From Dave Sinclair, CERT Coordinator/Trainer:

“There are many different types and brands of tourniquets available. While the genuine C-A-T Generation 7 made by North American Rescue is the one recommended by the Stop the Bleed program, it certainly isn’t the only tourniquet on the market that works. There are less expensive, name brand models which work just as well. There are multiple YouTube videos comparing different brands, though it seems prudent to utilize these videos to see the difference between brands rather than to take someone’s opinion of which one is best, which is the purely subjective view of some guy with a video camera.

Another consideration is price. While most would agree that buying the cheapest tourniquets is probably not the best item to trim your first aid supply budget with, not everybody can afford to go buy $30 models either, at least not more than one.

Amazon has lots of different tourniquets, but the choices can be confusing, and not all offerings that represent themselves as C-A-T tourniquets are actually the real deal.

I guess what it boils down to is doing the research and due diligence, and then going with the one you think is the best one for your needs and budget. Maybe buying one and checking it out before committing to a specific brand. It’s probably a safe bet that any of the brand name products will work just fine. I was pretty impressed with the Recon Medical Gen 3 ones that I saw on Amazon. They have a lifetime guarantee and run about half of what a real C-A-T costs. But again, I think I’ll buy one and check it out before I make a choice. I saw a couple of sites that offer the real C-A-T for about $24, but shipping might wind up making it a wash.

There’s no doubt that C-A-T is a superior brand, but I don’t think I can bring myself to say that people HAVE to buy that one or else they’re just not doing the right thing."