All posts tagged Eotac Pants

Concealment options, Office and Public environments

There are many modes of concealement a gun holder can use and it might do you some good to research 3 or 4 ways of carrying a firearm.   Belt through holsters are far more secure but if you use a good gun belt a clip on holster can work for you.   There are plenty of ways of messing a concealment method and having a holster fail and the last thing you ever want to do is get yourself in a situation where you have shown  your firearm in public and risk having someone call the police or risk getting fired.   Some business have laws about carrying firearms at work and others just don’t have any rules and the smart thing to do is not let anyone know.

We’ve been around the gun industry for a long time and we’ve learned that you don’t win people over to issues when  you are in their face.   Although you have your 2nd Amendment Rights and your CCW permit, wearing tactical pants and brandishing firearms isn’t the way to change peoples attitudes or win them over to  your side.  We have many business men that stop by our Store wearing a suite and tie and carry firearms for self-defense and nobody at their offices including some family members know that they carry.

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Lightweight tactical pants and standard weight

When we first got into this business we were mostly dealing with 5.11 tactical products.   5.11 tactical has pretty much held the market on tactical clothing, but now that they’ve grown so big it seems pretty obvious that there is a large customer base that became tired of the clothing company from 3 different countries and the fit was varying to much people started looking elsewhere.   Tru-Spec and Vertx are the two tactical clothing companies that have really grown some legs even in this bad economy.

Tru-Spec has beat out 5.11 on tactical clothing because the prices can be very close and you basically get a better quality product.   We’ve already noticed that returns and complaints on Tru-spec tactical pants was very low.  There are always preferences and things people would like to change that would suite them more but shrinkage and pricing is very important.  Vertx is on the higher end of the spectrum but according to what we are hearing from people, they want us to carrying the product line.

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Fabric and pocket designs are what it’s all about

Since there are so many types of tools and gear an individual can need these days, having clothing that get hold it is important, there is such a thing as zip off shirts and pants but the zipper locations tend to become uncomfortable especially in extreme temperatures.   Everyone has a different  type of cell  phone and cell phones are quickly replacing radios in many circumstances.   Having a pocket that is too large and allows too much movement of an object means that that item will most likely find a way to fall out.   Some tactical clothing if designed right, gives an operator wide range of movement and still securely stows and retains gear.

Just about every type of tactical pant out there has a picture somewhere that shows somebody putting a 20rd or 30rd magazine in a pocket.  Well from my experience tactical pants are rarely used for carrying rifle magazines, but some are specifically designed for this.   The best pant for storing M4 Carbine magazines is the Woolrich Elite lightweight tactical pant, but I will have to say that I wish the pant had a gussetted stitching.   While the pants are designed well, they do have a reputation for tear in some situations.

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Always a trend towards lightweight clothing

Some of the biggest sellers this year have been the new Woolrich Elite lightweight tactical shirts and the Blackhawk lightweight pants.   The reasons people want clothing like this aren’t always apparent.   We noticed that the majority of the lightweight tactical shirts we have been selling from Woolrich were the long sleeve shirts.  It seems that many of the troops or contractors in Iraq were wanted the long sleeve shirts to give them  sun protection but be 100% cotton rip stop, which is pretty much the only thing other than a t-shirt that does the job.

We’ve also noticed that Blackhawk tactical pants have gotten a lot of traction in the last year and seem to have moved into the top 3 selling tactical pants.   The reasons people want lightweight tactical pants are pretty much the same as the reasoning for long sleeve.   Bugs and vegetation can become just as much of a problem as sunburn and there are many environments were wearing shorts is absolutely not in consideration.   The Woolrich Elite lightweight pants are the lightest weight, but sometimes people want something that resists stains and does not wrinkle which gives Tru-Spec and Blackhawk the edge.

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Price points on pants, made in the US or made in China?

We’re still shuffling around trying to see what products we’ll be adding on to our product line for 2012 and there are plenty of things to consider.  One of the things we have always had to consider with tactical clothing is this.  Will people pay more than $50 for a pair of pants?  Most people don’t go out and buy one pair of pants unless they are looking to try them out for the first time, but for the people that have to wear the clothing 5 days a week or more, they will probable want 3 or more.  If you buy pants that cost $30 and buy 3 of them, yous spent $90, if you buy 3 pairs for $49.99 you spent $149.97 and that’s $60 dollars more.   Was it worth the buy?

