All posts tagged 24/7 pants

Lots of Turmoil in the clothing business

We have just got word that their were riots in the Apple factory in China and another one of our product lines is having trouble getting stuff made over there because of some of the flooding.  What the heck is going  on with that place?  Everyone seems to think we have to tip  toe  with China because they own so  much of our debt that they can pull the rug out from  under us.   The truth of the matter is we actually still own them.  They won’t get anything out of us if we go down and right  now they are actually having the rug pulled out from under them.   We are at a total of 4 of our major product lines has pulled out of Chinese manufacturing beacuse of the labor costs and price increase on raw products.

I have no idea what is going on with the clothing industry.  We have done some really big promos with Tru Spec and Blackhawk products as well as the Woolrich Elite tactical pants  product line and we’re under the impression they are all having some issues.  We are testing out some of the new products form Tru Spec this summer because one of our favorite clothing makers, Woolrich Elite isn’t making the 44905 shorts at the moment and that is something that really concerns us.

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Tactical pants you won’t have to iron

The complaint we’ve gotten from some of our Law Enforcement officers that were trying out the Woolrich Elite pants and the Eotac did not like the fact that the 100% cotton rip stop pants had to be ironed if you did not take them out of the dryer fast enough.  We thought that was a non-issue in the beginning but more and more people have voiced it.  Since so many people out there have worn 5.11 tactical clothing in the past, just about everyone in the tactical shirt, tactical pants and other apparel get compared to 5.11.

We have 5 weeks left of the Tru Spec tactical clothing promo running and if you wore or are wearing 5.11 tactical clothing you really should check out these Tru Spec 24/7 pants.   The Tru Spec tactical pants that are a 65%/35% poly cotton rip stop are a lower maintenance pants that don’t look too bad either.   These tactical pants are probable less tactical and more ccw friendly since they have the knife and flashlight pockets already designed into them.

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Summer and Spring options and the transition from tactical pants

We sell a lot of clothing via our online webstore and now that we have a retail location here in Pennsylvania we have people driving 2-3 hours just to try on some of the products we sell.  In 2011 we some of the most turmoil we have ever seen in the production of tactical clothing, we saw Eotac fall off the face of the earth, price increase,  companies leaving China and long waits to get in new production clothing.   We have heard from many of our customers that anything over $40 for a pair of pants is too much, but with inflation, it’s hard to stay under that unless you want to buy the failed tactical product lines.

Last Summer we were surprised to see how much the Blackhawk Lightweight pants sold and after trying them out for ourselves, we were kind of surprised people liked them so much.  Although these tactical pants seem to be made well, the fit on them just seemed too restrictive and several of our employees told us that they liked the Eotac, Woolrich Elite and TruSpec tactical pants the most.   Every style of   pants has a different appeal, but the hardest thing to do is to carry all of your gear in your tactical shorts that you were wearing with your pants.   The Woolrich Elite 44905 shorts

 

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Movement and fit with tactical pants

Although I might blog about tactical clothing for the majority of the time, I’m really not a big fan of the whole industry.   If you want concealment, putting the name Blackhawk or 5.11 on your clothing falls under the category of “Not Really” if you want to be running stealth operations.  I’ve seen enough drug busts go down that anyone working in Narcotics knows this.   I’ve often been impressed by the types and looks of some of the people that run Narcotics operations in Philadelphia and how good they are at tricking the bad guys.  Sometimes the guys running behind the scenes sitting in cars get to wear the tactical clothing, but not the front men.

Normally the guys doing the fence jumping are the hardest to impress.   Those are the guys that call up a day after the wore the clothing and tell us they blew out the tactical pants.   I must have worn about 20 different types of pants in the last 4hrs trying to find something that fits me right from my personal experience, movement is something that is really important to me.  The  number one place guys blow out pants is at the gun range.   As soon as they kneel down on the ground they’ll know what the fit and flexibility is.   What is claimed as tactical might be all about the looks and pocket designs, but they may not operate with the operator.

