Pants

I sometimes find it humorous that my father-in-law has more jeans in his closet right now than I've probably ever had in my life. He has "dress" jeans, work jeans, casual jeans… and then I have to laugh at myself. I have an even greater number of "tactical" pants in various colors and that I wear for different purposes. Not long ago I was introduced to the tactical pants from EOTAC. I began wear-testing them and realized that it's a good things some design characteristics are relatively universal in the product despite the manufacturer. Otherwise I'd be lost when I reached for something.

The pants have reinforced knees (like others) with knee pad pockets - but you don't have to take the pants off to put the knee pads in or take them out. The knee pad pockets are easily accessible from the outside of the pant. Lower down the calf pocket is large enough to hold one 30-round magazine (or whatever else you can fit into that size). EOTAC put elastic loops on the outside of those pockets as well. Their published material says those loops are for chem-light sticks, but they'd certainly serve other purposes equally well.

The Tactical design has the magazine/knife pockets on both sides - effectively on the front of the front pockets. EOTAC lists these as "Utility" pockets and has designed them with a reinforced liner. That's a good thing as far as I'm concerned because for the coustomer use those pockets see a lot of pistol magazines or knives going in and out - items with metal edges that will wear a pocket out faster than a cell phone. The thigh-placed cargo pockets are more common as well, with a hook-&-loop flap closure and no magazine loops inside. It's a cloth bucket with a flap lid. The Tactical pants don't have the calf level pockets nor the knee pad pockets.

If you look carefully at this pair of pants you'll see that it combines design features from common "tactical" pants available on the market today as well as a few features from the Army ACU pants. The two easiest things to identify that have the ACU flavor are the slanted opening on the thigh cargo pockets and the cargo pockets that they have placed on the outside of the calves. Just like the ACU pants, the thigh cargo pockets have the pull string closure, but improved on the ACU design these pockets have magazine loops sewn in to keep the pockets from just being "a closed cloth bucket".

Starting at the waist these pants have everything you'd expect for people in many lines of work today. The "action waist" has cinched elastic side panels that allows the waistline of the pants to more comfortably fit the waistline of your body. The front pockets are refered to as "easy access" but that just means the openings are slightly larger because of the way the pockets are cut. It IS easy to get your hands in and out even if the pockets are full or you are wearing thin gloves. In this case, EOTAC took a good design step and made the pocket pouches themselves out of heavy duty ripstop cloth to prevent all those sharp things we carry from ruining the pants too early in their service life. I know that my pocket knife, keys, and the miscellaneous other things I put in my pockets each day will wear out the typical thin cloth pocket pouch pretty quick. Using better material is definitely a good idea.

The back pockets are over-sized and secured by a small tack spot about 1" x 1/2" of hook and loop. At the top of each of the over-sized back pockets is a smaller wallet pocket riding higher and closer to your body - also with a hook and loop closer.

As you read through that did anyone notice that the "magazine" or "knife" pockets so common to the front of "tactical" pants don't exist on the EOTAC Operator design? If you feel the need for them get the Tactical design instead. Shown in OD Green here, the Tactical design from EOTAC has more in common with other manufacturer's pant designs. From the action waist to the front and back pockets, the Tactical Pants and the Operator Pants are alike. Once you get below those front pockets though…

In the test & evaluation package I received from EOTAC there were two pair of pants. One khaki pair represented their Operator style of pants, while the OD Green pair represented their Tactical style. The Operator pair was provided in their lightweight material while the Tactical pants were in the normal canvas type matrial. Pictured to the right here is the Khaki Operator pant.

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