All posts tagged Eotac Pants

Elastic waistbands, it doesn’t feel right without it anymore

I just put in an order for several new Galco holsters that I’m going to try to work with a few regual jeans I own because I recently hurt my side with a kydex holster on a pair of jeans that were suppose to be for CCW but I found them to royally suck because they didn’t have an elastic waistband.   I’m half wondering if this 5.11 tactical jean has been discontinued because I see them being sold at clearance levels of under $20.   I’m still testing out various type of tactical clothing from Tru-Spec and Blackhawk, but I’m a little overwhelmed with what I have being tested out right now.   I had to give up on IWB holsters for these 5.11 pants because they just don’t cut it.   I will be trying a Don Hume Jit holster and see if that works.

I had good luck with the Eotac 502 jeans because they had an elastic waistband, but I actually had issues with the Woolrich Elite tactical pants that were almost identical looking.  The waistband on the Woolrich 44909 seemed to be thicker and my IWB holster from JS holsters had trouble clipping onto the belt due to the thickness….weird.   I personally like the idea of having less tactical pockets on jeans because jeans really can’t be tactical looking if you want them to be CCW.  Most guys are going to want the straight leg pants and a more washed look to them.   I really have limited ways of carrying in the summer because every time I have to walk out of the door at this time of year I have to wear layers of clothing or a heavy jacket and it’s hard to really test out shirts.

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Tactical Pants and real CCW

I have been trading back and forth between 5.11 tactical clothing, Woolrich Elite Series and the much newer Eotac brand.   I will admit that I understand that many of these brands may be personal preference, but there are  huge differences in the fit and feel of the pants.   If I just take the covert pants from 5.11 and the Woolrich Elite 4909 pants vs the Eotac pants.   Woolrich and Eotac look similiar, but none of them fit the same.   While I find the 5.11 pants to fit more like normal fitting jeans, the inside the waist pockets are not very useful if you are going to be sitting down a lot.   I can carry a small j-frame revoler inside the pants without a holster, but the locations of the pockets aren’t very comfortable.

I took a Sig 239 9mm 8rd magazine and put it in the rear pocket and when I sat down it, was not comfortable to wear at all.   I think these pockets lend themselves more towards putting a wallet or handcuffs in them than a firearm and accessories.   Next I tried putting a Streamlight Scorpion in various positions and none of them worked.   I tried to pocket carry and inserted a Smith & Wesson 38 Special I had around and it could not be concealed in these tactical pants at all.  They were in 5.11 tactical pants, but not these?   With both the Woolrich Elite 44909 and the Eotac 205 jeans, these were not the traditional straight leg jean, and the fit was different for each.   I personally like the Eotac color, Woolrich pants were too purplish and baggy.   Both pants were pocket friendly and my vote would go for Eotac by far.   I do think the rear ID pockets are a little over done when you keep the water bottle pocket below it.   That strikes me as a little too tactical and not discreet.

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Tactical clothing accessories that you shouldn’t forget about

The first thing I noticed when I took my first Carbine Class and got down prone was that the ground was still wet and I could feel every stone jamming into my elbow when I got down in a prone position.  With todays accessorized M4 Carbine with every light, laser and optic configuration, we have to realize that our bodies could use the same ideas when it comes to the clothing we wear.    The Eotac duty gloves are good for the times when you need to worry about hot barrels and flying brass and aren’t very bulk at all.   Elbow and knee pads are something that I have found are very useful, but there are huge variations in the way that they fit on your body, not to mention that most of the time, the only way to find out is to actually try them on.

I have several sets of knee pads, but the ones I find the most useful are the Blackhawk Neoprene, because they seem to just feel more comfortable.   I already have enough worries about snag and movement restriction when wearing tactical clothing and sometimes I really have to watch how I move around corners so my tactical pants don’t catch on things.   The Eotac style 201 pants come with a foam knee pad that works quite well, but the only draw back is for the knee pands in the tactical pants to properly align themselves over your knee caps is to be kneeling on both knees at the same time.   This is something I had to get use to when getting into firing positions.   The Style 202 and 203 lightweight pants also use the same foam knee pads and from my experience they last a pretty long time if you take them out when they are not being  used or when you are doing your wash.

