Tactical Distributors’ “Braddock” Pants

Chris Hernandez

If you’re going to walk the streets in a state of readiness with a concealed pistol, spare mags, knife and the skill and will to use them, you have to prioritize your tactical considerations. What’s most important? Pistol type? Carry method? Your training?

Of course not. Pants are most important. Because they make you look cool.

I recently encountered some pretty cool pants I hadn’t seen before. Tactical Distributors Inc. provided a few test pairs of their “Braddock pants” for BB&C’s #TrailsFound16 event, and I was lucky enough to get one. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess they named these pants after Chuck Norris and the most realistic war movies ever made, the Missing in Action series.

TD describes the Braddock pants this way:

“Tough, durable and just short of bullet proof are words to use when describing the Braddock Pant. We needed a Fall/Winter weight pant to round out the TD pant line and so we developed the Braddock. Made from a 16 oz Cotton Canvas that you can run through tough brush or hit the deck and not be concerned with tearing. Because our customer is on the move and doing tactical sh*t we added 2-way stretch panels in all the right places: back yolk, gusset and the knee area. This allows the user to move freely yet still have plenty of warmth and protection.”

Braddocks are intended for cooler weather, and made from heavy material that can stand up to serious abuse. Even better, Braddocks have ten conveniently-placed, practical pockets (and none of them are cargo pockets!). In addition to two rather shallow traditional front pockets, TD added small knife/mag pockets to the outside edges. They also included side pockets for AR mags, cell phones or similarly-sized objects. The back pockets are traditional like the front, but with an added bonus: a heavy layer of material over the pocket’s edge, to prevent damage from knife or multitool clips. The knife/pistol mag pockets have that additional layer as well.

The Braddocks have double-layered knees, and a Velcro panel on the right rear of the waistband for morale or ID patches. But their most interesting feature is the strategically-placed elastic material just above the knees. That elastic material greatly assists with comfort and flexibility, but it’s a double-edged sword. More on that later.

The great thing about these pants are that they don’t look all that tactical (and more importantly, they don’t have the saggy diaper ass common to tactical pants of old). Now that I’ve transitioned away from life as a soldier and street cop into life as a military retiree and plainclothes investigator, I’m always on the hunt for clothes that allow me to comfortably EDC without looking like a mall ninja. The Braddocks do a decent job of that. The initiated might recognize the side mag pockets and double-layered knees as atypical of civilian clothing, but Joe Citizen isn’t going to look twice. Well, he probably won’t look twice. Except at one thing.

The elastic material above the knees really stands out. It’s deeper than the cotton canvas, and almost makes the pants look like shorts with zip-off legs. They also kinda remind me of renaissance pantaloons. And you have to be a ten different kinds of badass to pull off that look.

I’m no expert on making pants, but I’d guess TD could change the way the fabric panels are sewn together, so the elastic material isn’t set so far back. That change, along with deeper front pockets, would make these pants great-looking in addition to practical. Maybe TD will take my advice; if they do, I’ll be buying more Braddocks.

–CH

[You can visit Tactical Distributors online here]

Breach-Bang & CLEAR!

This Post is part of our Trails Found Series. What is Trails Found? Members of BreachBangClear and some other badass media outlets assembled together this last September to train with one of the last of what has been called the “old Border Breed”, in the desert of Arizona. That man they were training with was no other than the legendary Jim Grasky. In 1965 Jim Grasky was a young Special Forces soldier in Vietnam, then in 1970 he was a the squadleader for a team of smoke-jumpers parachuting in to fight remote wildfires. For about a quarter century after that he was a Border Patrolman, and literally named BORTAC. Though Grasky is a man of many talents, one of his specialties is man tracking–which is why he developed programs specifically for USSOCOM and has taught the world over. Through your various social media outlets you can track other articles and photos related to Trails Found by searching for #TrailsFound16 and #GoodGearMatters.

Comms Plan

Primary: Subscribe to our newsletter here or get the RSS feed.

Alternate: Join us on Facebook here or check us out on Instagram here.

Contingency: Exercise your inner perv with us on Tumblr here, follow us on Twitter here or connect on Google + here.

Emergency: Activate firefly, deploy green (or brown) star cluster, get your wank sock out of your ruck and stand by ’til we come get you.

Chris Hernandez Mad Duo Chris, seen here on patrol in Afghanistan, may just be the crustiest member of the eeeee-LITE writin’ team here at Breach-Bang-Clear. He is a veteran of both the Marine Corps and the Army National Guard who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is also a veteran police officer of two decades who spent a long (and eye-opening) deployment as part of a UN police mission in Kosovo. He is the author of White Flags & Dropped Rifles – the Real Truth About Working With the French Army and The Military Within the Military as well as the modern military fiction novels Line in the Valley, Proof of Our Resolve and Safe From the War. When he isn’t groaning about a change in the weather and snacking on Osteo Bi-Flex he writes on his own blog. You can find his author page here on Tactical 16.