All posts tagged 100% Cotton Ripstop

Lightweight tactical short options

There are so many tactical pants clothing makers out right now and I believe I have been saying that for almost 4yrs.   Every time I think we are done seeing a new tactical clothing company, another one emerges.   For dealers it’s at a point where you really have to wonder how much more you can possible flood a market.   Selling clothing is very different than selling knives and gun holsters.   There are so many variations in body sizes that everytime you get stuck with an ugly color or an odd ball size you might get stuck with it for a very long time which is why so many gun shops don’t like selling clothing unless it’s sold in Small, Medium, Large ect.

One thing that won’t be disappearing anytime soon is the Woolrich Elite line of clothing.   Of all of the people that have stepped into the tactical clothing market, Woolrich has been around and making clothing since the Civil war.   Woolrich Elite tactical pants and lightweight tactical shorts are still big sellers, and it has an awful lot to do with durability and quality.  We here far less complaining about shrinkage with this product line compared to the 5.11 tactical clothing and if you spend $50 on a pair of pants, the Woolrich Elite product line is where you want to spend it.

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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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Rumors and more rumors as to what is going on

The tactical market is absolutely flooded with tactical pants and tactical clothing.   I just did some research online for concealed carry vests and found a few smaller companies making vests, but I also noticed they are making pants.   I’ve heard enough bitching and moaning from our customers about the fact that they didn’t want to pay $50 for a pair of pants, and now I’m seeing a cluster of small companies making $80 + pants.   As a dealer, I have serious doubts about the profitability of clothing priced that high even if you create a cult following.   The reality is this, if you don’t have easy access to a manufacturing facility in China, India, or Indonesia, you really are going to have a hard time making money.

Now that cotton prices have shot up so  much due to the inability to grow it fast enough, prices have gone up for even the big companies.   With Eotac tactical pants swimming in rumorville,   the easiest transition for customers is to Woolrich Elite apparel although Tru-Spec seems to have gotten a good nod from people we have been dealing with.   One of the good things about selling tactical footwear is that Original Swat boots owns their own boot factory and they don’t have the scheduling issues that many clothing companies have.   If they are sold out of something, they order it and produce it at their own scheduling time line.   One thing that seemed to really due in Eotac was they never produced the right products at the right time and it was almost like the company never got its best stuff on the market.

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Blackhawk lightweight tactical pants

I attempted to deviate away from Woolrich Elite clothing this summer and it lasted about 5 minutes.   There really is  something to be said for “movement” when wearing tactical pants.   There aren’t any indestructible pants out there because there are always ways to move and tear them, but when  you feel them riding in your inner thighs when  you raise your legs, you’re going to be buying new pants sooner than later.   These pants cost more than Woolrich Elite but the fit was no where near the same.  The sizing was very good compared to regular clothing, but the fit was totally not the same.

The Style BH86TP02 pants came in and I was anxious to find something to replace my worn our Eotac and Woolrich Elite stuff.   The first thing that I noticed about these tactical pants was that they were heavier than Woolrich Elite lightweight pants.   The side cargo pockets seem to be very well stitched in and felt strong, but they did not feel lightweight. The one thing that really gets me is the darn hand pockets.  I hate this Blackhawk, 5.11 tactical pants cut that is slanted and not rounded off.

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Summer CCW options when it comes to wearing shorts

We all know that much of what we see being made by  5.11 tactical and Blackhawk, Woolrich Elite and Eotac are suppose to be concealed carry, but they really are all still tactical looking.   Much of what i have seen that was suppose to be in the Covert Carry products from 5.11 all looked like a Cop should be wearing them and if it’s got 5.11 on them, I don’t think there are too many big time criminals that don’t know what 5.11 clothing looks like.   I’m still amazed at the fact that 5.11 covert carry pants do not work very well with any kind of pocket carry and the inner pockets are practically useless for anything other than a wallet or money.   Woolrich Elite shorts are by far the best,  we’ve carried a few other tactical shorts in the past, but we got tired of the complaints about them riding up and not being true to size.

One thing we have liked about carrying the Woolrich Elite product line is most of our customer base have come over from wearing 5.11 tactical clothing.  We plan on carrying some of the 5.11 tactical apparel in the very near future, but we will be picky about what we carry due to so many complaints about inconsistencies about sizing and shrinkage.   I’ve tossed a few 5.11 tactical shorts because they rode up on me so bad that I was in danger of being cited for obscenities.   Woolrich Elite style 44908 are the lightweight cotton ripstop material that will give you some ability to carry gear or pocket carry

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Somewhat depressing but we’re hopeful

The Eotac website is down and there is plenty of fluttering going around the internet about their sudden disappearance.   As a dealer for the Eotac line, we were sent a notice that Eotac was going through their SKU numbers and re-evaluating the entire product line.  That doesn’t sound like Eotac has fallen off the face of the earth, but shutting down the tactical clothing website was alarming.   We recently heard that another clothing company has pulled out of China and is now making tactical clothing in Haiti.

