All posts tagged Tactical Apparel

Finding the right combination for carrying

I have to admit that I was not into the AR15 style rifles for more than half of my shooting experiences.   When I first started out shooting firearms, it was with shotguns and 22 caliber rifles.   In the early 1990’s a lot of surplus firearms from the failed Communist Countries came here and could be had for only a few hundred bucks.   At that point, shooting a pie plate was all I really wanted to hit at 100yds and I didn’t see the need to spend $700-$1000 on a gun of a more expensive caliber to do basically the same thing.   There were plenty of SKS, Mosin Nagants, 7.62×54 semi-autos and AK variants for under $400.   As i gained more shooting experience, I learned the limitations of each firearm and graduated to the M4 Carbine as a favorite configuration.

When I was first introduced into the tactical clothing industry, I looked at all of the tactical shirts, tactical pants, tactical vests and jackets in a similiar fashion.    I didn’t think I needed all of those pockets and sometimes, the vests made me think I’m more likely to loose my car keys in one of those.   Well, as I gained more experience in the tactical world, I found some tactical clothing quite useful, I’m not talking about just the combat style tactical pants ect. but just pants with wide hand pockets so I can get mace or a firearm in and out without snagging.  I’ve used a few tactical vests that I though were an overkill for my purposes, and found a favorite which is not as heavy and can actually be worn under a jacket which can conceal it.   I strongly suggest looking into the Eotac tactical clothing, after all they are backed by the same company that owns Bushmaster, Remington, DPMS, Marlin firearm ect.

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Another word about the Eotac Field Jacket

We’ve done several Law Enforcement or Military Conventions in recent months and we got to meet some of our customers up front.   One of the first things our customers asked us were “when are the black and navy blue pants coming in?”.    There have been several tactical clothing companies stepping into the market in the last 5yrs, but only 4 or 5 really seem to have held their ground.   I won’t claim that one is the best and everyone sucks because it’s mostly about preference.   Some people prefer Glocks over Sigs and for most applications, there really isn’t a difference in durability and reliability.

The same goes for some of the top apparel lines.   Proper, 5.11 Tactical, Woolrich Elite and Eotac make a lot of good products, but some do have products that stand out and are unique.    I have to admit that I have heard a l ot of complaints from 5.11 tactical customers due to production changes once the company go so big, but this time I’ll just discuss one product.   The Eotac Field Jacket looks like the Woolrich Elite Series Algerian Jacket, which in itself, looks like the Original Algerian Jacket.   The Eotac Field Jacket, which is known as the Style 502, is the best tactical jacket. Although the Woolrich Elite jacket is well made, it looks like a first generation run compared to the Eotac jacket.

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tactical shirts in a new camoflauge pattern

One of the fun things about riding the Eotac wave into the tactical apparel market is the innovation and originality of the product line.   We’re aware of many of the really neat things coming out in the next 2yrs and we’re waiting for the new pants and shirts that are coming out in the A-tacs pattern camo.   We’ve had the first samples for a few months and displayed them in Atlantic City, New Jersey Police and Security Expo and the recently at the NTOA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.    They have been floating around since Show Shot, but the final production designs have only recently been finalized and we are expecting them to be available in the Spring of 2011.

The Style 407 is the tactical shirt that Eotac has chosen for the first run of the new A-tacs pattern camo.  This shirt is probable the most tactical looking along with it’s counterpart the style 408 short sleeve version.   The front pockets are bellowed to give a little bit more room compared to many of the 5.11, Woolrich Elite Series and Blackhawk shirts.   I’ve had a lot of comments about how the shirt pockets on many of the non-Eotac shirts were too small and ended up tearing eventually if people put too much in there.  The 3 way ventilated back will give you a lot of breathing room while wearing a durable and useful shirt.

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Woolrich Elite Parka Fall outterwear

I have to force myself to wear certain types of tactical clothing that is available and wear it for a few weeks before forming a solid opinion.    I’m always happy to find a company that puts out a good quality pant or shirt.   I have had some very well designed clothes only to find out that the next time I picked them up the pants didn’t fit the same and it wasn’t that I gained weight.   Woolrich has been in the clothing business for a very long time and although I know that there are several good companies out there that some of this just comes down to preference, but Woolrich knows their fabric and the quality is excellent.

Ever since I got into this business, I’ve been acquiring lots and lots of outerwear, but most of it sits in a closet for 3/4 of the year.   Up here in the Northeast, we get all 4 Seasons, but sometimes we go from Summer to Winter in just a few weeks.   I’ve had the Woolrich Elite Algerian Jacket, Barn Coat and half-zip sweatshirts, but I was really disappointed that the Barn Coat didn’t stay around because it was a nice cut and design.   The Woolrich Elite Series Parka is a waterproof 100% nylon ripstop that gives you a good outer layer that isn’t too heavy and isn’t too light that you can’t carry gear or backup magazines.   I’d have to say that this is very much a Fall weather jacket and I found it too be a little too warm to wear when it was about 78F and high humidity.  It kept me dry, but was a little too hot.

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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.

 

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Eotac Style 202 Tactical Pants review

tactical pantsI’ve been wearing Eotac tactical pants for almost 2yrs now.   We got a hold of some of the early production that were slightly different in fit from what is being produced now.   There were originally a few complaints coming from customers that were almost always weight lifters or body buildings.   Some of the pants were getting  a little tight around the thighs so Eotac quickly changed the production.    Now that the pants have gone through several productions, we’ve gotten great response from our customers on the design of the pants.  Many of our customers are not happy about the 5.11 tactical pants that they have been wearing for  years and wanted something new,  a few of them were Woolrich Elite Series customers the wanted to try something new.

