All posts tagged Woolrich Elite Series

5.11 vs Everyone else, what do you really want?

truspec tactical pantsWe know the elephant in the room in this tactical industry is 5.11 tactical.  We have had 9yrs experience dealing with lots of competitors and even though they are very small in contrast, there are so many ways of making tactical clothing, especially tactical pants that it’s really going to come down to this…. Price points, quality control and person preferences.   There are going to be some that don’t like baggy pants and some that want a straight leg tighter fit.   I have been wearing Blackhawk Warrior Wear for over 2yrs, Tru-Spec 24/7 tactical pants and Eotac and Woolrich Elite pants for almost 5-9yrs and they all fit me slightly different but I’m the same waste size in all of those brands.

This year I will be testing the waters with Vertx line even though I get sticker shock when I look at some of their products, but you do get what you pay for in tactical clothing.  The Tru-Spec 24-7 Series pants I wear are probable the best priced tactical pants I own and with the sales that the company does every year, you sometimes can get them for under $30 if you do  your shopping during the promotions.  The new Gunny pant has larger knife or flashlight pockets and a straight boot leg cut.  I personally like the gunny pant more but I wish it has elastic straps  inside the cargo pockets. If you wear 5.11 tactical clothing you might save a few bucks and consider the Tru-Spec tactical apparel line for Military and Law Enforcement as well as those who CCW.

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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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Major Announcements coming this Fall about the tactical apparel market?

One thing that we’ve been pondering recently is seeing all of the Make Ready DVDs coming out that still have the Eotac logo on the back of them.  According to the internet buzz, Eotac went defunct on March 31st 2011 and that was it.  No press release only an email to the dealers about the South Carolina location closing down.     We are awaiting a shipment of Blackhawk tactical pants as well as some of the Tru-Spec 24/7 pants and we’re going to see how our customer base handles the product change.   While most of our customers have gone back to Woolrich Elite for the items that we don’t have in stock.

Normally some of the major announcements about new products and press releases go out in September and we’ll see what kind of news gets released very soon.   There is always something new coming out and the tactical clothing market especially tactical pants market really needs to be thinned out.   There are some companies where, as a dealer, we really wish they would listen to their customers and just make some minor product changes like pocket alterations or fit improvements, and they’d have a perfect product, but after years of customer complaints, they just won’t do it.    Too bad,  Eotac was so close to perfection.

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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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Getting ready in the early part of the Summer

It’s this time of year that the last thing people want to think about is buying clothing, it seems like nobody things about how much light weight clothing they have until they have broil in hot weather for the first time and then they go to work the next day with the wrinkled shorts and shirts that were stuffed way back in the closet.   I’ve seen differences in water consumption between the guys wearing standard weight tactical pants and guys wearing shorts.   There are health issues that can occur and your average Joe probable won’t know if he sits in his air conditioned home all the time.

When  you have to work in the hot weather, you don’t want to be drained already and not have the stamina to deal with a stressful situation or emergency.   One thing that we are happy to be carrying are the Woolrich Elite tactical shorts.  These tactical shorts are two different styles.  One is a 9 inch inseam that is similar to the 44429 style pants, but with a slightly smaller cargo pocket.    The 44908 Style shorts

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New product from Woolrich Elite

We’ve been carrying the Woolrich Elite Series clothing line before they added the name “tactical” to the brand name.   When we first brought the product line on board we were new to the tactical clothing market and were in a learning stage of our business growth.    The people that design tactical clothing rarely put a perfect product on the line and we have seen on many occasions there are product modifications and tweaks.   One of the biggest disappointments we have  had with some of the Woolrich Elite product lines was how fast some of the products were discontinued before the product got legs and people found out about it.  One of my favorite products to this day was the Woolrich Elite barn coat, but it was discontinued way too fast.

The Woolrich Algerian jacket got a lot of complaints about the arm lengths and you can do a few searches online and you’ll see this is true, but the last one i got in seemed to be different.   When I got the Woolrich Elite Discreet Carry Twill jacket my fingers were crossed because I didn’t want to get something that I knew wouldn’t sell because there was a design flaw.   I believe the Woolrich Elite Twill Jacket may be the best outwear design that we have seen from Woolrich in the last 5yrs.  The jacket is cut right for CCW and the feel of it kind of reminds of the Sigtac jackets,but not as heavy and smarter pocket designs.   I could fit a Glock 19 in the hand pockets and the inner accessory holders are larger in size and easier to fit magazines and flashlights in them without wiggling things around.

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What’s up with those cotton prices?