If you figure that in and the cost of shipping how many gun shops will be able to sell that much clothing and make a profit.  We’ve always sold higher end products but when it comes to clothing, some people just don’t really care too much about their tactical pants and they just want cheaper clothing that doesn’t cost a lot.  After evaluating some of the product lines in 2011 we’re looking over what sold and what didn’t and looking at taking on some new product lines.  Will you pay $60 or more for tactical pants, what if they’re made in the USA?

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More feedback about the Woolrich Elite Chinos

Just got off the phone with a customer that was looking for “discreet pants”  I know what he was looking for, but I asked him “Woolrich or Eotac?”   He said the Eotac discreet denim pants.   I told him that the product line is no longer being made and that all we have left are a few sizes.   The conversation went on about how hard it is to find pants that aren’t tactical.  So many companies are marketing to the concealed carry crowd, but 90 percent of them are not doing a good job.   There have been obvious fit improvements for some of them, but they still are way too tactical looking and that absolutely might get you killed in some situations.

Since the Woolrich Elite 44910 and 44909 pants have been discontinued and now that Eotac is out of business, the Eotac style 204 and 205 pants are going to be gone for good it seems.   Now what, the only answer we have for customers when they ask us about pants for concealed carry are, do you want tactical pants or the Woolrich Elite Chinos?   There are preferences in pocket locations, and Tru-Spec does a good job on their fit and durability, but all of these look tactical to us except the Woolrich Elite Chinos.  Check out the Youtube clip on our website.

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SHOT SHOW is around the corner

I guess because we’re already so busy at this time of the year the last thing we want to have to think about right after Christmas is learning about all of the new stuff coming in in 2012 that we’ll have to consider buying.   SHOT SHOW is the post Christmas shopping season for people like us and at first it’s fun and eventually it just becomes a business trip.   Out of the hundreds of new products that we’ll be looking at, it’s rare for us to find more than a half a dozen new products that really spark interest.

This year we do  have a wish list, we’d like to see more concealed carry clothing come out and not another clothing company making knock off 5.11 tactical pants.   We’re down to about 4 companies that we carry products for and although each has it’s strong points, we’re overloaded on tactical pants and listening to  our customers frustrations about the constant shortages or lack of product improvements has caused people to keep shopping.  We’ve had products that had good designs but the fit was not very good and people moved on, other designs were good for weekend warriors but for those that jump over fences, the products were failing.  Slight production changes would have sealed the deal, but did anyone listen in 2011?

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Wearing the right pants for the job

I recently took a trip for work where I figured that I was better off getting there on time than going back home and getting changed into my Woolrich Elite 44429 pants and then going back to work again.  Every once in awhile I still need to make the novice mistakes of cutting time out of a project and then creating a problem.   Brain farts are coming amonst males and last week was one of them.   There are plenty of times where I want to go out and really am not in the mood for wearing any kind of tactical pants. It’s nice to be able to put on a pair of pants and just go and not have to load up all of the flashlight, guns, magazine holders and knife and just go.

Well, without going into too much detail, I missed not having pants with wide hand pockets and it go really annoying that my flashlight got turned on in my pocket because the other stuff that I had to put in there kept hitting the on switch.   Most good tactical pants will be big enough to fit a j-frame revolver and even if you aren’t carrying a gun in your pocket, that amount of space means keys, flashlights and magazines tend to not fall out of the pockets.  The way the stitching is done, the gear will catch on the pocket lining before and reduce the chances of something falling out.

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All of those .380 pistols might help you keep your clothes on

I started out carrying a 1911 a very, very long time ago and at the time, the last thing I wanted to have to worry about was getting more clothes to wear just so they could accommodate my firearm.  You’d think it wouldn’t be that much of a problem, unless you’ve already got experience in carrying a gun.   Many Cops were paddle holsters, or Desantis pancake style holsters which work very well for medium or full size semi-auto guns.    Most individuals in that line of work aren’t looking for small and concealable, they are carrying what they have been issued or what they are best at using.

Recently we had a customer tell us that he hates elastic waistband pants, but this is the first time I’ve ever heard a customer that was CCW a firearm say that.   If you understand how often tactical pants have varying sizing and fit differences from brand to brand.  You’ll have to try them on to find out if they fit.   Everyone does not come in even sizes and when you put a firearm IWB you’ll have even more troubles if you aren’t wearing pants with an elastic waistband.

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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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