There have been times I’ve been at conventions where I’d have to admit that it was hard to tell what manufacturer people were wearing because so many of them looked almost identical, but once you look closely you can tell right away.   The reality is this, there are plenty of well made pants out there, but there are also just as many cheap  tactical pants that if they were worn several times a month, and washed more than a few times, they’ll shrink or fall apart.   Eotac not only puts itself in the category of higher quality, but it offers a Warranty for all of their products if there is a production issue.    The most unique thing I have found about wearing these pants over 5.11 and Woolrich Elite, is the pockets are bellowed.    If you need pockets for mag dumps or carry lots of gear, these pants will give you a little more room, but not balloon out like BDU pants do.

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Great responses over Eotac Womens pants

tactical pantsWe have been waiting for the Eotac womens pants for almost a  year.   We expected them to arrive in June of 2009, but there were production delays which we suspect we’re due to re-design changes.   Later we were expecting them in the Fall of 2009, but once again, there were shipping delays.   We’ve been holding backorders for the Style 702 pants and just got around to fullfilling the orders in April of 2010 and we were crossing out fingers that the design would be well accepted.   When the tactical pants first arrived, we shipped a lot of them out to associates as beta testers to see what there opinions were before we started stocking the product.   We have carried other brands of womens pants in the past, but we dropped them because statistically speaking, the return and complaints about them were about 85% complaints about fit and sizing.    You may think that is a really bad stat, and it certainly is, but desigining womens tactical pants are much harder than designing mens.
Eotac has the connectios in the manufacturing industry to bring in the right people that know tactical, and know how to make products for women.   As of today, we have not had one single return where women could not wear these pants, we have had a few that had to return the pants for differernt sizes.    The production for the Style 701 womens tactical pants is still ramping up so there may be some shortages in certain sizes and colors, but we defanitely have a winner here when it comes to the product line.   Overall, the demand for the Eotac tactical pants has far exceeded the production capabilites at this time, so please keep in mind that this is something you need to jump on now before there is a 6-9 month gap in our inventory.   We recently sponsored a Ladies shoot at the Langhorne Rod and Gun Club and the top 3 scorers each received a pair of Style 702 womens pants.   The responses we got were great and we’re waiting for them to get more range time in and tell  us how they held up.

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New Direct Action line coming from Eotac

Rogue Elite will be running promos for the new apparel line called Elite Operator Tactical or which is more commonly named, Eotac.   We have seen the tactical apparel market explode in the last few years, but we have also seen some casualties.   There have been several small concealed carry clothing companies come out with pants or vests that have already gone out of business.   The art of designing tactical or concealed carry clothing is not an easy one.   The real problem that we see in many of the products that are showing up is consistancy and quality.   5.11 tactical has held a huge chunk of the market, but as many of our customers know, the original manufacturers made a higher quality clothing line and things have deteriorated.   Some of the 5.11 clothing I own is nice,  but on more than one occasion, the sizing was inconsistant.   I have seen some of the newer casual clothing and it does look nice, but I’m still wondering if I’d have the same issues if I wore their shirts.

Woolrich has been making tactical clothing for almost 5years now, but seems to have taken a real hit since so many dealers have dropped the line.   We have been told that many of the people that were originally behind the Woolrich Elite Series clothing split off from the company and are working with Eotac.    We wondered about that when Eotac first showed up on the market because so much of their clothing mirrored 5.11 Tactical and Woolrich Elite Series clothing.    This coming Fall there will be some real cutting edge products coming from Eotac, namely the Direct Action line.   The new A-Tacs camo is really nice and we will first get a glimpse of this at the Atlantic City Expo in June.

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The blue colar CCW owner

tactical shirtsThe blue colar CCW owner is probable the most common gun carrier you may run into.   I’m not  going to go into a class warfare thing here, but in my opinion, there’s no reason to look down on blue colar workers as opposed to white colar gun owners.   The whole blue vs white thing seems to be a made up argument between people that spent $80,000 on a College education that got them absolutely nothing a small business owner already knew.   Life is full of invenstment opportunities and we need to take advantage of those opportunities.   Getting an education should be viewed in the same manor as buying a house.   You spend money on something, you expect a return, and if the return wasn’t worth it, the investment wasn’t worth it.

Eotac apparel comes with a factory warranty that backs up their products.  If you have any kind of factory defect, they will exchange the product after inspection.   The clothes you wear from some other tactical shirt companies may be cheaper, but how long will they last?  What happens if you wear them to the range and the pants tear out on you?   The 409 mechanic shirt is something anyone working a blue colar working environment will appreciate.   These shirts may at first look like a gimick, but to those who actually fit into this environment, these shirts can carry your custom logo and they will probable breath better and make accessing gear easier compared to a standard issue mechanic shirt.

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Time for a change

tactical pantsFor most of the United States, we are moving towards warm weather.   It’s time for us to think about our summer CCW and for those of us that were tactical apparel for work, time to switch to lightweight tactical pants.    The military learned this the hard way in the Pacific Theatre during WWII.   Wearing the wrong type of clothing in certain environments can mean freezing to death or unneccessary sweating.   We don’t recommend wearing shorts in the winter for obvious reasons, but sometimes we still need to wear pants even though it’s pretty darn hot out.

A few weeks ago we had to clear out a field for work and even though we’re in the early season for poison ivy, it’s still sprouting in various places.   It was in the upper 80’s that day, but we couldn’t wear shorts without risking contamination or even certain bug bites.   The Eotac tactical pants in Style 203 are made in the exact same pocket pattern as the Style 202 and are similiar in design to the  Woolrich Elite 4429 and 4441 pants.   These have a gussetted crotch which gives the user more movement and durability.   100% cotton ripstop means half the weight of regular tactical pants and all of the same pocket designs that give it such usefullness.

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