All posts tagged CCW Shirts

Tru-Spec Cool Camp shirts, might want to work these into your wardrobe

Tru-Spec Cool Camp Shirts

 

We’ve seen a lot of CCW clothing come and go in recent years, one of the biggest problems we see is cost of manufacturing, changes in the market and poor marketing.   So much of the CCW clothing is still too tactical to be low profile.   One of the major reasons we became a dealer for Tru-Spec is when I personally ordered clothing for myself to try on, it was actually the same size and that Blackhawk and Woolrich Elite were.   There are always fit and design differences and it’s very hard to make a shirt that fits everyone because tall and short sizes are what people really come in.   When it comes to hot weather, much of the Country resorts to t-shirts and shorts and if you are IWB or OWB  you have to be careful you aren’t printing which can and does have all kinds of ramifications.

In regards to printing, we have people constantly expect us to give them a magic holster that is comfortable and doesn’t print, but our response is always, you have to “dress” to the firearm that you wish to carry.   If you are looking for an extremely lightweight and breathable CCW shirt, definitely the Tru-Spec Cool Camp Shirts, which to sum up quickly, is a good cut, for CCW.   The Cool Camp Shirts are a 2nd version that Tru-Spec has made, we’re hoping to see more of this because this is the closest thing to any of types of products the now discontinued Woolrich Elite Series shirt inventory had.

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Tru-Spec product line overview- Tactical Shirt options

truspec shirtsI have been very new to the Tru-Spec product line since I have so many shirts from the Woolrich Elite Series Tactical and the Eotac product lines.   Most of the shirts are still in very good condition.   When we moved on from that Era of tactical clothing, we dealt with far more of the polyester styles of clothing, at first most of these felt too hard and not as soft, but I’ve been won over to adding the Tru-Spec ultra-lightweight tactical shirts to my personal inventory.   I got around to testing out these items right at the tail end of the summer and I was very happy with them.  Having the proper venting is a must and next time the weather warms up I will also be testing out and  posting reviews about the Blackhawk Warrior wear.  Gusseted arms and venting are things that are going to be about how well it matches up to your body type.  The best thing about the Tru-Spec product line is they really give us a good option for people accustomed to the 5.11 product line.

The stiffer feel of the Tru-Spec polyester/cotton rip stop material seems to be more fitting for those in uniform and are fell less maintenance than some of the 100% cotton ripstop.   Having a material that doesn’t shrink, fade or fall apart is not that common and the TruSpec shirts we sell have a very high approval rating in this regard.   Their selection of performance polos and different fitting cotton polos have large selection of color options as well as long and short sleeve.   Many of our local departments have switched over to the Tru-Spec 24.7 Series polos and now that Tru-Spec has started doing silk screening and embroidering it’s really helped us to grow our business.

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Woolrich Elite nearing the end?

Its looking more and more like the Woolrich Elite Series Tactical product line is no more.  We’ve seen several clothing companies and various other tactical gear manufacturers pull out of China and the task of retooling the the machines and launching the products in a bad economy have been rough.   We recently heard that Tru-Spec is now making their clothing in Honduras which is a major shift from our standpoint because just about everyone making tactical clothing came in from somewhere in Asia.   India, Cambodia, Vietnam, China it seemed like everyone had a manufacturer over there, but cost increases have really hit some companies and from what we see it can cause a certain percentage of your customers to switch to another brand.

Now that we  have such a large Law Enforcement customer base, many of these guys and gals have a clothing allowance and increase the cost of tactical clothing by $10 per item means they may can few items.   The differences between 5.11 tactical and TruSpec shirts are considerable as far as pocket designs and such, but many of the Tru-Spec and 5.11 tactical clothing products are made of similar materials.   The differences are quality control and sizing consistency.  We here so many complaints about 5.11 products getting expensive and the truth of the matter, they are not the only ones, Vertx pants are usually over $60, Woolrich Elite $50 and from what we see Tru-Spec products from Atlanco are the best priced products.

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Some feedback for customers that wore Eotac or Woolrich Elite Shirts

I’m not going to bash either product because if you really want an opinion about those three products, they are all well made tactical products but they really are more about the mission or the preference you have in your work space.   Here in Pennsylvania, I’ve told people many times, that we can get all 4 Seasons, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring.  And when i mean all 4 Seasons, I mean zero degrees to 103 F in the same year.   Which tactical polo is going to work well for you in that situation?  I have some customers that love the Woolrich Elite Polos because they are a looser fit, but some customers don’t like them because they are heavier in weight compared to 5.11, Tru-Spec or Eotac stuff.

Many of the products we sell from Tru-Spec are very well received.  Even though we are clearing out some other tactical apparel product lines, many of our customers are trying to move away from the 5.11 tactical clothing and we have been successful in moving the Tru Spec shirts that have been coming in.  There will be a new line of the Gunny approved Tru-Spec product line in the coming weeks.  There are also new backpacks and lightweight tactical vests coming in with the product line.  We are hoping to add more and more lightweight products including the new gunny pants that have slight differences, yet improvements to the 24/7 series.

 

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Expanding TruSpec product line into 2012

We have been continuing our expansion of the TruSpec product line in our store and online.   Many of the new soft shell products like the TruSpec tactical soft shell and the 3 in 1 Parkas are flying out the door, but the TruSpec tactical polos are the new products we are bringing in.  The color options are much larger with the TruSpec product line and we have heard from more than a number of our customers that they need white or tan color polos which is something many of our previous product lines did not have.   The TruSpec polos are lighter weight than the Woolrich Elite polos which is something that many have asked us for.  These tactical polos are slightly longer than some of the other polos you might find in a store.

