I know there are lots of knockoff tourniquets out there on ebay/amazon etc and to be cautious in buying them.



I've got 4-6 CATs from NAR stocked away, and I've been thinking about getting another one to use to train others in how to use them.  


I just saw this on ebay and had a thought.

Obviously it is a knockoff and I wouldn't want to trust it to any lifesaving use, but would it work fine as a training tool?  I could buy 3 of these to train with instead of one real one.

Any thoughts, it might be a bad idea, but curious to your thoughts.

I bought a molle compatible tq holder from ebay that came with an obvious knock off. I took a sharpie and wrote trainer on it for exactly that purpose.

It saved me from sacrificing an authentic cat7 to be my trainer, and kind of sort of made the tq holder free.

My concerns would be:

#1 Would the operation be exactly the same as the real deal? If it's a good copy I don't see this being an issue, but you definitely want to practice & train with the same thing you would use to be at maximum effectiveness.

#2 Is there any chance the trainer could be mistaken for the real thing? Marking would be a good mitigation to this but you need to ensure the marking is prominent and permanent!

My agency has done it as a cost saving measure to maximize the numbers available for training large numbers of folks. It works if the counterfeits are really good and constructed similarly to what you are running. The CAT seems to have the best counterfeits available.  I haven’t seen or used any fake SOFT -Ts and we budgeted for actual for SOF-Ts trainers-as we issue them. Other folks were using and issuing CATs so we ordered up a bunch of fakes to train with kinda as an after thought  if we encounter them in the field. I have put several specific fake CATs  through the wringer over the years to the point I would use them in real life if I didn’t have my gear with me. , hard applications on mankins or people to the point of a loss of pulse, soaked in nasty ass fake blood still working. I run a separate Stop the Bleed Program within my agency and I run all real trainers CATs and SOF-Ts just cause I was able to budget for them and part of the program is insuring you are using genuine approved equipment.

I would not hesitate to train with the specific fakes we were using we color coded them for ID purposes. You actually shouldn’t be training with your EDC TQs Every application/deployment will give it just a little wear that will add up over time.

I wish they were blue knock-offs. I found some on ebay a while back but that seller doesn't have any right now (https://www.ebay.com/itm/273322748370).

My fellow TCCC instructors and I bought some ebay/amazon copies a while back and they all broke when pushed to the extreme but for training reps they would hold up. Given that most fake CAT's are actually "decent" copies (meaning in design), I wouldn't hesitate to train with them.

But absolutely spray paint them and mark them as much as possible as "training only".

How much training are you going to be providing to others?

The real ones we use at work last for years doing training.  My department trains thousands a year.

You will be ok breaking out a legit one to use for training.