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Direct Action clothing from Eotac

tactical pantsNext week there will be a Police and Security Expo in Atlantic City, New Jersey and Eotac will displaying some of  their A-Tacs and Direct Action products.   We’re still not sure about everything that Eotac has coming out this Fall and in 2011, but seeing some of the info about what is coming soon really makes us think that 5.11 Tactical is going to have  some real compeition out there.   I can’t tell you the number of times we’ve  had customers call us up and complain about the tactical pants that they have  been wearing from 5.11.   Many of them complain about how things use to be and how they end up with different sizing even though they keep ordering the same sizes.   I was checking out some of the 5.11 tactical shirts that were the Covert carry design and I may pick up a few, but I personally think the Woolrich Elite CCW shirts are a much better feel.   Even though we are very selective about the products we carry, I’d have to admit that every big name manufacturer has a niche market that some of their products perform very well in.

The slow economy doesn’t seem to be affecting the tactical pants market though.  It seems that every time I step onto a firing line, somebody shows up wearing tactical pants from another company that I never heard of.   There was even a gun shop on the West Coast that was making a really cheap knock off of the the ACU pants.     I believe I could name half a dozen manufacturers that made the ACU pants, but only Eotac made it right.    I still have a few BDU pants that I use to wear when I was in College, but those pants are so darn uncomfortable to wear to the range anymore and the pockets are not very secure.   It’s one thing to have a pocket for mag dumps, but try putting a Blackberry or mace in BDU pants and you’ll  have no idea where they are after you take your first stride.   Some of the tactical pants I have seen really look over done though.  They’ve got a pocket within a pocket and a pocket behind every seam.   I guess I should walk around and check out some of these other manufacturers and see how the quality holds up.  I think thats the issue that eliminates a lot of competition.

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Backup weapons

Kimber Guardian AngelAs we grow in our skills, we are more than likely to think about changing the firearms we carry.   I can’t tell you the number of times I hung out with a gun owner that looked like they could carry a full size 1911 in there front pocket, but choose to carry a J-frame instead.   Well, now that I’ve been carrying a firearm for close to 20yrs, I’ve really started to feel the weight especially when I was working overtime and carrying 10 and 12hrs days.   You really start to feel it at some point, the difference between 1lb and 3lbs of gun.    I guess there is almost a predictable learning curve when it comes to carrying guns.

I also know that many people choose to carry a secondary weapon.   Walking in and out of Police buildings,  I see guys that do investigations carrying 2 or 3 guns.   Sometimes certain environments are prone to very restrictive movements and sometimes having a gun in an ankle holster or shoulder holster along with your primary sidearm can mean the difference if there is a close quarters struggle.  That’s more common in the LEO world than in the civillian, but carrying a knife or mace is really my choose for CCW backup.  Take the Kimber Guardian Angel, this handy weapon lasts twice as long as bottle pepper spray, is easier to aim, and easy to put in a pocket.   The Elite Operator Tactical shorts in style 301 or style 302 can easily fit one of these in the front pockets that are outside of the hand pockets, this is a great thing to have when considering using non-lethal or less-lethal options when deadly force is not called for.

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Casual pants with a tactical appeal

Tactical PantsIf you are toting around a knife, flashlight, gun, keys and a wallet, you might find regular jeans are pretty stuffed in the pocket area.   If you have to tuck a shirt in you’ll be even more cluttered.   Many recommend avoiding the clip on knife in the pocket as a dead giveaway that you are carrying, so what do you do?   If you are familiar with the Eotac Style 204 cotton canvas pants, the Eotac style 205 concealed carry pants are identical but made in a jean fabric.

