All posts tagged 5.11 covert carry pants

Why does the industry think Concealed Carry Pants need tons of pockets?

That really is one of those big questions that doesn’t get answered by the big clothing makers because they don’t really want to answer it.   Concealed Carry pants are really from most people that ask about the stuff we sell, all about being able to wear them at work and pocket carry.   It often amazes me that what is marketed by a few companies always has supposedly hidden leg pockets with tabs that flap in the wind when you walk and tell everyone you have a pocket there.   Was Michael Jacksons famous leather jacket a ccw coat?   Probable according to what we’ve seen show up here.

What everyone really wants is something with big hand pockets and if it has extra pockets, they should be shapped to look like normal pockets.  To date, the only real pant that we have sold that wasn’t in the tactical pants category are the new Woolrich Elite Series Chinos.   Other than that everyone else has something that we would consider to be tactical.  If the rear wallet pocket has big pockets around it, it looks like rock climbing gear.   It’s all about what you want, but if you want CCW pants, you’ll have a hard time finding it in the tactical clothing world.

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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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Tactical pants and movement

While studying up on some of the new tactical clothing coming  out in 2012 I was reading some of the reviews and comments on YouTube about them.  It’s funny how often you see people reference that everything is a rip off of 5.11 tactical pants.   I’ve only been in the tactical clothing business for about 7yrs and I have to say that, that is partially true.   It was 5.11 that really had the entire market and nobody came close.   The truth is they still have the market but there are several competitors that are pretty close.  Tru-Spec and Blackhawk probable gained the most ground but Proper is still a monster in it’s own category.

One conclusion that one must come to with tactical clothing is along with quality control, tactical pants must allow for movement.   There are plenty of styles of tactical pants that have been pushed out in the market only to die a slow death when people realized there were design flaws.   One thing that is absolutely a reality about tactical pants is that a gusseted crotch is a must.   The old standard stitching, double stitching, triple stitching isn’t going to cut it. It’s about reducing stress not fighting it.

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