All posts tagged what happened to Eotac

Tru-Spec uniform shirts, tactical shirts and CCW Shirt reviews

Tru-Spec shirtsI’ve worn a lot of clothing that was designed for the tactical crowd and there are things I love and things I hate about various brands.  There are slight differences between some products and the way the fit your body and there are others that just flat out don’t work for me.   The first thing we had to settle on when picking a stocking tactical polo was it had to be widely accepted not just a personal preference.   The Tru-Spec tactical polos have gotten very good responses from our customers because they were lighter than the Woolrich Elite Series Tactical polos.   Some people like lightweight shirts and others prefer a cotton canvas shirt.  Much of it has to do with the temperatures that an Operator or Instructor is working in.  The performance polos were very well excepted here for Office work and that they were a wicking shirt.

The Tru-Spec combat shirts are what all of our local tactical teams use and are better priced than the similar 5.11 Tactical shirts.   Tru-Spec has ventured into marketing products to the civilian concealed carry crowd and for under cover Law Enforcement with the new Tru-Spec shirts like the CCW Shirt, and the Tru-Spec holster shirt.   All of these can work in the officer or in deep cover or backup gun scenarios.   We’ll be testing out more shirts from Blackhawk this summer while we try to pick products that we know our Eotac and Woolrich Elite customers want.  Less  Poly/Cotton ripstop products and more cotton canvas and 100% cotton ripstop products.

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Looks like Woolrich Inc is out of the tactical apparel market

Tru-Spec 24/7 series tactical clothingWe were the first dealer in Pennsylvania to carry the Woolrich Elite Series product line and I can’t think of much out there other than 5.11 tactical products, but Woolrich Elite Series products were very well received.  At the time the economy was better and people were willing to spend $50 for a pair of pants, but now things are really crazy and many of our customers are telling us they are dropping over $60 a pair of pants for 5.11 tactical stuff.   We’ve seen the ceiling be about $50 for pants and once we go over that for a product, we basically loose out to 5.11 tactical or some other company.  I have no idea what people are going to do if they liked Woolrich Elite Series products or the Eotac line because after checking out the Vertx, Tru-Spec and Blackhawk Product lines, they are all overy different.

There is a whole bunch of drama that went down with the guys that original came up with the idea for the Woolrich Elite line and in the end it lost out to the competition because it just couldn’t keep up with the times.   Our best best right now is to sell what our customers want and the Tru-Spec 24/7 Series tactical clothing has a great quality product for about 20%-40% less than their competitors.  There are the new Truely Tactical products coming out that are less than $40 and we expect that this is a great idea considering the economy and the market drive.  There are several companies making stuff now but nobody likes to buy online for new clothing and most walk to walk in a shop and try them on.

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100% cotton ripstop pants and comfortable tactical pants

We’ve tested the waters in the last year after Eotac faded away, and we have over a years worth of feedback about customers that have moved on to Blackawk tactical pants, TruSpec tactical pants and even Vertx.   Vertx seems to have gotten great reviews but not everyone is moving in that direction.  I have found the Vertx product line to be the most well received tactical pants amongst our window shopping operators.  You should see more and more products like this on our inventory in 2013.  In the meantime, most of our customers have told  us that they want cotton canvas pants, 100% cotton ripstop pants or the poly/cotton ripstop.

There are always slight differences with each pant that make it a selling point to a certain market.  Most of military contractors prefer the 100% cotton ripstop cargo pants from Woolrich Elite Series Tactical Clothing because it is really the only tactical pant to go back to or stay with since Eotac has gone. Many of our Law Enforcement Officers need a pant that has some time of lining in it to keep your pants tucked in, those customers go to 5.11 tactical pants or Blackhawk tactical pants.  Some tactical  pants are good for the office and others for Iraq.

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Military clothing vs CCW apparel

I hear people say all the time that a certain type of clothing is a “shoot me now” vest or a shoot me now jacket.   I don’t think that is really that big of a deal in many circumstances because there have been many types I’ve been to a mall in the winter and I have seen a skinny pot smoking kid in a military style camo jacket.   Most of those guys aren’t packing firearms and I doubt a bank robber or a terrorist is going to shoot them first because they are wearing military clothing.   I think looking healthy and having good muscle mass is more likely to get you shot first rather than have a fishing vest or a camoflauge jacket on.  TrusSpec makes some nice multicam products namely their new tactical pants.

There have been some really nice jackets and coats in the past and I have no idea why they stopped making them because some of them were really nice.  The SigTac jackets were a huge seller a few years ago, the Woolrich Elite Barn Coat and the Woolrich Elite Algerian Jackets were also very popular but some of them were discontinued.  The Eotac field jacket was basically and improved version of the Woolrich elite product line but that also faded out.  This year our two best selling outwear jackets are the Woolrich Elite Twill jacket and the Woolrich Elite Algerian jacket.   The Woolrich Elite Series Tactical algerian jacket is a military style jacket that has that look but it also has a lot of functionality that works well for carry a firearm.

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5.11 tactical pants vs TruSpec tactical pants

To this day I am still not happy about what I saw happen with Woolrich Elite and the rise and Fall of the Eotac product line.  I’m amazed that some of the product improvements never took place with the Woolrich Elite tactical pants and the demise of Eotac partially because the pants just never were available.   We had a completely confused customer base and now that price increases have occurred many people are shopping around for something close to their price range.   From what we are seeing there has been a big shit towards TruSpec and Vertx because so many of our customers were disgruntled 5.11 clothing wearers.   Much of my expereinces with the 5.11 product line have been good and they were and are the pioneers of the tactical clothing market.

