Concealed-carry license holders, like anyone else, are looking for ways to save money. Uncle Mike’s offers an affordable IWB style holster, that some penny-pinchers may see as a good option.
It isn’t.
This product would be more appropriately named “Uncle Mike’s IWB Failster.”
IWB (Inside the Waist Band) concealed carry is difficult enough. Uncle Mike’s IWB holist is little more than an ankle-sock with a wide paperclip attached.
The Uncle Mike’s IWB offering, named the Inside-The-Pant Holster, is a whole lot of fail in one little package.
Pros: Low Initial Cost
Cons: Everything else.
Fail: Comfort. Nothing like 2 pounds of steel jabbing you through a thin piece of foam.
Fail: Quality. There’s no way to dress up shoddy materials.
Fail: Concealability. Your sidearm isn’t very concealed if it’s laying on the ground next to you.
Fail: Overall cost. You’ll just wind up buying a better holster.
The holster is constructed of cheap, light-weight foam padding. The kind of padding one might find in the headliner of a 1993 Buick Century. The belt clip, which is useless for keeping the holster in one place, is a cheap, flimsy plastic tab.
Pistol retention – how much force is required to remove the handgun from the holster – is an important consideration for any concealed-carry system. Retention is a major safety concern. The Uncle Mike’s IWB holster offers zero retention. The material the holster is made of does not grip the pistol – the padded foam is slick, not grippy.
There is no thumb-break, so only gravity keeps the pistol pointed muzzle-down. The various vague sizes are made to fit a variety of handguns. They’re a one size fits most type of design, so the holster is usually either too large, or too small to properly fit the handgun being concealed. This allows for a lot of forward and rearward movement in the holster, which will eventually cause the pistol to work itself out of the holster completely. This is very bad news.
If a user can manage to keep the holster in its place, and then somehow keep the pistol in the holster, they’ll find the experience uncomfortable. The materials used for the holster are cheap and thin enough that the pistol pokes and prods the wearer. There is no vertical adjustment on this holster, so people with short torsos will find that it rides high. There is no cant adjustment on this holster, so people with a preference for grip angle will be disappointed.
Folks who like the idea of their concealed carry pistol being where they need it when they need it need not apply.
However, those folks who like to live dangerously, and don’t mind their gun falling out of their pants every time they step out of a car or walk down a flight of stairs will find great success with the Uncle Mike’s Inside-The-Pant model holster.
