Old guy here dresses for comfort, not style. I only wear suits for court, weddings, funerals, and teaching CLE. (I think of the business suit as my shinobi shozuku, my ninja suit…it lets me blend with my environment.)

I actually did publish an article in the men’s fashion magazine Gentlemen’s Quarterly back in the ‘70s, but they never did ask me to pose for pictures. There were and are sound reasons for this.For utility rather than fashion, I refer you to a recent entry on the Wilson Combat YouTube channel:

or watch video here.

or watch video here.

20 COMMENTS

  1. After retiring and moving to the sticks, I spend much of my time canoeing, fishing & hiking backcountry trails. I’ve reverted to carrying my firearm, wallet & truck keys in a fanny pack. My wallet & keys are in a waterproof bag & everything is firmly attached to me in case of an inadvertent dunking or fall. Not exactly high fashion in the 2020s but not out of place in my usual environment.

  2. I’ve never heard of anyone being shot first for wearing that vest but if I were to wear it, my wife would probably shoot me.

    • I once mentioned to my wife that a vest might make a fine concealing garment. Once.

      She looked at me, completely dead-eyed, and issued a flat, “No.”

  3. The main problem with anything that has a connection to the way first-responders dress would be places where it’s legal to carry but which are, nonetheless, non-permissive.

    For example, in my state, carry is not allowed if the proprietor posts signs that meet certain requirements saying so. What if the proprietor posts prohibitory signs that fail to meet the requirements? It’s legal, but you don’t want the proprietor to find out lest he change the signs to meet the requirement.

    Yes, I know “Don’t spend your money where you’re not welcome” — but I’m talking about places where there are no permissive alternatives. E.g. to attend a social event to please a loved one at a location that someone else has chosen.

    Of course, one could wear the practical clothing demonstrated in the videos on _other_ days.

  5. Good clear videos and explanations as always. Noted the Springfield XDE in the promotion picture. Have you done a review of it and were there any drawbacks? Sadly it’s out of production for several years now.

  6. Having been cursed with 5.11 issue pants (some so old they still had the Royal Robbins Outdoor Adventure Clothing label) , I near cried when Eotac got driven out of business. Definitely a vast improvement and I bought a closet full of them at reduced prices.

    I fully endorse all the various pockets, haven’t seen anyone duplicate Eotac’s double rear pocket’s layout. Very much appreciated. Especially useful for us geezers that need to carry some stuff that’s necessary but not necessarily “tactical”.

    • Mas mentions carrying “stuff”. I’m old enough to recall when all men’s pants had substantial pockets because guys carry “stuff”. Simply put, clothing in general has become more flimsy than in times gone by. These days many pockets-especially front pants pockets-seem designed to carry nothing more substantial than a credit card, some business cards and maybe an access control card.

      Carhartt washed duck work pants still have substantial standard pockets. Unfortunately, their thigh pockets are only tool pockets. They do hold speed strips, offer a place to clip knives and so forth, so aren’t as universally flexible.

    • I actually owned a pair of Royal Robbins, they fit me way different than jeans or BDU’s. 5.11 came along and it stayed weird, too. I’ve gotten others and for the most part they fit the same, like a special pair of uniform pants for dress wear, and that’s when it hit – they DO fit like dress military uniform pants on me.

      Yech. I gave up on them, maybe others do ok, I will stick to Wranglers. As for vests, most of mine are cold weather fleece lined canvas, or fleece itself. Not a photo vest, a simple keep warm vest. Work just fine. One is a CCW with extra pockets inside but just hand pockets outside. Plenty common here in the winter.

      For all that, I wear shoulder holsters, which negate having to tighten a girth strap so much I start bucking.

  7. I love the “shoot me first” vest for CCW, because it really fits the need extremely well, and I generally *hate* carrying things in pants pockets.

    In all the years of wearing said vests (in different colors styles, etc), I have never been shot- first, or in any other order.

    The vest “blends” quite well in my home- Oklahoma- because fishing is popular here and it’s easy to “confuse” the purpose of wearing it; I get random people start up conversations about fishing on the regular, when I’m out in public.

  8. I’ve been wearing the Duluth trading canvas cargo pants for over a decade. Unfortunately they aren’t as durable as they once were. Lots of deep pockets and a spot for my EDC.
    Side note when they weigh you at the doctors office. Remember to empty your pockets. Last year did. And I forgot this year. This resulted in a lengthy discussion of how I gained 6# in 4 months.

      • The BMI concept always amused me.

        “Don’t use height-weight charts,” the medical profession said. So instead, they started using BMI, which is a calculation based on — drum-roll, please! — your height and weight. Effectively, they exchanged one height-weight chart for another, represented by a single number.

        Personally, my BMI has always bordered on “Obese” — even in my youth, when I had a six-pack — because it’s 100% dependent on height and weight, with zero consideration for other factors such as lean muscle mass, body fat percentage, bone mass and density, etc., all of which affect one’s weight.

        BMI can be useful as one benchmark — among many others — but it’s too easy for doctors to treat it as the only benchmark of health. “BMI fanatics”, as you say.

  9. I love pocket pants. Those cell phone slide pockets are such a help. My cargo pants in black, I call my Rambo pants. If I’m not mistaken, Rambo wears them in all 5 movies.

    I also love BDU shirts because they have 4 large pockets. Yes, they look military, but I like looking military. I love both military camo and civilian hunter camo. I don’t care about looking “gray man.” I would only want to appear “gray man” in a riot. If I find myself in a riot, I messed up by not being aware of my surroundings.

    I do dress appropriately for wherever I’m going, so I don’t look military all the time. I fit in, but I dress louder than most men. I love combining colors for effect, and I also wear custom-made message shirts and baseball caps, and other logo things like “NRA.” If I don’t have enough pockets, I use a fanny pack, or wear a second belt, with cell phone and flashlight attached. In honor of Batman & Robin I call it my “Bat Utility Belt.” 😉

  10. Re the “shoot me vest” concept … I had someone just recently ask about my multi=pocket black vest. Before I could answer (and thinking I had been spotted), they went on to ask if I “FISH”…

    So I guess I might be next up for FILLET, but not for being SHOT.

  11. I call mine The Walk the Dog Vest. I keep it loaded with the stuff I need for that activity and put it on as we go out the door. It does cover my glock and spare mag which are on the belt but the vest carries a leash, poop bags, OC, flashlight, monocular (potentially dangerous varmints around plus people engaged in activities that are not obviously recreational).

  12. One thing I will do is wear a fashion vest which doesn’t look at all like the fishing ones and is hardly noticed. It doesn’t have nearly the number of pockets but there are enough to cover anything I need to stash without any fuss. I’ve also always been a denim person but with my job requiring tactical style pants, I’ve learned to appreciate these more and more, so that’s becoming the norm all around. Although open carry is quite common in my neck of the desert, I prefer to conceal.

  13. Vests are very common here in central Indiana anytime except for the hottest part of the summer. Even then, I see them out and about. Cargo pants or shorts are also very common. Never worried about being dressed as a “shoot me first.”

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