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Changes in weather changes in clothing

In 2012 you can be sure there will be some pretty big changes in the tactical clothing market.   I expect there will be a few people fall to the way side because there are still production issues with making clothing in China and the economy isn’t getting any better.   Lots of police and government workers are losing their jobs and that will eventually affect the people that supply them.   Locally there were huge layoffs in the Trenton and Camden area and for the first time we saw unemployed cops.

Now that things are really getting tight, if you are looking for some really good deals please take a look at some of the great deals we have on clothing.   There are some really good Tru-Spec, Woolrich Elite and Eotac tactical pants on clearance and on sale.  We have a significant amount of the Eotac style 202 OD greens left.   For $34.99 you are saving on money and getting a better quality product.

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All those tactical pants and what to choose from?

We recently got in another shipment of Blackhawk Warrior Wear and some of the Tru-Spec 24/7 in limited quantities.  Like many companies out there we have been trying to monitor what is going on with the clothing manufacturers because there are plenty of credible rumors going around about people leaving China and looking elsewhere.  Much of the 5.11 tactical products are geared to Law Enforcement and EMS, and they do a great job of keeping that market, but there is plenty of room for competition for comfort and quality control.   We’ve done a few movement tests with the tactical clothing that we got in and Tru-Spec was the hands down winner.

The 24/7 line from Tru-Spec would not pass as concealed carry pants  in my opinion because real concealed carry means not looking like you are packing a gun.  Most of the 5.11 tactical, Blackhawk tactical pants and even Woolrich Elite and the defunct Eotac line look very similiar from a few feet away.   The big difference is the fit in my opinion.   Guys with different body sizes mostly guys that are body builders.   Sometimes people forget this and that is why there are so many tactical clothing companies because none of them can accommodate everyone.

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The overwelmed tactical clothing market?

I’m really not so sure about that if you are talking about the quality of the products.   I use to hear good things about Vertx pants but recently heard an awful lot of flak about the pants being too tight.   Sizing variations between brands is a given and although customers are constantly asking us “if I wear a 38/32 in 5.11 pants what size am I in Woolrich Elite?” and we always tell them we can’t tell you that, and it’s the truth.   One of the problems that all of the smaller clothing companies have had in getting their foot in the door and competing with 5.11 has been all about production.   If you’re department needs clothing in a certain color and you have to wait 6 months to get it, you aren’t going to wait.

One thing our customers have asked us to do is to stock the clothing that they love, that’s a really hard thing to do since so many people are really  happy with their 5.11 tactical pants or their Woolrich Elite pants.   One thing that has hit many manufacturers is the pricing.   Many people have a hard time spending $50 or more for a pair of pants and will gladly wear 5.11 pants if they can get them for $30 or less.   Sometimes its about price margins and not how good you look in them.    When you’re sitting in an office it’s hard to think you need to worry about movement and jumping over fences with them.

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Knee pads and other protective gear

We’ve been selling various tactical pants for the last 5yrs and one thing that I still find kind of odd is the whole knee pad insert.   When i first started using the knee pad inserts it was with the Woolrich Elite 4447 pants and the knee pads didn’t line up to where my knees were.   I later tried them on the Woolrich Elite 4429 pants and they worked on them, but you really only could get use out of them if you kneel on both knees at the same time.   That position may work at Church, but on the firing line, when I think of kneeling, it’s on one knee.   The knee pad inserts do hold up for a pretty line time, and for only $3 you can replace them for both sides.

If you are looking for serious protective gear for your knees and elbows, I seriously recommend using the Blackhawk Neoprene elbow pads and knee pads.   People have their preferences on what they want to wear, but there is a pretty big difference between using the ones you get on your tactical pants and what you get separately.   I was severely disappointed when the Eotac Direct Action line basically flopped because it hit the market and barely a month later the South Carolina location shutdown and all of the products were basically being cleared out at cost.

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