We got several warnings from some of the apparel companies we’ve been selling that prices are going to go up on all of the clothing that we are selling.  This is entirely up to the fact that cotton demand has exceeded production capabilities and there has been a shortage of cotton.   We knew something was wrong last year when one of our clothing manufacturers didn’t have any of it’s lightweight clothing available when Spring came and nothing showed up for Summer.   Now that we have a large number of deployed Military and private Contractors being deployed over seas in  hot climates, there is a large demand for lightweight tactical clothing.  Unfortunately we couldn’t name one company that makes all of the best lightweight clothing because each has it’s own good and bad points.   I’m still not happy that the Eotac Style 301 shorts stopped being made last year because I do not like the shorter inseam 302.

I have had some of the 5.11 tac lite pro shorts, but they are too tactical looking for most of my Summer adventures.   I think it was smart to make them a cotton polyester variant especially since Cotton prices have gone up, it’s probable going to be more common to see synthetic materials blend into clothing.   You sure can’t beat the 100% cotton ripstop tactical pants from Eotac though.   We get a lot of requests from guys in Iraq and Afghanistan that love the Style 203 pants because the pocket designs and the fit is superior to the similarly looking pants from 5.11 tactical pants.   I remember being at a trade show last year and some of the guys were joking about how hard it was to tell what clothing company made various pants because they all looked the same. The truth is, they don’t all feel the same.

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Pocket guns and getting dressed up for CCW

Many of you that are married may not have the option of dressing  yourself, but I have often been told that I can not wear a certain type of pant or shirt when I was going out because it clashed with what my wife was wearing.   CCW clothing options are very limited even though there are plenty of tactical clothing companies offering concealed carry or covert carry clothing.   I did a few trips to local gun shops and picked up Proper, Tru-Spec, Woolrich Elite, 5.11 tactical and a few other clothing options and the sizing variations was a nightmare.   I was buying 36/34  pants to 38/32 pants depending on the manufacturer and that was what I had to do to just get the fit right.

When it comes to shirt options, that’s a much hard sell.   I haven’t been able to buy anything other than 5.11, Blackhawk and Woolrich Elite shirts and a couple Eotac shirts, but there was not a lot of versatility.  If I wanted to do out of uniform Law Enforcement duty then the tactical clothing companies worked, but if I had to pass the Wife’s going out for dinner options, I did not have a lot to wear that didn’t get flak from her.  I highly recommend the Woolrich Elite Oxford shirts and the Woolrich Elite CCW shirts.

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Why bother with paintball clothing

I just got done watching  a few videos on Youtube that were all about tactical vests and tactical clothing.   I was laughing in the first 5 seconds because all that I noticed that was different than the stuff we sell was we didn’t have the words “splat” written across the vests.   I think the old round ball paintballs are going to be obsolete in another decade and airsoft is going to get really good that kids will be playing with guns that look and function like the real ones and use the same holsters and tactical vests.   I got a Sig 228 airsoft gun last year and I didn’t have to buy a single holster to practice with it.

The Eotac style 101 vests and some of the 5.11 tactical vests are all you need if you are playing paintball or airsoft with an AK or M16 type of gun, magazines pouches are there and will work very well.   The real thing to think about when you are playing paintball or airsoft is the same that you would think about if you actually going to think about real world gun fight training, tactical pants, tactical shirts, tactical gear.  Durability and weight are issues as well as worrying about snagging on things.   The crap you put on yourself the more you gotta think about what you want to wear when you’re laying flat on your stomach.  Try wearing everything that you would wear with your CCW or tactical clothing and just show up at a paintball game.

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Think about the magazine holders before you buy

I was at a Zombie competition over the weekend and I have to say that this was by far the most professionally run competitions and some of the best tactical gear and firearms I have ever seen on a firing range.   There were several shotgun courses which meant there were plenty of people showing up with shotguns and gear, part of the fun of the competition is that every that competed in this everyone that was there had to lug the gear that used with them at all times.  Even though you still have to see a lot of Made in China on the gear, the designs of holsters and magazine holders has improved.

There were a few tactical vests that I got to see that were specifically designed for shotguns.   I’m doing a little research on what kind of vests these were, but it was impressive.   Uncle Mikes and Fobus make kydex magazine holders which work very well for IDPA or competitive shooting, but they are not the most vesatile for real hard use.   Eventually these holders will get a little loose with hard usesage and you will hear a rattle when moving fast.    Carrying magazines that have straps on them are not the best for competition or CCW because I personally think it’s one more thing to have to flip out of the way.  For combat these work fine and for some competitions they work, but I strongly recommend the use of the Blackhawk single and double stack holders.

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