All posts tagged Blackhawk Warrior Wear

Adding tactical gear you can really use

When people talk about tactical gear, it usually pertains to the stuff they are hanging off of their M4.  One of my biggest pet peeves in the  tactical accessory market is something I refer to as the tactical gear snag.   I have torn tactical pants in the kitchen of my home because the pockets get caught on everything that a kitchen has to offer, and slings, pressure switches ect are all extra things that get caught on the same things, I’m definitely not a fan of pressure switches because if you have the right size flashlight and mount it in the right position, you should  be able to turn it off and on with your finger without the need for running wires.

One thing that I have found to not be a drawback are gloves, having a good set of tactical gloves like the Larry Vickers tactical gloves from Eotac, will not be as heavy and hard to feel like Kevlar gloves and the Vickers tactical gloves can be customized to what you want with your trigger finger.   If you do not like the idea of  having your trigger finger wrapped in a glove, you can cut these down to where you want your trigger finger to be exposed and the glove will not fray or fall apart.  This will work for left or right handed shooters.

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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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Eotac Style 203 vs Style 201 pants

In the early part of 2011 I’m going to do more research and pick up a few more lightweight pants.   I know 5.11 has a lightweight pants that is 65&/35& poly cotton pant.   I have never had issues with my pants holding water, but then again I have never been deployed to Afghanistan and never noticed the difference between the two.   The 5.11 taclite pro pant is something I will pick up, but I gotta drive around and check them out at other dealers before I do so.   I’ve had too many sizing issues between various companies to be able to just order stuff online.

The Eotac style 203 pants do have an edge over the similarly designed Woolrich Elite pants as far as my opinion about the pocket designs, but some people have different bodies and prefer the larger seated cut on the Woolrich Elite.   If I was heavier, I might not like the close fitting that the Eotac pants have.   The only thing I am not very fond of on the Style 201 tactical pants is that the stitching on the lower ankle pockets has a few sharp spots on the insides and every once in awhile I get a small jab in my ankle by a something that feels like it’s pulling a hair out of my leg.   If I wear long socks the issue goes away, but in the summer you can feel it.

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I’ve tried on many pants

And I’m still mostly wearing Eotac tactical pants.   I’m hoping to see more pants styles coming out from this company that are really concealed carry friendly and not tactical.   I was at the NTOA in Pittsburgh this year and one of the guys I was working with mentioned that he has been a rep for various tactical clothing companies and has a hard time telling the difference between them especially at a Tactical Conference.   The people that have to live and work in tactical clothing are usually the people that I like to get feedback from.  Most of these guys really know how well clothing  holds up when they have 4 or 5 pairs of pants and are washing them each approximately 4 times a month.

There are occasions when we get the idiots that call up and say their shirts shrank and then we ask them if they read the directions on how to wash and dry them and they say no.   Anything made of Cotton will shrink, including your tactical pants and there are things that you can do to slow it down, like not using a dryer to dry your clothes all of the time.   You will extend the life of your  if you watch the temperatures that you dry them at and try to air dry them as much as possible.   Shrinkage should not really ever be a problem if you do this.

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Tactical Pants and real CCW

I have been trading back and forth between 5.11 tactical clothing, Woolrich Elite Series and the much newer Eotac brand.   I will admit that I understand that many of these brands may be personal preference, but there are  huge differences in the fit and feel of the pants.   If I just take the covert pants from 5.11 and the Woolrich Elite 4909 pants vs the Eotac pants.   Woolrich and Eotac look similiar, but none of them fit the same.   While I find the 5.11 pants to fit more like normal fitting jeans, the inside the waist pockets are not very useful if you are going to be sitting down a lot.   I can carry a small j-frame revoler inside the pants without a holster, but the locations of the pockets aren’t very comfortable.

