All posts tagged Original SWAT Boots

More feedback from Original Swat customers

The beauty of having a retail store and not just being and e-commerce business is that you get face to face and hands on experience working with customers and products.   You can talk about something over the phone all you want, but sometimes you can learn things just by watching someone use a tool.   I just got a demo on how to draw a firearm from a shirt that I never saw before and it looked like something from a martial arts movie, but it was funny watching a big fat guy show you how he busts bad guys.   This cop was explaining how he made an arrest on a criminal a few days ago and seeing the reasons he moved that way was interesting.

When it comes to what people want with boots, the ability to shine boots seems to be pretty important to many of our customers.  Original Swat footwear comes with a 1yr warranty on all of their stuff.   It’s great being a dealer for a product that is backed by it’s manufacturer.    The newest bit of info we got from our customers is the arguments over lace up boots and original swat side-zip boots.   Some guys have had bad experiences with zippers but I think like many things, it’s how you handle something. Some people don’t know how to close a car door and they end up messing everything up.  Last month I watched somebody ride a door shut and he bent the door so bad it didn’t close right.  I bet he has problems with his zipper, too.

 

Top

The hard part about ordering tactical gear and accessories

I recently got into a conversation with an old timer in our area that talked about the good old days where gun shops and hunting stores had everything you needed. Now you gotta drive an hour or more to find a decent gun shop and most of the time you’ll find disorganized merchandise and even unpriced items with knowledge lacking individuals.   I remember taking a trek to a shop looking for an LWRC upper and the guy tried to sell me an LWRC upper receiver for $1700 and told me that they were hard to get.   I stopped at another shop and ordered the exact same one from another dealer for $1200.   Sometimes knowing what you are looking for, holding it in your hands and knowing  you like it before you buy gets consumer confidence going.

Ordering gun parts and tactical gear and accessories is no different.   We sell an awful lot of clothing and many of our customers show fear of ordering until they hear a voice on the other side of the computer monitor.   We can do quick searches on the internet and find out that some of the top responses are companies with over 300 complaints by  the better business bureau.   Tactical gear and accessories like Original Swat boots and tactical pants are big sellers but people want to hold them in their hands or try them on their feet first.   Now that we have a retail store it’s nice to have people stop in and know they got what they came for.   Unfortunately there is still the need for people to try stuff on and the internet hasn’t killed every business.

Top

Women bitching on the tactical gear and accessories market

We have gotten lots and lots of feed back from Women that work in the Law Enforcement Community about how they are constantly forced to wear and buy men’s clothing and there are not  a lot of options.   We have been selling the Woolrich Elite women’s pants for several years in contrast to the 5.11 tactical pants and we still get lots of complaints about the fit of the clothing and how well they work for the various shapes and sizes of women. Tactical clothing that men wear rarely works with women and we hear it all day long at work.   Smaller sizes for men doesn’t mean hip sizes fit for a woman.

One product line we are proud to be selling is the Original Swat boots for Women.   There are 3 products in the Original swat boots line for women.  The Standard 1150 the Zip up 1152F and the most casual or street friendly 1151F.   The boots size variations are pretty broad and not just meant for petite women.   It’s amazing to see the product fit and variations that need to be made for women.   Just because it’s made for women doesn’t mean that it’s meant for dancing.   There are more women seeing combat situations and by the number of customers that we have had over recent months that call up before being deployed and are ordering tactical gear and accessories for combat, its a whole new world.

Top

The cost of everything is going up, but some things are worth it

We have been hit with various price increases over recent weeks related to shipping costs and clothing.  There have been some pretty big price increase on clothing due to production costs and cotton shortages.   We are guessing that there will be price increases on the clothing in 2011 more than once because even our manufacturers don’t know what the forecast is going to be.   We are still crossing our fingers hoping that Eotac has not gone away for good and something will eventually emerge from it.   We just got notice of a price increase coming from some of our footwear suppliers and its probable the same old gear.
Raising prices in an economic downturn tends to not work very well for us, but we have notice a trend away from certain product lines and increases in others.  Sometimes an economic slow down means you have to spent your money wisely because there isn’t any room for waste.   Original Swat boots are well made and even though we have not been selling them for very long, I’ll tell you that as of today, we have only gotten 2 complaints about production issues and the Company took care of both issues for us and the customers have been happy. we’ve sold over 1000  pairs of boots this year and that’s less than a percentage point in customer dissatisfaction.   If you are spending $50-$ 70 on a pair of boots and getting your money’s worth, it’s worth the money.

