i don't know where this "fad" of carrying stuff around your neck came from but i carry everything in shirt pockets.i canoe and you have to lift the boat up onto your knees to flip it up on your shoulders.a Bic in a pants pocket hurts when it's pushed into a leg.
i don't even wear a watch on camping trips because i don't want to catch the band on a branch.i think the neck knives/stuff came by way of the fur trapper reenactors who wore a neck knife because the natives did that because they did not have a belt to carry a knife,or pants,or pockets to carry one.
try running with a bunch of stuff flapping around you neck.