Archive for June, 2011

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.

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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.

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This isn’t a paintball mask

I’ve recently had numerous people tell me that I should get into paintball gear and accessories, but recently I went to a shop that sold stuff like that and it took me 2 seconds to notice that the nylon holsters and Molle vests were almost identical to what real gun  holsters were.  Air soft and paintball guns have gotten so good that they literally will work with your Dad’s Glock 19 holster.   One thing that still strikes me is the shitty painball masks that almost always fog up on you.   I always hated that when playing paintball because it’s an automatic violation of the safety rules and removal from the game if you take your mask off.

Real safety gear means ballistic gear.   Bullet proof vests are really catching up to bullet penetration and survival rates of combat soldiers is up considerable.   One thing that still needs to catch up is eye wear, but the eye wear that Smith Optics Elite is making is something your Grandfather wishes he had in WWII.   Smith Elite optics look good and they also fit right.   The Smith Optics Elite goggles are designed to fit under a helmet and will give you a level of ballistic protection from debris.   They are rated for being able to stop a projectile that is in the 22 caliber category.   The Outside the wire turbo fan is the cadillac of the tactical eye wear.   The turbo fan is very quiet and will help keep your gear on and not have to take it off for a wipe down.

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Otis 5.56 buttstock cleaning kit

This is the cleaning kit you might want to consider throwing in your butt stock if you can fit one in there.   The tools that this gun cleaning kit comes with should get the job done after long firing sessions.  One thing to consider is that gun cleaning sometimes is over done and you can damage a firearm with too much scraping and cleaning.   I have never seen it happen, but I have read several articles in SWAT magazine that referred to people over cleaning AR15 guns.

Cleaning out the chamber is not as important as keep a DI AR15 lubricated, but I have never been one to leave a gun sit un cleaned for more than a week.   The Otis gun cleaning system are well thought out gun cleaning kits that have the brushes and attachments to cleaning various parts of a firearm.  The Otis 5.56 butt stock cleaning kit is even more practical because it fits inside the gun and doesn’t need to be hauled around in a range bag.   Having an Otis kit will probable reduce your need on packing gun cleaning supplies in another bag.

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Still not in love with the LCP

I got to the NRA convention a few weeks ago and the LCP was all over the place.  I saw  holster makers show up that they made gun  holsters for the little .380 pistol, Crimson trace laser grips had a big section devoted to concealed carry, and numerous other companies devote products to the Ruger LCP in .380.   The .380 is  a ballistically inferior caliber, but the durability of small pocket firearms has dramatically improved and people are wanted to carry less of a gun for more comfort.

Unfortunately for the rest of us that have seen the wrong side of society, carrying a firearm with a caliber that is not adequate for hunting just about anything, the .380 should really be viewed as a purse gun.  I have a stock pile of Galco holsters in my  house because they are the best and easiest way to get a good IWB or OWB holster for CCW.   I have an ankle holster for all of my j-frame revolvers and IWB are the best method for CCW.  I still have a hard time taking a .380 with me knowing that the gun won’t kill the worst in society.

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Where to go after Eotac?

We are now being bombarded with questions from our customers about what happened to Eotac.   We are out of various sizes of tactical pants from Eotac, but we still have a lot left and lots of people don’t believe we have it.    It’s almost like Eotac tactical pants are more popular and sought after now that nobody can get them.  It really is sad that the company was barely around for 2yrs and just when people are getting to know the product line it goes belly up.   We’re still waiting to hear from somebody at Remington on what the situation was.   We don’t know if they went out of business, were bought out, or merged with someone else.

After Fernando Coelho left Eotac last year, it’s no surprise that investors may have been concerned about it’s future.   Recently Fernando mentioned on Facebook on the Eotac page that if people are looking for something similar your best bet is with Woolrich Elite pants.   The fit is different and we’ll leave it up to our customers to say which is better, but considering how many disgruntled 5.11 customers we have, Woolrich Elite products are top notch and I would never bash them.   Designs are debatable and Woolrich Elite series shirts, pants and vests have a 95% satisfaction record with our customer base.

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