Some cops have made the commitment to go armed off-duty every time they leave their residence, and some are a little less strict about it (but hopefully no one reading this has decided that it’s OK to be unarmed whenever they’re off duty). The fact is that in the course of a busy life there are times when it’s darn inconvenient to carry. (I never did carry when running, but I ran with my German Shepherd until we both had to stop; no one attacked him so I must have been quite a deterrent). On top of the inconvenience, there’s the temptation to skip the hassle if you live in a safe community. Most of the inconvenience comes from the fact that you have to go through the rigmarole of strapping the gun onto your belt. Yes, there’s pocket carry, and as convenient as that is, it only applies to small guns, and especially in the hot summer, with lightweight clothing and no coat pockets to carry other stuff in, that too, can become a bit of a hassle.
Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to easily slip a holstered gun of any size into your waistband without worrying about threading the holster through a belt, nor even clipping a holster to a belt? How about going a step further and being able to carry a holstered gun in the waistband in running shorts (or any shorts with a drawstring but no belt), with virtually no time needed to affix the gun to yourself?
Well, you’ve probably guessed by now that there is, and it’s name is Sticky Holsters. The brainchild of Florida trainer and law enforcement veteran, Mike Christoff. When I saw what he’d done, my engineering-educated mind paid his Sticky Holsters the highest compliment an engineer can pay to a design: calling it “elegant”. The breakthrough isn’t really in the actual mechanical design of the Sticky Holsters – they are flexible synthetic-material pouches like many others – but in the materials used. The outside of Sticky Holsters are, well…sticky. Not like chewing-gum sticky, but like very tacky. With just a moderate amount of pressure, they will not slide against other materials, including the slick nylon used for gym shorts.
You can imagine how they work. You put your gun into a Sticky Holster, slide the holstered gun between the waistband of whatever pants or shorts you’re wearing and whatever you’re wearing underneath (undershorts, presumably), moderately tighten whatever holds your pants or shorts up (a belt of any kind or even a drawstring), and you have securely affixed your holstered gun in position. Obviously if you are wearing only a drawstring-tightened pair of gym shorts, you won’t want to carry an N-Frame .44 Magnum – something like a lightweight J-frame or small semi-automatic is more like it.
Now that I’m no longer in law enforcement and work out of the house, I find myself running short errands and trips around town four to six times every day, most often in what could be charitably described as “extremely casual clothing”…particularly when it’s hot and humid (the crew of What Not to Wear has yet to do a makeover on me). And since I live in a safe place, the temptation to skip the gun when running a short errand is very much there. Sticky Holsters has solved my problem and taken away my last excuse.
They do work. I’ve carried a full-size S&W M&P and a Colt Agent (a older-model small Colt revolver, for you young ‘uns) all day long in a Sticky Holster (wearing regular shorts and a very light-weight belt) with no problems; neither the gun nor the holster shifted – the “sticky” part of the Sticky Holster really did its job. Also, they were extremely comfortable! Most IWBs eventually get uncomfortable; they stick, prod or chafe your hip area. Not so with the Stickys. I also carried a light-weight J-frame in a Sticky Holster wearing a feather-weight pair of nylon training shorts for shorter periods (to the store and back a few times), with just the draw-string tightened to hold it all in place. It did, frankly to my surprise! Of course, the smaller Sticky Holsters also make supremely good pocket holsters.
Sticky Holster’s Ankle Biter is a rig that turns any soft pocket holster – theirs or any other brand – into an ankle holster. Essentially a panel of sticky material captures both the inside and outside of the pocket holster in a band that wraps around the leg. This means that you don’t have to buy a separate ankle rig for every small gun that you’d like to carry there – just use the pocket holster that you probably already have.
I hope I sound impressed by Sticky Holsters because I am. They are innovative, they solve a real problem, they are reasonably priced, and they work. They also come with a lifetime warranty.