These tactical pants have a side leg pant pockets on each side that can hold a small J-frame, Kimber Guardian Angel, mace, G2 or scorpion size flashlight or just about whatever tool you want to carry in that size.   This is something to consider when doing a lot of driving or accessing gear while in the seated position.   From my experience the zippers are very secure and reliable.   The jeans are very comfortable and not the purplish blue that many of our customers complained about with a previous companies version.

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Summer Tactical Operator Pants

Tactical PantsIf you haven’t heard them called that yet, maybe we should coin the phrase.    Eotac’s Lightweight Operator Grade tactical pants are the pants you should be wearing if you are taking a Carbine class this summer.   I was watching the Magpul Art of the Tactical Carbine and noticed just about every operator we saw on the DVD was pulling mags from a vest, chest rig or belt.   There were several shooting postions we noticed where and Operator was laying on their side and reloading mags.

The Style 201 lightweight operator grade pants are made of 100% cotton ripstop.   Ripstop material came about after WWII in the Pacific War.   These pants are capable of holding  up to 6 loaded 30rd AR magazines in the pants and make accessing mags and reloading on the ground easier that pulling from a chest rig.  Style 201 pants are available in Black, Khaki, OD Green, Navy and now the Digital Camo pattern.   These pants also accept knee pad inserts and use the same pads as the style 202 and 202 pants do.

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Getting the edge in the apparel market

Tactical PantsElite Operator Tactical has made high quality tactical pants in cotton canvas and lightweight 100% cotton ripstop.   They have a concealed carry or discreet line of apparel that is also expanding in 2010, but the tactical market door just got kicked open from someone other that 5.11 Tactical.    Sign up for our Rogue Elite.net email mailing list for promtions and feel free to give us your feedback on one of the most anticipated items this year.

Eotac just launched there new tactical pants specifically designed for women.   We have been waiting for almost a year for these to hit the market, and after several delays, they are finally arriving.   The Style 702 Womens pants are now available in Khaki and OD Green.  These tactical pants are designed specifically for women and something very original.

 

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Tactical Pants for Women

Eotac ClothingEotac is about to launch their first run on their 702 Lightweight tactical pants for women.   For women that work in the security forces or for law enforcement, this will be something to get your hands on.   Many women working in this line of work usually are forced to find men’s tactical clothing that fits them well enough to get through the day.    We’ve heard from a lot of women that wore other tactical women’s pants and the complaints are still coming in.

Elite Operator Tactical or mostly known as Eotac, are an aggressive new tactical apparel company that are backed by the Corporation Cerebus that owns Remington, DPMS, Bushmaster and even Marlin Firearms.   There’s a pretty good chance that Eotac will be the primary competitor to 5.11 Tactical in the coming years.   We are expecting the Style 702 Women’s Operator Grade Lightweight Tactical Pants to be coming in in late March or early April 2010.   These pants went through extensive testing and designing and considering the Men’s line of Eotac clothing, we’re expecting great things from Eotac that are meant for Women in the coming years.

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Fit and manueverability

Tactical PantsEotac has several pants styles that may look like 5.11 knock offs or something that you thought you saw coming from Woolrich Elite a few years ago, but the reality is you will feel the difference in manueverability and flexability when you’re wearing them.   We had a few customers say they preferred a competitors pants since they had more room in them for sitting and kneeling, but the reality is Eotac Pants were stitched and designed so the pants move with the body and they were designed for operators that are getting off the ground and working from standing, kneeling and squatting.  Think about all of the firing positions an operator with a Carbine can get in, now try doing that with Levi’s jeans, 5.11 pants, Woolrich Elite and then try it with the Eotac Pants and get back to us.

We’ve been able to watch the tactical clothing market grow over the last decade and we’ve seen big companies go from owning the business to dealing with real competition.   Due to the nature of the War on Terror, there is demand for clothing that is not BDU looking but has lots of uses for military and combat purposes.   Tactical Pants aren’t just about what they can hold.   Everyone has a different idea of what they need for their job, but putting tons of gear in your pockets can be done with a pair of pants that just has big pockets.

 

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