Top

Sneakers aren’t going to cut it so don’t try

Another recent event at a local Carbine training event gave me another perspective on seeing novice weekend warriors show up at a class for the first time.  Besides the usual guys that have gear fall off, magazines fly all over the place, guns break, scopes come loose, pants tear.   I saw a guy try and shoot a course in a pair of sneakers.   I know that sometimes people think that being able to move fast is important, and it is, but not having good foot support is really bad.   Unless you have no intentions of having to run around very fast, sneakers are good for you, but i’ve seen so many twisted ankles and stumbling that I would never take a class with anything but boots.   I have a couple old steel toe relics in my closet, I haven’t used them very much, but they are so hardly worn that I can’t thrown them away.

The tactical footwear that I have the most experience with to date is the Original Swat footwear.   I’m not going to boast that they are the best boots out there, but they were well within my price range and I have not been disappointed by them yet.   I am presently wearing 3 kinds of Original Swat boots and I still hate it when I have situations where I can not wear them.  Considering how much weight I am sometimes asked to carry around, I really don’t feel the stress on my feets since I’ve been wearing the Original Swat Air 9″ 1232 boots.   After about 8 months of wearing them I did feel the support begin to wear out, but that’s 8 hard months of work for less than $100.   I could have saved money on some medical bills if i would have been wearing these years before.

Top

Happy feet even if you aren’t dancing

I remember all of the times I heard my Grandparents or Uncles make comments about getting old and I thought it was somewhat funny, but as I got into my early 40s and listen to my friends, it’s a constant medical report when we get into the “How’s everything going”.   One issue many of my law enforcement SWAT teams have issues with are there feet.   Most of these guys are pretty well in shape, but feet are something that can’t take the constant abuse or neglect without future repurcussions.    In my line of work, I’m lucky if a pair sneakers will hold up for more than 3 months because of the amount of weight and lifting I do.   I tried out the traditonal Dr. Scholls inserts and they worked well for about a month, but then they are shot.   Last summer at a Police and Security Expo we tried some foot inserts that came with a 2yr Warranty and they didn’t last 2 months.   It was somewhat of a shocking failure of a product.

Since we have moved on to carrying the Original Swat boots, if there is the slightest hint that the insoles are wearing out, original swat makes there own gel inserts that work very well.   The Style 1232 Air 9″ give you extra support for hopping around on concrete and hard surfaces.  I have not had to swap out or put any gel inserts in this style of boot and we’re going on over 4 months of 6 day a week use.   I started wearing these at the end of the summer months so it’s hard to say if they are going to be really comfortable to wear in hot environments, but I’m still impressed with how lightweight they fell on my feet.

Top

Dressed down look without losing your traction

We sell a lot of tactical clothing to Military and Law Enforcement, but we have a large customer base that are CCW holders or outdoorsmen that just like haveing clothing that gives them an edge over traditional store stuff.   There has been a new nitch in the concealed carry market for white collar office concealmeant which has shown up in the gun holster arena.   There has also been a huge trend towards very small and reliable 9mm and even an extremely popular trend towards .380 caliber guns.   Our line of Eotac Style 204 pants are very pocket gun friendly and due to the wide pocket designs are easy to retrieve stowed gear and weapons.

When it comes to shoes, depending on the dress code you have with your co-workers, you should be able to keep an office look, but still keep your traction without having to wear a pair of boots.   Try training for a defensive course with dress shoes and, well, I don’t think you’ll want to drive defensive movement in something like that.   Original Swat boots has an option worth considering, the Classic 6″ M.T. 1151 will give you superior traction compared to standard dress shoes.  These are a step down from what most people consider to be a boot, the SEK9000 is probable on the other end of street work.