We like seeing companies that actually have warranties on their product lines because with a bad economy and an over loaded tactical clothing market, we’d rather see the companies back up their products than have to deal with complaints about durability ect.   When going from product line to product line, The TruSpec tactical pants that we’ve been selling have had a  good reputation and after selling the product for almost a year, we’re seeing more and more repeat customers.  The TruSpec womens pants and shorts that we  have been selling have a 100% positive response so far and the sizing is very good.  Recently we started stocking the TruSpec EMS pants because so many people had sizing issues with the 5.11 version and were happy to find something else.

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Great Deals for combat or paintball gloves

I’m amazed at how many operators and military persons do not use any kind of fancy tactical gloves.   What amazed me was the number of people that are using gloves that you get in a sports store.  The truth of the tactical glove market is nobody wants to wear something where they can barely feel there hands.  For products where a cop has to worry about needles sticking them with hepatitis C or HIV, they they need frisk gloves like the turtleskin Alpha or Bravo gloves.  Sure you can shoot firearm with frisk gloves on but nobody is going to like that.   Many snipers do not want gloves to cover their trigger fingers  and most of the time those areas of the gloves get cut off.

We don’t know the real story on why Eotac disappeared but one of the casualties to the Eotac and Woolrich Elite history were the Vickers tactical gloves.   The Vickers duty gloves were barely on the market, but now word has gotten out and people are using  them as paintball gloves as well as what their intended purpose was.  These gloves were very well received and once Eotac acquired these gloves and then went out of business they are starting to disappear.   We have a large selection of the duty gloves but the OD green colors are dry up quickly.  Who knows if anyone will make them in the future but your best bet is to get them while you can.

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Blackhawk lightweight tactical pants are a hit

Sometimes when new stuff comes out we just sit back and let our customers tell us if it’s a good product.  Now that several of our tactical pants competitors have fizzled out we’re looking for tactical clothing that is made our customers don’t complain about.   I will admit that these tactical pants have a different fit to them and when I move in them they do not seem as comfortable as the Tru Spec and Eotac pants that I am use to.  But to each his own when it comes to fit and comfort.  Material makes a big differences to me in certain climates and although I have worn 100% cotton ripstop pants for 7yrs. The Tru Spec and Blackhawk Poly Cotton blend do not really bother me at all.

Some people want to get away from the 5.11 tactical pants that they have been wearing and right now there is so much out there to keep against 5.11 tactical clothing.  I see a few companies have attempted to design their own tactical pants but those are really just cheap range pants or better yet, yardwork tactical apparel.  We’re still waiting to  find out about all of the manufacturing changes that are taking place and hoping we don’t have any distruptions in product lines again.  TruSpec seems to be very aggressive in getting their products on the market with month long tactical pants and tactical polo promotions.  Next fall we will be on board for some nice outer wear promos.

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What people are saying about the differences in material

When we first got into the tactical clothing business Woolrich Elite Series was the first company to come out that was different than 5.11 tactical.   The 5.11 pants and shorts we were wearing were a poly cotton ripstop material and not cut very well.   I have some of the 5.11 covert carry jeans and they are just downright lame as far as design and fit.  The Woolrich Elite jeans were a good idea but the colors and fit were not very good.  To date the only concealed carry jean that we sold that got a good response were the Eotac 205 jeans and we are sadly not going to see those again.

The cotton canvas pants seem to be liked because of the comfort of the material but when people want lightweight pants, it’s either 100% cotton ripstop or it’s going to be a poly cotton blend.   We had an electrician come in here and say that the TruSpec tactical pants we sold were not approved for his job and only the 100% cotton ripstop pants were due to fire safety.  Both pants may look the same but they are not the same when it comes to moisture resistance and comfort although I find the TruSpec pants to be best fit for me for the poly cotton blend.

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Lots of Turmoil in the clothing business

We have just got word that their were riots in the Apple factory in China and another one of our product lines is having trouble getting stuff made over there because of some of the flooding.  What the heck is going  on with that place?  Everyone seems to think we have to tip  toe  with China because they own so  much of our debt that they can pull the rug out from  under us.   The truth of the matter is we actually still own them.  They won’t get anything out of us if we go down and right  now they are actually having the rug pulled out from under them.   We are at a total of 4 of our major product lines has pulled out of Chinese manufacturing beacuse of the labor costs and price increase on raw products.

I have no idea what is going on with the clothing industry.  We have done some really big promos with Tru Spec and Blackhawk products as well as the Woolrich Elite tactical pants  product line and we’re under the impression they are all having some issues.  We are testing out some of the new products form Tru Spec this summer because one of our favorite clothing makers, Woolrich Elite isn’t making the 44905 shorts at the moment and that is something that really concerns us.

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Switching from 5.11 tactical clothing to something else?

When we first got into the tactical clothing market it was pretty much all 5.11 tactical pants.   The stories about Royal Robbins becoming 5.11 and some of the changes that occurred left many customers disappointed.   I don’t know  how a company can make 5.11 tactical pants in 3 different Countries and expect the quality control to be there but I guess they don’t.  We’ve watched several companies attempt to cut into the market and fail and much of it was about production issues and quality control.  If you buy a pair of pants and like them and buy them again later, the same thing, and the sizing is different or it shrinks and rides up on you, you look for something else.

Some people just don’t understand what it takes to do business in foreign Countries.  It’s not just about a manufacturers ability to make a consistent product, its also about being able to make the product the right way and things like tactical pants sometimes need to be modifed if customers demand this.   I have witness such minor product fit changes that were welcomed and the sales went up.  Other companies were asked to modify their products and they didn’t and lost out to the competition.  5.11 has a real Winner with the Tac Lite Pro pants.

 

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