All posts tagged Tactical Clothing

What kind of tactical pants ?

If anyone is reading this, I’m all ears on what kind of tactical pants  you are wearing and why you like them.  In a recent conversation with some EMS people, the discussion about 5.11 pants and all of the changes that have taken place with the company over the years.   The discussion about the EMS pants came up and all of the individuals I had in the room liked them, but they did mention that they wish the company would make some changes to the designs.

Tactical gear and accessories change over the years and the same goes for medical equipment.   Tactical clothing especially tactical pants can go over the same changes, or so they should.  Something like a cell phone has changed in size over the years and designing a pocket around a cell phone isn’t something that is going to last for 10yrs.   Probable in the next 3-5yrs most cell phones will be in the ear or on it.   I would like to hear back from people that were EMS pants from 5.11, Tru-Spec ect and see what they wish we sold.

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Sale on Woolrich Elite tactical shorts

The heat wave in the northeast is upon us and it’s time for the lightweight Summer shorts sale.   The Woolrich Elite Series tactical shorts are made of the same 100% cotton rip stop material that the Style 44441 and 44447 pants are made from.  They are close in style to the 4444 pants, but there is no BDU or cargo pocket.   I think this is kind of a bummer, but there are so many people out there that can’t handle the long inseam that would be needed to put this addition on it, but there is an option that is somewhere in between.   The Style 44905 short meets you at the half way point.

Woolrich Elite 44905 is by far the most popular tactical short that we sell.   It’s not too long, but the pocket designs are so useful and the material does not shrink or ride up on you like most tactical shorts do.   If you read through some of the previous blog posts I have had some pretty bad experiences with 5.11 tactical shorts.   It’s a little too late for me to try and pick up Proper or Blackhawk Shorts, but next Summer we’ll probable make a few additions to the product line if we like what we see.   The Woolrich Elite Cargo shorts give you the most versatility.

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The difference between lightweight tactical pants

I’ve been wearing the Woolrich Elite lightweight tactical pants for years and never had issues with them,   I’ve been wearing the Eotac tactical pants and didn’t have problems with them.    The 100% cotton rip stop as far as I know really is the lightest weight pant that I know of, and I’m still waiting for the Tru-Spec 24/7 pants to arrive.   The Tru-Spec pants I’ve been told do not wrinkle as easy, but they did feel a little bit heavier to me.   I did not view the Black hawk lightweight pants to be lightweight.  The 65% poly and 35% cotton really makes it for a heavier material.   In hot weather, when you can’t wear shorts, you have to wear the lightest weight apparel that gets the job done.

I do find the pocket designs on the Tru-Spec pants to be very useful because they aren’t giant BDU pants pants.   Something like the Woolrich Elite elite tactical pants in style 44447 are nice if you are hauling and M16 around, but the pockets are too big for every day use.   When it comes to colder weather the product differences are a little easier to wear on a daily basis and then it really gets down to the durability and fit of the clothing.  I’m still not a fan of the cell phone going in the pocket but most tactical pants seem to have been designed around a Blackberry size phone.

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Keep that backpack stuff to a limit, get a good pair of tactical shorts

Something to seriously consider doing this year if you are going on a long camping trip or a hiking trip is to get some good tactical clothing.   People should know that much of what you see in the tactical apparel and clothing world actually started with rock climbing gear.   When you have to climb up the side of mountains having  things hanging off you can cause balance issues and snagging issues.   The deep rear pocket designs you see on many 5.11 tactical pants which were later copied by other companies was for rock climbers.   Stuff doesn’t fall out of them just because of the way the pockets are designed.  Much in the same way that Woolrich Elite and Eotac pants were designed for pocket carry.  The guns will more than likely float around the  pocket before they find their way out even if you are laying on your back.

I’ve found that a 20 oz bottle of water can easily fit in a pair of Woolrich Elite cargo shorts and even their lightweight versions.   If you have to ride a bike you’ll probable have to move the bottle, but it does come in handy to have pockets like this.  Many tactical vests are also designed to hold water bottles and it’s nice to be able to wear tactical shorts that were designed for something like this.  The Woolrich Elite Series tactical vest style 101 has two pockets in the back that can hold a bottle each.   Not only are these Woolrich Elite shorts tactical shorts, they are great for just about any outdoors fun.

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Heavy work in hot weather

Sometimes you have a day when the last thing you are thinking about is carrying a firearm or spare magazines.   There have been times that I just wanted to rip my belt off and thrown things on the ground because it was becoming so darn uncomfortable bending over and carrying stuff around while carry a pistol.   One thing that I do like to do at times is take off my gun and thrown it in a pocket.   Something very cool about wearing and owning certain tactical clothing pants and shorts is the pockets are so big that you can stuff a Glock 19 in them and they’ll go all the way down.   Pocket carry with such a large firearm is not something I would plan on doing for very long, but it’s possible.

Now that it’s early July and Summer heat is in full swing, I usually keep my tactical clothing to a simple lightweight pants or lightweight shorts option.   I tried to wear the Blackhawk ligthweight tactical pants, but they were too hot, lately I’ve been only wearing the Woolrich Elite tactical shorts that are standard cotton canvas material, have lots of pockets, but aren’t supper light weight that they don’t support guns and gear.  There is a much lighter weight 4908 short, but it lacks the cargo pocket and that is one of the most useful pockets I use.