If you listen to what Donald Trump has been saying for recent weeks, it’s obvious that China has this Country by the balls on clothing manufacturing and It sounds like some have actually taken the leap and moved out.   Considering the customer feedback we have gotten on the Eotac tactical pants,   I think in a worst case situaion, Eotac may have been bought out or should have been bought out to keep the superior desings from going out of existance

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Eotac pants shortage ? Whats going on?

I don’t think I can tell you I know what is going on, but I hope there is some salvation with the Eotac apparel.   Between the shortages in cotton and fabric materials and a bad economic it’s been hard to predict what will happen.   Our biggest sellers have been the Eotac lightweight pants because even though they may look like many other tactical pants, the pocket designs are the best designed pants for what I like.   The Woolrich Elite style 4441 are very close in design, but the draw back that I have seen was with the ID or wallet pocket.  You can shove a 20 oz water bottle in the back pocket, but try getting a wallet in and out of the ID pocket and you’ll know what I mean.   I guess I’m very old fashion and still haul a lot of business cards with me and I’m not looking to change that.   Tactical pants still gotta fit my car keys, gun and wallet for me to like them.

The style 203 pants have been hard to get almost since Eotac first emerged.   We waited for months to get the black pants in, but they never arrived and we heard rumors there was a production issue with them.   Since then we’ve been getting phone calls wonder if they were coming in and now we’ve been told that something else may be going on with these tactical pants.   Only time will tell if the production issue gets resolved, but we have the last of Eotac style 201, Style 202, Style 203 tactical pants that Eotac made.   I’ve seen a few clothing companies fold up this year because getting material has been so hard.   Finding denim material  was even harder to find.   Keep an eye here if some good news becomes available because we know there will be something announced soon.

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Eotac Style 202 pants

I’ve been growing concerned about some of the products I have learned to love in recent years because production issues in making clothing in China is having an impact on the availability of some of the tactical clothing out there.   I have gone from 5.11 tactical clothing to Woolrich Elite Series and then on to Eotac and picked up various tactical shirts, vests and jackets along the way.  I  had a Sigtac jacket for a short time, but kind of had no real use for it because I didn’t like the idea of carrying a gun in the jacket.  I always want the gun on my body and not in outerwear.

When it comes to the type of pants I want to wear, I am really stuck on wearing the Style 202 pants from Eotac.   I actually had switching over to the lightweight pants in the summer because the 100% cotton ripstop just doesn’t support the gear that I carry as well as the cotton canvas tactical pants.   The pocket designs on this are bellowed and hold more although snagging is a problem with all of the tactical pants I own.  Try washing dishes in the kitchen and you’ll learn to hate the cabinet knobs and handles.  I have a friend that has town his pants in the same area in his garage because of the same issue, but there are always compromises.

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2011 SHOT show is here

This year there will be several new Eotac products coming out.   The new Direct action smock and the Recce pant along with the new A-tacs cam pattern that will be made for the Style 201 lightweight pants and the Style 407 long sleeve tactical shirt.   We got a glimpse of the A-tacs pattern last June at the Police and Security Expo in New Jersey and got a lot of good feed back on the pattern.   Digital patterns have come a long way in recent years and it really has good darn good.   I remember as a kid thinking that most of the woodland cammo made you stand out just as boldly as if you were wearing regular clothing and it all didn’t make sense to me.

You can ask many of those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan what they thought about the camo they had back in Desert Storm vs. the stuff that is now.   The Style 201 tactical pants are lightweight combat pants that are very much meant for a Carbine operator.   These 100% cotton ripstop pants have a unique fitting that gives you more maneuverability over similar designs.  There are some really cheap knock of pants that look like this and go for under $30, but they will not feel the same.   If you have a chance to stop by the Eotac booth this year.  Check out the new A-tacs pattern camo.  If you aren’t in the military, you may want these for hunting.    Very good for the American bow hunter.

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Outwear and concealment options

The Seasons ar changing in most of North America and it’s time to think about how we are going to be able to conceal our firearms as the weather patterns change.  The hard part months like October is you never know if it’s going to be 75F or 40F because there are so many fluctuations at this time of year.   You may wake up to frost on the ground and need a warm layer of clothing, but still need to take it off later in the afternoon.   The Eotac 501 half zip sweatshirt is not only warm and comfortable, it is a concealed carry friendly surface layer.   The size vent flaps open up to access gear like your CCW Glock, spare magazines, Surefire G2 or even just  your cell phone.

The problem with putting layers of clothing on is that you are potentially burying your gear.  Now that a boom in gun permits have been being issued around the Country, there has also been a shift in the types of weapons people are chosing for everyday purposes and the demand for CCW apparel.  Rogue Elite is carrying some of the top tier concealed carry vests, tactical pants, tactical shirts and CCW friendly outwear like the Eotac Field Vest, and Field Jacket.

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