All posts tagged Woolrich Elite lightweight tactical pants

Woolrich Elite Lightweight pants in Coyote Brown

We just got in the new Woolrich Elite lightweight pants in Coyote Brown and they look really good.  Over the years we have been surprised at  how un popular black tactical pants were and mostly see khaki colors, OD green and usually something other than black or navy.  I guess most people try and stay away from the ninja look unless they have to, but coyote brown is a welcomed color.   We have been pruning our tactical pants category down for several months now and we should be eliminated a few product lines.  One of those product lines we won’t be discontinuing any time soon are the Woolrich Elite pants.

When we first saw Woolrich Elite products get on the market the first thing we realized is the contrast between 5.11 tactical fabrics and the Woolrich Elite.  Bother tactical pants would state they they were made out of an 8.5 ounce cotton canvas but only the Woolrich Elite pants were really the ones that held up to that.  5.11 tactical would not be where it is today if it didn’t make some great products but the complaints coming from our customer base have been constant and many have moved towards Tru Spec, Woolrich Elite and Vertx.

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Wearing the right clothing in the summer

This is one of those times of year that I’m not sure if I should be wearing a jacket to work or if I should be wearing shorts.  Up in this part of the Country, you can go to work in the morning with a jacket on and freezing and then by mid afternoon, you’ll wish you had a short sleeve shirt on and a pair of shorts.   So far this year we have gone from a very mild Winter, Warm Spring to close the windows and turn the heat back on in just a few days.   The biggest switch over I have to do this year just like last year is figure out what tactical shorts to wear, unfortunately there are some signs I may not be able get more of my favorite.

If you’ve got advice on what type of tactical shorts to wear this summer, we’ll be listening,  with what we’ve seen go on in recent months, we’re hoping to hear at some point that there are clothing factories making lightweight tactical pants in the United States and not elsewhere.  This month we are running our Tru Spec tactical pants promo and testing the waters on color and styles, there are rumors there are more tactical pants coming from Atlanco later this year.  Tactical shorts are usually pretty close to the same price as the tactical pants and considering the fact that you only get a few months out of them you gotta get it right, probable going with Tru Spec.

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What is the job at hand and will your pants hold up?

There are so many different types of tactical pants on the market  and so many people will rant or rave about a certain brand.  Sometimes they just brag about how they got a great deal on the clothing and and they fit, others will talk about the features while others will talk about the comfort.   Not everyone is going to like the fit of a certain tactical pant because body types can vary.   I won’t get too much into discussing this but in the 8yrs we’ve been selling clothing, not everyone can be happy with the same product.   In recent years the discussion has been about gussetted crotches and if the pants will blow out on the range, well that still can happen with any pant.

The real issue is with lightweight clothing, the lighter the material the more likely it will be to blow out if it does not have a gussetted crotch.  Some of the Tru Spec tactical pants they we have tested out do not have this type of stitching but we’ve not heard of anyone blowing them out.  I would claim that these are fence jumping tactical pants, but the fit gives you pretty good movement.   I’ve seen some of the Eotac pants blow out but that was due to design it was really a manufacturing issue.   There are so many variables in getting a good clothing product on the market and if we use consistency, quality and price points, the Tru Spec pants are probable number 1.

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Knee pads and tactical pants

There are some really nice knee pads from Alta that many of our customers have requested we sell.   We’ve been selling the Blackhawk knee pad and elbow pads for years, but after watching a really good review on the Alta knee pads on Youtube I was really impressed with the product line and there are some really good selling points over the Blackhawk knee pads. Not only are the knee pads a better option for material, the locking or latching knee pads are a better system than velcro.

Many of the tactical pants we sell already have knee pad options in them but they are a foam knee pad that goes inside the pants.  If you are looking for a lower profile look the knee pads are a nice option for range use on your tactical pants and will not be very bulky.  If you want to save your knees and not tear up your pants, you will want something over your knees.   All knee pads are going to cause you pants to ride up a little and varying types of material may ride up more than others.

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5.11 Taclite pro pants the best from 5.11

According to our customer base, the 5.11 taclite pro pants are the best tactical pants coming from 5.11 right now.   I’m not sure exactly when these came out, but we saw a ton of them at the Pittsburgh NTOA last year.   We recently attended a pepper spray training course at a prison here in Philadelphia and everything we saw was either TruSpec or 5.11 tactical.   We started out selling just about everything other than 5.11 products because there seems to be a very big market for non-5.11 tactical pants.

Much of the tactical clothing business is about preference and fit.   Not everyone has the same job nor are they built the same way so why would everyone wear the same tactical pants?   Blue jeans have a few color variations when you buy them new, and maybe one or two fits, but nobody expects to carry lots of gear in them.   The differences between the TruSpec 24/7 pants, 5.11 tactical and Woolrich Elite Series pants are pretty big.  The material and the designs give you big differences in usefulness will depend on what you are using them for.   Some materials prevent stains better than others and nothing beats 100% cotton ripstop for hot weather.

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3 suggestions for the 7 day CCW holder

If you are a 24/7 concealed carry holder you probable already know most of this, but there are always new carriers that can use the advice and avoid discomfort and irritation.  I like many before me stared out carrying a 1911 45acp and felt well armed, but after several years of either bruising myself or having a holster fail, it was time to move to something smaller.   The 1911 is actually a very good gun for CCW because it is very thin and not really as heavy as some of the other 45acp guns.   The Springfield XD is probable the second most popular firearm but that thing is a tank when loaded to capacity.

I have many friends that have carried the 1911 in the small of their back, but to me this is something that can cause grave injury.   The whole tactical pants market is absolutely flooded to capacity, but there is no reason that with an elastic waistband, you should be able to carry a gun at 3 or 9 o’clock.   If you can carry a gun on a paddle holster you can usually get away with carrying a larger firearm, IWB is for thinner guns depending on your body type but that usually means a single stack firearm.  And then there is always pocket carry and  thing is by far the most comfortable way of carrying.

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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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