Great responses over Eotac Womens pants
We have been waiting for the Eotac womens pants for almost a year. We expected them to arrive in June of 2009, but there were production delays which we suspect we’re due to re-design changes. Later we were expecting them in the Fall of 2009, but once again, there were shipping delays. We’ve been holding backorders for the Style 702 pants and just got around to fullfilling the orders in April of 2010 and we were crossing out fingers that the design would be well accepted. When the tactical pants first arrived, we shipped a lot of them out to associates as beta testers to see what there opinions were before we started stocking the product. We have carried other brands of womens pants in the past, but we dropped them because statistically speaking, the return and complaints about them were about 85% complaints about fit and sizing. You may think that is a really bad stat, and it certainly is, but desigining womens tactical pants are much harder than designing mens.
Eotac has the connectios in the manufacturing industry to bring in the right people that know tactical, and know how to make products for women. As of today, we have not had one single return where women could not wear these pants, we have had a few that had to return the pants for differernt sizes. The production for the Style 701 womens tactical pants is still ramping up so there may be some shortages in certain sizes and colors, but we defanitely have a winner here when it comes to the product line. Overall, the demand for the Eotac tactical pants has far exceeded the production capabilites at this time, so please keep in mind that this is something you need to jump on now before there is a 6-9 month gap in our inventory. We recently sponsored a Ladies shoot at the Langhorne Rod and Gun Club and the top 3 scorers each received a pair of Style 702 womens pants. The responses we got were great and we’re waiting for them to get more range time in and tell us how they held up.
Next week there will be a Police and Security Expo in Atlantic City, New Jersey and Eotac will displaying some of their A-Tacs and Direct Action products. We’re still not sure about everything that Eotac has coming out this Fall and in 2011, but seeing some of the info about what is coming soon really makes us think that 5.11 Tactical is going to have some real compeition out there. I can’t tell you the number of times we’ve had customers call us up and complain about the tactical pants that they have been wearing from 5.11. Many of them complain about how things use to be and how they end up with different sizing even though they keep ordering the same sizes. I was checking out some of the 5.11 tactical shirts that were the Covert carry design and I may pick up a few, but I personally think the Woolrich Elite CCW shirts are a much better feel. Even though we are very selective about the products we carry, I’d have to admit that every big name manufacturer has a niche market that some of their products perform very well in.
Elite Operator Tactical came out with a new tactical shirt a few months ago and although we like to test products out for a few months before we become too critical about them, we defanitely got a winner here. The Eotac style 410 Shooting Sports Polo is made of a 100% polyester material and is excellent for breath-a-bility. It’s been getting up in the 90F temps here in Virginia and it’s time to clear out the Spring weather clothing and get into summer gear. The Style 405 feel slightly lighter weight than some of the Woolrich Elite Series Polos I have worn in the past. We all have different styles and needs when it comes to what we want to wear, but I’d have to admit that the Polos I wore in the past were extremely hot and I could absolutely not wear them in 85F temps comfortable.
Most handguns blow holes in targets, a good .223 Carbine with a fragmenting bullet is going to tear up a BG. I strongly suggest putting a white light on any carbine just incase you need it to identify a target. Many of the people we see on the training courses always think that handguns are for home defense and never really thought too much about keeping a Carbine available. You may have some problems finding a safe to lock up your rifle, but there are things you can do to keep it away from children and still have quick access. One of the most common things we still see with new operators is dropped gear. Guys show up with holsters for sidearms that don’t retain the firearms, and spare pistol mags end up sitting somewhere in midrange after a quick running scenario. The first time I wore a pair of Style 201 pants, I loaded up 6-30rd AR mags and ran around the neighborhood. I wanted to see if the lightweight material secured the mags in place. I was blown away at how well they were secured and I didn’t feel lop sided if I ran. The Style 201 pants are now available in Digital camo and coming later this fall they will be available in the new Direct Action A-Tacs pattern.
Nothing beats a good brick and mortar store that stocks tactical clothing, but there aren’t too many of those out there. Makes sure you do some research on clothing sizing and look at the sizing guides closely. To avoid wasting money on shipping and return shipping charges, you may want to break out a tape measure and measure yourself. Comparing one clothing line to another is a no, no, since not everyone follows the same standards. The Eotac tactical pants have an elastic wasteband which will give you some flexibility in waist sizing. Keep in mind that when you measure yourself, you should be measuring with the gun inside your waist if you carry IWB. We have a great many of sizing issues when people order The Wilderness belts. These tactical belts are hands down the best configuration for carrying firearms around, but the sizing can be tricky.
We’ve been selling Woolrich Elite clothing since the beginning and have seen the changes in the tactical pants market over the last 5 years. One thing we have noticed is the tactical pants sales change like the seasons do. Our customer base knows that certain types of clothing just can’t be worth in hot climates, but for working in other environments, lightweight material just won’t hold up to the heavy use, and won’t shrink as much. We get a lot of people calling or emailing us about whether or not the clothing shrinks, and they answer to that is not as bad as some of the other apparel companies that have been on the market for almost 10yrs. We still don’t understand why some of these companies haven’t cleaned up their quality control.
For those of us living in the part of the Country where we get all 4 Seasons of weather, our concealment options usually will change atleast 2 times a year. There are enormous numbers of ways you can conceal a weapon, but for those of us that carry full size weapons, the warmer the weather the fewer the options. I carry a full size Beretta 92F while at work and one of my favorite ways of carrying this firearm is in a Fobus paddle holster. For only about $20, I’ve gotten more than my moneys worth and have never broken the holster. I’d have to say that if I was rolling around in the dirt I would defanitely prefer to have a Serpa holster.
The lightweight 100% cotton ripstop pants are very comfortable, but in 90F+ weather I’m always going to go with shorts even if they are made of heavy material. Protecting your legs from bug bites is also something to consider when wearing shorts and clearing out woodlands because you never know what is going to be swarming around you when you start sweating up a storm. There are some bug repellents that can be worn on a belt, but with the work I will be doing, I prever to bring a spray bottle with me and store it on the cargo pockets. Since I am also always carrying flashlights, radios, guns and other items, not having enough pockets means putting more on the belt line. I find wearing too much on the belt being a real pain when having to do a lot of lifting so just about everything except my Glock 26 is stored in my Woolrich Elite Pants.
If you are looking to carry mace or pepper spray, I would absolutely have to urge you to do some research on the Kimber Guardian Angels also known as the Life Act. At first you might get sticker shock, and I think you may want to consider buying 2 of them and test firing 1 of them before you really get comfortable carrying one. I’ve earned my merit badges in seeing evil in the world I know walking around with the smallest pepper spray bottle to fend off a potential rapist, robber, or worse isn’t going to give you much of an edge. There are many reasons to consider carrying a less lethal defensive measure. You can blast someone with something like this without much of a worry about legal ramifications. I’ve seen pepper spray used against 0bnoxious drunks which in my opinion were justified.