velcro to ensure that they won't come undone during play. The cuff itself seems pretty well constructed and feels pretty solid. It isn't padded, but soft enough that it isn't uncomfortable. The part that I'm a little worried about is the place where the strap for tying to furniture/bedposts connects to the cuff itself. The strap is only about an inch thick, and the seam that connects it to the cuffs seems strong, but since it's so thin I feel like it could weaken over time. The hardware on the cuff is a little piece of plastic through which you loop one end of the cuff and then velcro it shut. The plastic seems strong enough, and I'm not too concerned about it breaking.

The strap is about 45" long. It doesn't have any hardware/cuff on the end of it to attach it to furniture. We just tied a knot in it, and it seemed to hold alright. The friction of the fuzzy fabric seems to hold the knots very well. Overtime, I suspect that tying the fabric in tight knots will wear the faux fur eventually. The 45" was more than sufficiently long for restraining both arms and legs and tying to the bedposts/footboard. It gives you some flexibility as to how tight/slack you'd like the restraints to be.

The most important question I ask myself when writing a review for a toy is, "Does the toy do what it's supposed to do?" These restraints definitely do. As an inexpensive restraining system for light BDSM play, they're simple to use, hassle free, and they work perfectly well. The fabric was soft on my wrists, and didn't irritate or pull at my skin in an uncomfortable way. The hard plastic part doesn't actually contact your skin and is located in a spot where it doesn't dig into your wrist. The velcro makes it really easy to change the size of the cuffs and make for easy/quick removal. I have very small wrists, but these cuffs could fit a range of people. I imagine that they would fit most people's wrists and ankles with no problem.

The 45" strap makes these tethers very versatile. Not only can you tie them to furniture or bed posts, but you can also tie them to each other! I'm not sure that they're strong enough for hog tying or that sort of thing, but you can create a pair of make shift hand cuffs for sure! You could also tie them together in a large knot and then throw the knot over the top of a door and shut it to cuff someone while standing! Be creative! (But safe!)

During play, they felt pretty sturdy and comfortable. For light bondage, they worked wonderfully. Keep in mind though, that they're relatively inexpensively made, which makes them inappropriate and perhaps dangerous for advanced BDSM or suspension play.

These things can roll up and store very easily. They come in a box with not much other packaging, so the box is not great for extended storage. I just rolled them up and stuffed them in a small drawstring bag. There aren't any instructions in the box and it doesn't say anything anywhere about cleaning. I haven't yet tried to clean the tethers yet. I might try and toss them in the washer with some towels I don't care about. Overall, this kind of thing usually doesn't get TOO messy during play, so I'm not too worried about cleaning yet. If things get dirty, I usually just wipe them down with wet-wipes and they're fine!