When we first started bringing in all of these various Outer Carriers from 5.11 Tactical, Voodoo Tactical, Armor Express and Condor,  it was amazing to have to learn all of the pros and cons of each vest.  We sometimes just bring in something different and throw it up on a wall and see what our customers have to say about it.  One thing we’ve learned is price points matter.  Most of our customer base don’t seem to want to spend more than $230 on them and Tactical Tailor is about as high as we go with our present customers.  The Special Ops guys tell me a lot about London Bridge carriers and love them but they start around $300 on up to well over $1000.

Condor is considered entry level but we’ve outfitted more than a few Law Enforcement with them, many in this market have the vests in their patrol vehicle for the “what ifs” that their departments make mandatory. If you don’t need ballistic plates these carriers make nice molle vests.  There’s nothing wrong with spending money on these but if you are going to be loading them up with tons of full molle pouches don’t expect to have them last as long as products made my Armor Express or London Bridge.   We have gotten negative feedback about AR500 side plate fits on some of the Condor Plate carriers like the Operator II, and even the Banshee (made by shellback)  it seems that the the AR500 paxon build up makes the plates thicker and they just barely fit.  Do you really need side plates? We contacted AR500 Armor about this and they informed us that they are no longer selling the Banshee Carriers with the side panels and are now making their own custom redesign for another $35.  That puts the Banshee close to $200.  We’re moving towards stocking Armor Express ceramic plates and Armor Express Outer Carriers since they seem to be at another tier.