There are many other new tactical shirts coming in this Fall and we will continue to add to our product line.   We are always looking for customer feedback about which product they want and the truspec shirts we are  now carrying was something that our customer have asked for.   There is a new conealed carry shirt that is very different in desing than the Eotac and Woolrich Elite product line but it also has a very office friendly look to it.   We have heard there is a new TruSpec tactical shirt coming out as well as another lightweight tactical vest.   Keep your eyes on the website and join our newsletter for up to date information.

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Short sleeve ccw options, check out Woolrich Elite

When summer rolls around it’s usually time to put the full size auto away and switch over to your compacts and smaller frame guns.  The Hawaiian shirt thing doesn’t work for skinny guys and I’m sure we’ve all seen the movies where the undercover narcotics officers are wearing them.  The bad guys know you have a gun tucked in there and they probable won’t be surprised to see the muscular and fit guy with the shirt and sunglasses is a narcotics officer. After that, if you don’t wear an untucked t-shirt you’re probable going to end up having to pocket carry.

Everyone of the tactical clothing companies has it’s pros and cons and some of the fit and designs are really just personal tastes.   The one company we’ve been very impressed with when it comes to CCW shirts are the Woolrich Elite CCW Shirts especially the short sleeve ones for this time of year.   I personally have been very happy with my ability to pocket carry a j-frame, tuck a shirt in and still be able to pack a Streamlight tactical flashlight and my gerber pocket knife all in my ccw shirt.   I’ve seen a few of the Blackhawk and 5.11 attempts at making tactical shirts but they just didn’t work for me.

 

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New wave of CCW shirts from Woolrich Elite

Today I was going through the list of all of the new products that we had to list on our website and sometimes we debate on whether or not we are going to carry something when it gets to my desk.   There have been a lot of useless gun accessories, but they sold and made money, but I found them to be annoying.   Some of the gun parts were a liability to carry because the quality control was so bad that our return percentage and complaints were so high that it wasn’t worth the time to carry them.

When it comes to selling clothing, there are some big named companies that we limit the products from them because quality control is so bad.  That is not the case with the Woolrich Elite Series product line.  They’ve had a few dud products, but I would mostly blame that on the economy and marketing.   The new wave of Woolrich Elite CCW shirts are going to be in my wardrobe.  I’ve about had enough of the solid color CCW shirts that have been made in the past and it’s great to get shirts that look  like they came from a department store and not a tactical shop.

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What’s the difference between Woolrich and Eotac?

It seems that Eotac is no longer in existence, but Woolrich Elite is still out there.  Its no secret that Fernando Coelho was involved with designing and marketting both product lines at some point the products like very similar.   The answer we always tell customers is the designs are different.   We did notice there has been some production changes to the original Woolrich Elite Series product line and the pants and shorts do have a much wanted change in the ID or wallet pocket.   The Woolrich Elite pants pocket designs were a little tighter and the fit was baggier but some people wanted that.

Woolrich has been around forever and it looks like they have survived bad economies and the tactical clothing shake down.  A few weeks ago we got word that another major clothing manufacturer just pulled out of China and is now making clothing in the Western Hemisphere.   Woolrich Elite pants are still made in China, and we have gotten price increase on all of their stuff, but according to the number of disgruntled 5.11 customers that we have, Woolrich Elite pants are the next best thing.

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Pocket guns and getting dressed up for CCW

Many of you that are married may not have the option of dressing  yourself, but I have often been told that I can not wear a certain type of pant or shirt when I was going out because it clashed with what my wife was wearing.   CCW clothing options are very limited even though there are plenty of tactical clothing companies offering concealed carry or covert carry clothing.   I did a few trips to local gun shops and picked up Proper, Tru-Spec, Woolrich Elite, 5.11 tactical and a few other clothing options and the sizing variations was a nightmare.   I was buying 36/34  pants to 38/32 pants depending on the manufacturer and that was what I had to do to just get the fit right.

When it comes to shirt options, that’s a much hard sell.   I haven’t been able to buy anything other than 5.11, Blackhawk and Woolrich Elite shirts and a couple Eotac shirts, but there was not a lot of versatility.  If I wanted to do out of uniform Law Enforcement duty then the tactical clothing companies worked, but if I had to pass the Wife’s going out for dinner options, I did not have a lot to wear that didn’t get flak from her.  I highly recommend the Woolrich Elite Oxford shirts and the Woolrich Elite CCW shirts.

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New Woolrich Elite CCW Shirt

I have a beef with much of the tactical apparel community because much of what I see as labeled as “CCW” is really tactical, and they are no where near the same thing.    If the jeans don’t look like Levi jeans and they look like they have pockets all over the place, they aren’t concealed carry.    I also have a serious issue with the 5.11 jeans that I just picked up because they are suppose to be for covert situations, but the pocket designs are useless.   The internal pockets are useless and the hand pockets don’t even hold a 38 Special snubby.

I am not  a big fan of the fit of Woolrich Elite pants because they are a bit over sized in a few areas.   The Algerian field jacket has funky arm lengths.    I did however get to try out the Woolrich Elite Series oxford CCW shirt and I was very impressed with this.   There was a CCW shirt from Woolrich that had similar false magnetic buttons but the patterns were pretty ugly.   This Oxford CCW shirt is real concealed carry apparel and I am very impressed with the Loden and British Tan color patterns.  We were told they are coming out with a few other styles in 2011.

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