Top

Combat rifle scopes and a backup plan

When you mount your rifle scope, please do some research on how to properly level and mount it.  A properly mounted combat optic should not be over torqued and should have loctite on the screws.  I have yet to see a mount come loose on a gun that used loctite.   When you go out an spend $1000 on a combat rifle scope, ask yourself, what will you do and how will you remove the scope and aim it if the optic goes down.   If one your Trijicon rifle scopes takes a bullet, are you going to be able to see through it and still be able to lay down effective fire if you can’t see through it?  Even if you have a rifle scope that does not allow for co-witness, would it be a good idea to still attach flip up sights to the gun if there is room for them?  Always have a backup plan for your defensive carbine.

The vast majority of M4 Carbines I see at the range have optics that are top of the line.    Aimpoint and Eotech along with the Trijicon ACOG are probable the top 3.   All of these are good for a certain purpose which is mostly for close up fighting.   The Trijicon ACOG is more of a medium range combat optic depending on the type of reticle you choose.   They do have a line of red dot or even green dot optic options, also.   If you are are a weekend warrior and new to defensive shooting and tactical gear, I would suggest you think about this next statement, whenever you attach an accessory to your Carbine, think about what you would do if that accessory mount broke or the actual item failed.

 

Top

Zombie tools for survival

This coming October will be another fun filled Zombie hunting adventure.   I will be reviewing and attending several zombie competition events in the Pennsylvania, Ohio, Delaware and New Jersery area.   Everything from pistol shoots to bring your fighting carbine and hike through a 6 stage zombie adventure.   One of the best things to learn from a competition event like this is that hits count especially good hits.  It is a forgone conclusion that to take a zombie down, you need head shots and this isn’t a bad thing to practice.    Various stages that I have witnessed where basically 3 gun competitions and even some of them were airsoft.

The only thing I haven’t seen yet at a Zombie shoot was a crossbow, but I did shoot a stage with a long bow.  A good set of tactical pants will get you through the day a lot easier especially if you don’t have a fancy tactical vest.    The Elite Operator Tactical pants we have on promotion right now are the Digital ACU pants.   The pants are hands down the number one tactical pant you should be wearing if you are toting a carbine.   In all honesty, unless you are wearing a leg holster you should be able to get full use of all of the 6 magazine holders in the pockets and these are easily accessed while in the prone positions.   The digital patter ACU pants have been on sale and we are down to limited sizes, but now is the best time to pick them up for your October Zombie adventures.

Top

Looking for Zombie killing options

Do search for gun clubs and shooting ranges in your State to find out if anyone is holding a Zombie shoot.   They usually occur in the September to October months.   Having some good tactical clothing that will securely hold your gear.   The Eotac Style 201 pants are my favorite because they hold 6- 30rd PMAGS and they are easy to run in.   Tactical vests like the Style 101 are not heavy and don’t make you feel like you are wearing a flak jacket.   There is a time and a place for different types of tactical vests, but mobility is important.  You may want to try getting your magazines loaded up with all of your gear and then try running 100yds with it and see what it feels like and if stuff starts to fly out of your pockets.   Mobility is extremely important.

There seems to be a new craze in competition shooting in recent years.   I’ve seen more high school boys coming home from class with Zombie survival guides, the recent 28 Days later type movies and the doomsday virus outbreaks.    I guess IDPA has lost some traction to the present generation, but I’ve attended a few Zombie survival competitions and they were very good training events.   The best thing about it was the amount of tactical gear that I watched fail, and the number of really novice mistakes people made.   Out of the 5 stages I attended, there was 1 stage that we saw about 18 firearms go down.   About half of those were AK variants and they were mostly magazine related.  Some guys never knew how hard it was to do a tactical reload on an AK if there was a round in the chamber and a fully loaded 30rd magazine.  People found out what happens after firing off the 1st round and the magazine falls out.

 

Top
1 2 Page 2 of 2