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Inseams really matter on tactical shorts

Now that summer is in full swing here in the Northeast, everyone that wasn’t prepared to deal with the weather is calling for the lightweight clothing. We recently had a couple guys that worked in the LEO field and they were talking about jumping over fences and which clothing was holding up to that.   He we go again, another person pissed off that we don’t have the Eotac 302 shorts in stock.   The Eotac shorts were in stock about a year and a half ago and were the first sign something was wrong with the company when they never arrive right before the summer last year.   The funny thing is guys that had them almost 2yrs ago are still wearing them.

The 5.11 tactical shorts that I have tended to feel like brown boxes that were cut around my waist and that silly back pocket strap makes me feel  like I’m in a marching band, but people seem to buy them.   The only decent option left out there seems to be the Woolrich Elite tactical shorts.   The style 4905 are probable the most versatile but some guys don’t like the length on them and really want 7 1/2 inseams.   The only issue we’ve had about the Woolrich Elite shorts is that they do seem to wear out in the crotch area faster than the Eotac shorts.   Mostly because of the way the stiching was done.

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Buying trash and wearing it

I don’t think I’m going to run out of info on discussing these tactical clothing issues because I hear it all day long.  I just got off the phone with a customer that was bitching about the Eotac clothing being discontinued, and the “now what am I going to do?” is starting to set in.   I noticed a ton of gun shops in my area have stopped carrying clothing because I get it.. selling clothing is a royal pain for a gun shop because nobody wants to deal with the sizing issues and exchange rates that you have to expect whenever  you sell something like that.  Nobody buys an LWRC M6A2 and returns it because it doesn’t fit right, but we have sold hundreds of dollars of clothing and had it all come back for exchanges, it goes with the business.

At a recent show in Atlantic City, we walked around various tactical booths and checked out the stuff that was there.   One guy that use to sell the stuff for some of the big names said he hated wearing the tactical pants from one company because they felt like they were made of cardboard.    I didn’t disagree with him because that really is about where the tactical clothing market is at.   There is a lot of uniform style clothing but when you get down to comfort and durability, it’s almost down to about 3 or 4 clothing companies and then after that you have to decide if you want tactical or casual, and then it’s an even small market.  I wonder if anyone in the tactical apparel market knows that ?

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Knee pads and other protective gear

We’ve been selling various tactical pants for the last 5yrs and one thing that I still find kind of odd is the whole knee pad insert.   When i first started using the knee pad inserts it was with the Woolrich Elite 4447 pants and the knee pads didn’t line up to where my knees were.   I later tried them on the Woolrich Elite 4429 pants and they worked on them, but you really only could get use out of them if you kneel on both knees at the same time.   That position may work at Church, but on the firing line, when I think of kneeling, it’s on one knee.   The knee pad inserts do hold up for a pretty line time, and for only $3 you can replace them for both sides.

If you are looking for serious protective gear for your knees and elbows, I seriously recommend using the Blackhawk Neoprene elbow pads and knee pads.   People have their preferences on what they want to wear, but there is a pretty big difference between using the ones you get on your tactical pants and what you get separately.   I was severely disappointed when the Eotac Direct Action line basically flopped because it hit the market and barely a month later the South Carolina location shutdown and all of the products were basically being cleared out at cost.

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$29.99 pants on sale until they’re gone

It’s time to clear out some space and make room to transition our store into a kick ass Police, Security and Law Enforcement supply place.    We just got in a huge  inventory of Original Swat tactical boots and the diverse product line of footwear is impressive.  We’ve done a few conventions for their products and we know what people want to see.   Recently we had several groups from local Swat teams show up and we sent out a bunch of stuff for testing and evaluations. Product feedback is important and we are listening.
We got a lot of requests from people to start carrying the Tru-Spec 24/7 line of clothing.   The women’s pants have a pretty good repuation, but this whole un hemmed thing for women’s tactical pants is someone annoying, but I know why they are doing it.  With our broad display of tactical pants we’re adjusting to the demand of our customer base.   The Eotac product line was a great sell, but now it seems to be a thing of the past and it’s time to move on.  Stock up on the last of the lightweight pants for $29.99.

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New wave of CCW shirts from Woolrich Elite

Today I was going through the list of all of the new products that we had to list on our website and sometimes we debate on whether or not we are going to carry something when it gets to my desk.   There have been a lot of useless gun accessories, but they sold and made money, but I found them to be annoying.   Some of the gun parts were a liability to carry because the quality control was so bad that our return percentage and complaints were so high that it wasn’t worth the time to carry them.

When it comes to selling clothing, there are some big named companies that we limit the products from them because quality control is so bad.  That is not the case with the Woolrich Elite Series product line.  They’ve had a few dud products, but I would mostly blame that on the economy and marketing.   The new wave of Woolrich Elite CCW shirts are going to be in my wardrobe.  I’ve about had enough of the solid color CCW shirts that have been made in the past and it’s great to get shirts that look  like they came from a department store and not a tactical shop.

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