All posts tagged sale on Blackhawk pants

Water Restistance and durability of tactical pants

We’ve been very happy to see new products in our warehouse like the Blackhawk Lightweight tactical pants.   These tactical pants are very different from the 5.11 tactical pants like the Taclite pro pants.    5.11 has a large product line of tactical pants but there is plenty of room for innovation and improvements.   Water resistance is very important if you are going to be in rainy environments.  People can die by sleeping in environments where they never dry out and cold weather can eventually lead to death.   We always have a large customer base of people that are Law Enforcement or Military but also go hunting, and sometimes there is very little difference between the product lines.

When the weather starts to warm up we see changes away from the cotton canvas tactical pants towards the lightweight material.  Just like cold weather and wet environments can be dangerous, hot weather can also be dangerous if you are not wearing the right clothing.   There are several styles of tactical pants to consider, but for wet environments the best lightweight tactical pants we sell are the Blackhawk lightweight tactical pants that are treated with a DWR, which means durable water resistance.  That’s a big deal for avoid uncomfortable deployments in damp environments.

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New Products from Rogue Elite

Along with an ever growing inventory at our new retail operation in Pennsylvania, Rogue Elite has been looking for niche market products to accommodate our already established customer base.  New products like Turtleskin “frisk gloves” have been something we didn’t normally venture into but now that our Law Enforcement customer base has grown so much products like that are in demand.  Just likes shirts, pants and boots, things wear out and need to be replaced every so often.   Original Swat footwear costs are under $100 for the vast majority of their product line and a big sales pitch in this economy.

When it comes to new business and attract attention, we’d like to say a big Hello to the competing online tactical gear companies that have been trying to redirect links to their businesses via this blog and also for taking product reviews and other information off of our website.  I guess its an honor to know that you like to compete in the market with for keywords like tactical pants and others by attacking blogs from competing businesses. Thanks for the attention but we have say this, our business operation is a much nicer one in comparison to your MO operation, tell your SEO department to knock it the fuck off or there will be ramifications. Those are not the business practices that will give your company longevity.

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Major Shift in Tactical Clothing

Now that 2012 is upon us we will begin our shift towards carrying more of the Woolrich Elite and Tru-Spec line.   Although we do carry some of the 5.11 tactical clothing, there is very much a demand for things other than 5.11.   Vertx pants are very nice but considering the price tag on the products it’s a little too much to dive into at this point.   We’re expecting consumer confidence to pick up once there are changes in Washington and we hope there are.   I would have to say that Tru-Spec and Vertx seem to have made the most traction in 2011 and we plan on riding that wave although the Woolrich Elite Chino pants are our favorite pant of the year.

We are making some major changes to the inventory that we are stocking and it’s time to clean house.  For a short time we have reduced the large quantity of Eotac tactical pants to $24.99 and making room for other things.   These pants are a fantastic deal and the designs were very well thought out although according to many of our customers the Woolrich Elite pants had a better durability a held up better after washing.   I personally  have seen very little sizing issues between Woolrich Elite, Eotac and Tru-Spec pants so it should be an easy adjustment for our customer base.

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New Colors from Woolrich Elite

We just got word that one of the new products coming from the Woolrich Elite Tactical line are the lightweight tactical pants in coyote.   For some reason it’s taken this long to come out with one of the most popular colors next to khaki.   When I first got into the tactical clothing market I always thought that that black would have been one of the most popular colors but it’s not.   I’d say the popular colors are Khaki, OD Green and Coyote.  If you look at the tactical footwear we sell, coyote brown and tan are more popular than black.

Everyone knows that tactical pants is a giveaway that you are carrying a gun, but black tactical clothing makes you look like a ninja or a bad guy.   There have been some tactical pants in a stone color which sold pretty well, but to each his own.   We were hoping there would be some changes to the lightweight line and have a gusseted crotch but I guess that won’t happen.   The Woolrich Elite line gets some of the least complaints and we’re always happen to not have to hear bad things from our customers about products.

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Not a big fan of everything in the tactical clothing world

I have yet to find a shirt that is considered to be tactical that actually fits me right.  I’ve worn plenty of them while teaching handgun courses but there were either sizing issues with them or there were functionality issues.   I never like the idea of having velcro on the pockets and the button down versions just seemed far more professional looking.   Some of the early Woolrich Elite products really were a knock off of what 5.11 had, but the quality and slight design improvements were a big, big deal.

Tru-Spec tactical clothing is very much becoming my favorite and its’ mostly because the fit is probable the best for me.  I will not go out and say that everything else in the tactical clothing world sucks because so much of this is about preference.   Tactical pants, tactical shirts and tactical vests all  have different purpose and sometimes you’ll want different clothing because of the weather.  Heck there may be a time you might want to put your guns and gear down and put on EMS pants and brush up on your first aid training.

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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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Clothing prices and companies leaving China

We’ve all been aware that for the last few years the value of the US dollar has declined but so has the entire World economy.  Cotton prices have gone up almost 80% and even trying to get stuff made in India which is an alternative to China has been a problem.  We’ve  heard credible rumors that a certain tactical clothing company had serious production issues and basically got done in by Corporate squabbling, a bad economy and product issue in China.   We also got notice this week that Original Swat Footwear has pulled their factory out of China and no longer makes stuff there.

Tru-Spec makes all of their own clothing and has their own factory and seems to have done fairly well even in a bad economy which has made us invest in the product line.  One thing that is very important those wearing tactical pants is not only the quality, but the availability.  There are some product lines that become so scarce at certain times of the year that customer get tired of the backorders and they move on to another product line, if this happens with a new clothing company, you’ll be sure to see that it won’t gain any traction.

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Carrying rifle magazines off a tac vest

A well designed tactical vest is almost always the best place to to carry your gear, but the gear should drive the mission.   The reason Molle vests are so popular is simple putting it, you don’t always need the same gear to get the job done so why expect the vest to already be designed for everything.  Sometimes to many attachments is the real piss off and you want simplicity.   There are still times when all a guy needs is a vest for flash bangs or grenades.   Those can be important roles for achieving a mission accomplished.

The tactical clothing market is easy 1000 times bigger than it was 6yrs ago and quality and cost are one thing, but the other is about usefulness.  One tactical pant that catches the eye are the Woolrich elite tactical pants in Style 44447.  These pants were designed after the ACU style pants are are probable the most popular carbine operator pant.   There pants are lightweight cotton ripstop and can hold up to 6- 30rd pmags in or any AR15 30rd magazine for that matter.   If you aren’t in a situation where a tactical vest is appropriate, the Woolrich Elite pants make getting gear easy in the prone positions.

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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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More and more options for tactical clothing, but does the quality suck?

I answered an email from a customer that ordered several styles of shirts from us but they complained that they ordered all of the same sizes, but the fit was not the same.   We’ve been in the clothing business for long enough to know that sometimes styles and sizes get mislabeled and your wifes home cooking skills did not advance you to the larger sizes. All clothing manufacturers claim to be durable and consistent but the truth is that this is not a reality.   The same company may have variations in sizes and might even change the quality of the fabric just to save a few bucks.   Some clothing makers even out source stuff which compounds the quality control issues.

Making good clothing is a talent and you can have the best designs in a tactical pant but then wreck it with poor quality and poor consistency.  I’ve heard rock albums get ruined by bad mixing or poor recording.   Look at the And Justice for All album from Metallica and how many bass players are still pissed off at the bad mixing that went on.  The point is that great talent still gets wasted on tactical pants and tactical shirts.   There are some really nice CCW shirts from Blackhawk and 5.11 but sometimes when you hold them in your hands they don’t feel as good as they look.

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