High Quality, Hand made.
Having tried to make and use a sling before I thought I had some background. I first saw ads for the Pan sling and I was inspired to try again, but not inspired enough to buy one. I quickly whipped together a sling out of some paracord and a couple knots. I didn't follow any youtube tutorials because they generally fall under the category of "macrame" instead of a functional sling. I practiced and practiced slinging and couldn't really sling much farther than I could throw a stone bare handed. So I finally decided to order a sling.
My degree is in manufacturing; let me say that this was done the hard way. No short cuts are taken, as it is evident that care and attention we taken in the design of all the components. The materials cost alone isn't that much, but you're paying for thoughtful design and excellent craftmanship. There truly are no knots (unless you include the cracker), and everything has an excellent fit/finish. I don't even want to think about the effort involved in the splices into what appears to be paracord. Small things like the little pan being held in place by a compliant mechanism, the consistent melt finish on the string ends, or the little leather protector at the eye splice show great attention to detail. With the cracker installed It took me about an hour to match my best hand throwing distance. Add another hour to get semi-consistent launches. The stiffness and snap provide good feedback and did a lot more to improve my form than my "string with knots".
You can absolutely get into slings on a (literal) shoestring budget, and at some point everyone should try making their own. The Pan sling, however, saves a bunch of time and helps with likelihood of success, making it worth the premium.
My personal recommendation for practice projectiles are foam practice golf balls, they're a little more dense than the included training ball and illustrate curve very well.
If you've read this review completely, and you have the disposable income to afford this. You'd benefit from adding this to your cart.