I took a Sig 239 9mm 8rd magazine and put it in the rear pocket and when I sat down it, was not comfortable to wear at all.   I think these pockets lend themselves more towards putting a wallet or handcuffs in them than a firearm and accessories.   Next I tried putting a Streamlight Scorpion in various positions and none of them worked.   I tried to pocket carry and inserted a Smith & Wesson 38 Special I had around and it could not be concealed in these tactical pants at all.  They were in 5.11 tactical pants, but not these?   With both the Woolrich Elite 44909 and the Eotac 205 jeans, these were not the traditional straight leg jean, and the fit was different for each.   I personally like the Eotac color, Woolrich pants were too purplish and baggy.   Both pants were pocket friendly and my vote would go for Eotac by far.   I do think the rear ID pockets are a little over done when you keep the water bottle pocket below it.   That strikes me as a little too tactical and not discreet.

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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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tactical pants and consistancy

tactical pantsI’ve been wearing Eotac tactical pants and shorts for almost 2 yrs now.   I’ve seen only one real production change since I’ve been wearing them and that pretty much proves that Eotac got it right with their line of tactical pants.  Some of the early production pants were a little tight in the thighs but I never noticed this problem since I’m not a body building (the only people that noticed).   I really like the fit compared to the 5.11 tactical pants I use to wear primarily because they don’t ride up in the seat.   I think that is the most common complaint I get from customers when they call and ask about various tactical pants that we sell.

The Style 202 are my favorite pants to wear for fall and winter weather.   At first glance, most of the tactical pants out there look the same, but just like many of the firearms that we see in the industry, some of it just comes down to preference.   I find some of the tactical pants made by Blackhawk and Proper to be a little overly designed, and I don’t need pockets in many of the places that some manufacturers are placing them.  They Style 202 pants have them were I need them and they are designed to the proper dimensions.   It always bothered me that so many shirts and pants had basically flat dimensions and you couldn’t really fit much in them.   This became an issue with many of the tactical shirts I have worn especially when it came to using notepads.   If the notepad was full, my Woolrich Elite shirt face pockets couldn’t fit it and I’d have to place my notepad in the inner pockets.  All of the Eotac shirts and pants have bellowed pockets that aren’t bulging, but give you about another 30% for putting more in a pocket, without adding more and more pockets to a design.   There can be too many pockets on tactical clothing.

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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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Direct Action clothing from Eotac

tactical pantsNext week there will be a Police and Security Expo in Atlantic City, New Jersey and Eotac will displaying some of  their A-Tacs and Direct Action products.   We’re still not sure about everything that Eotac has coming out this Fall and in 2011, but seeing some of the info about what is coming soon really makes us think that 5.11 Tactical is going to have  some real compeition out there.   I can’t tell you the number of times we’ve  had customers call us up and complain about the tactical pants that they have  been wearing from 5.11.   Many of them complain about how things use to be and how they end up with different sizing even though they keep ordering the same sizes.   I was checking out some of the 5.11 tactical shirts that were the Covert carry design and I may pick up a few, but I personally think the Woolrich Elite CCW shirts are a much better feel.   Even though we are very selective about the products we carry, I’d have to admit that every big name manufacturer has a niche market that some of their products perform very well in.

The slow economy doesn’t seem to be affecting the tactical pants market though.  It seems that every time I step onto a firing line, somebody shows up wearing tactical pants from another company that I never heard of.   There was even a gun shop on the West Coast that was making a really cheap knock off of the the ACU pants.     I believe I could name half a dozen manufacturers that made the ACU pants, but only Eotac made it right.    I still have a few BDU pants that I use to wear when I was in College, but those pants are so darn uncomfortable to wear to the range anymore and the pockets are not very secure.   It’s one thing to have a pocket for mag dumps, but try putting a Blackberry or mace in BDU pants and you’ll  have no idea where they are after you take your first stride.   Some of the tactical pants I have seen really look over done though.  They’ve got a pocket within a pocket and a pocket behind every seam.   I guess I should walk around and check out some of these other manufacturers and see how the quality holds up.  I think thats the issue that eliminates a lot of competition.

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