I have always been a Nalgene girl. I love the wide mouth that easily captures water from a fountain and the 32 oz capacity, which ensures that I have water for the long haul. But after losing my Nalgene then finding it then losing it again, I decided to go with a water bottle that would fit a standard cup holder. Enter the Klean Kanteen!
Most of the interweb agrees that the Klean Kanteen is one of the best bottles on the market. Stainless steel construction, easy to clean, and at 27 fl oz, it holds a good amount. For outdoorsy folks, the loop cap is perfect for a carabiner, and you can technically boil water in it since it's food grade steel. Cons? It obviously dents. If you have a colored one, the paint chips off eventually. And if you're like me, who loses or drops things, the cap is not attached to the bottle.
This last point really annoys me. A bottle without its cap is worthless, and a dirty cap inside your bottle makes the contents worthless. My favorite thing about my Nalgene was its lid attachment strap, so no matter what, I knew that my lid would never get lost (unless I lost the whole bottle, which I did...). With Klean Kanteens being so popular, I figured I could just buy another cap with a lid attachment or a strap.
After spending an hour tirelessly searching on Google (yes, it was that important to me), no such cap existed! People asked in forums whether the lid could be attached on the Klean Kanteen, but no answers. Well, I finally came across a Lifehacker article featuring ITS Tactical's DIY tutorial. With some thin paracord or string (I used mason twine), one can easily make any kind of "strap"!
Perhaps tying a few knots and making a strap out of string was pretty obvious, but this tutorial was a godsend for me (I hope I never tie another double fishermen's knot again). We'll see how this holds up!