The Specialized Clothing Issue Always Seems To Crop Up.

[camsdaddy]

I’ve been wearing one of those silicone wedding bands for 3 years now and sometimes I think it’s a dead giveaway for a switched on person. That and the thin blue line that people adorn their cars,houses shirts etc,seems like the last thing I’d wanna do is advertise the job off duty.
Plenty of guys I work with can’t turn off being a firefighter when they get relieved and head home. It’s thin red line everything, the ramifications of being “outed” aren’t nearly as bad. Socially I don’t wear anything FD or gun related out in public to avoid talking to strangers about logos etc on my shirts.
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When I see a silicone ring I normally think mechanic or a guy that works with his hands.
When I read your comment about turning off Fire Dept. I immediately thought anyone I see who is wearing a mustache is either PD or FD or own a white creeper van.

I agree with the norm. here. I think we see what we look for.

[rob_s]

Her off-the-cuff response to my question about how she thinks people perceive me relative to tactical/non-tactical/attitude/whatever dress/bearing was: "Irrelevant. How people perceive anyone else has everything to do with them, their past experiences with other people, and their own perception biases, and not much at all to do with the people in front of them. You are correct that most won't recognize that stuff and keep their heads in their phones, because that's where their interest lies. You see all that warrior stuff because of your life experience, upbringing, and the fact that you're actually interested in looking for it. Everything to do with you, and not much to do with what clothes people are wearing. You've pointed out concealed weapons to me and the guy was just wearing jeans, tennis shoes, and a plain t-shirt. So how people see you is going to be how they want to see you."

Goes along with my thought that I only don’t want to get “made” by other gun folks, since they’re really the only ones that notice.

[Larry Sellers]

When I see a silicone ring I normally think mechanic or a guy that works with his hands.
When I read your comment about turning off Fire Dept. I immediately thought anyone I see who is wearing a mustache is either PD or FD or own a white creeper van.

I agree with the norm. here. I think we see what we look for.

Bingo! I carry a med kit in all my vehicles yet there is no sign of an EMS or life saving decal on my car. My favorite is the local citizen’a group that advocates for gun rights. They have a giant white decal which a lot of folks have on their cars. It’s got a picture of a beretta 92 with the slogan “carry on!” Across the bottom. Nothing like advertising what your intentions are.


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[MDFA]

This right here.

It's true the vast majority of the folks you see in the mall will be too interested in their phone to notice you. But it's not the vast majority you need to worry about. So the fact that your friend didn't notice the guy open carrying is irrelevant. It's the hardened criminal that will spot you, and that's who you should be worried about.

What would be tragic is if Todd/Skippy/whoever wakes up one day and decides to kill a cop, and he mistakes the Recoil-reading, LAV-class taking CCWer for a cop in Subway because, well, he's wearing his 5.11s (or Kuhl if he's too cool for 5.11), North Face plaid shirt and Merrell hikers.

(I think that scenario is extremely low, low, low probability, but I am also firmly convinced that many relish looking 'tactical' for whatever reason all while paying lip service to the gray man concept. )

My Wife and I took a 3 day Combat Pistol Course from LAV and Jeff Gonzales in March.(Great Class by the way) We were in the 5.11 "Uniform" because they're practical for range training and comfortable. However being near Miami that attire would not have blended in off the range. We went straight to and from the hotel, packed our lunch so no stops anywhere in Tactical Timmy attire.

What still amazes me was how many people in the class who had no LEO or .gov jobs wore Thigh holsters, 5 Mag Pouches, Tactical Gloves, War Belt, Fixed Blade Fighting Knife, etc, then switch over to their carry gear and gun when leaving the range.

[Coyotesfan97]

When I see a silicone ring I normally think mechanic or a guy that works with his hands.
When I read your comment about turning off Fire Dept. I immediately thought anyone I see who is wearing a mustache is either PD or FD or own a white creeper van.

I agree with the norm. here. I think we see what we look for.

I’m not sure the mustache cliche applies anymore but it lives on. I wear one but I’m a crusty old school veteran from back in the day when 80-90% of the Cops had mustaches. At least on my Dept the clean shaven Officers vastly outnumber the mustachios.

[blues]

I’m not sure the mustache cliche applies anymore but it lives on. I wear one but I’m a crusty old school veteran from back in the day when 80-90% of the Cops had mustaches. At least on my Dept the clean shaven Officers vastly outnumber the mustachios.

I got rid of mine when there was more gray in it than I felt like looking at while shaving.

[Spectre044]

It's certainly not always about clothing or size. I'm 5'9, 190, I have a hipster haircut with a hard part, I wear wayfarers, random slim fit coffee shop t shirts, and chukkas and I still have people approach me and ask me if I am either A) military or B) a cop on at least a weekly basis.

Someone else posted it earlier, people see what they want to see based on their own knowledge and experience. And some people never see anything because they live in their own insular little worlds.

[Cypher]

I believe that the greatest common denominator among people who are "switched on" is the fact that they are "Switched on" when most people aren't.

If the bad guys are experienced in looking for inattentive victims theywould tend to notice people who don't meet that criteria.

Similarly, the police make a habit of scanning the crowd as well and I'm sure they notice other people they're doing the same thing.

I pay attention. that's why I can pick out people who concealed carrying and my friends don't notice people who are open carrying.

I think I've said this before but as a security guard they literally pay me to watch people and over 10 years I've developed the habit of looking at people in such a way that if somebody asked me I could describe them.

There have been instances when I was doing security at my church where a description has been asked for and one guy will say "He was a white dude" and I'll say " he was a white guy, mid-twenties, shoulder length brown hair, Timberland boots, brown carhart's, blue sweatshirt and I last saw him in this part of the church. And the other guys who are on the security team look at me like it's Voodoo.

So anyway I said all that to say this I think it's the behavior that's noticed more than the clothing and the only way to hide that behavior is to quit paying attention.

[Totem Polar]

Lansky Brothers in Memphis, TN. You can buy it online, fits true to size.

Holy Shit. I can make use of those guys.

[blues]

It's certainly not always about clothing or size. I'm 5'9, 190, I have a hipster haircut with a hard part, I wear wayfarers, random slim fit coffee shop t shirts, and chukkas and I still have people approach me and ask me if I am either A) military or B) a cop on at least a weekly basis.

Someone else posted it earlier, people see what they want to see based on their own knowledge and experience. And some people never see anything because they live in their own insular little worlds.

Yep. A few years ago, an elderly gent walked out to the road to greet me while I was out walking my late Weimaraner, "Smoky". He asked me if I was a retired military man. I sort of laughed, told him no and asked why. He said it was because of the erect posture I had as I walked down the road.

I really had to laugh thinking about how many times my father would yell at me to sit or stand up straight...and the fact that I have scoliosis (though it has never impaired any physical activity or participation in athletics).