Kydex is kydex but how the gun is retained, the mold, the edges, etc all make a difference and I can tell the difference in cheap kydex vs the better ones.Originally Posted by LittleLebowski
Just like leather.
Kydex is kydex but how the gun is retained, the mold, the edges, etc all make a difference and I can tell the difference in cheap kydex vs the better ones.
Just like leather.
My experience is great gun-to-holster fit even for my Beretta APXs. The retention devices (belt clip or paddle), on the other hand, are subpar flimsy plastic.
Which doesn't necessarily mean a Tier 1 holster will be better or more comfortable every time. After good success with my j-frame Apollo, I bought the same for my LCR without pause. I couldn't use it. It was horrifically uncomfortable for me (being AIWB means fit is a very personal and subjective thing). I sold it off and bought a generic kydex AIWB holster for my LCR that is far more comfortable. It did need a clip upgrade and a junk pillow, but even with that it was half the price of the Apollo.
I'm with @JCN on this, I end up modifying most holsters I buy and my success rate with "good" holsters hasn't been consistent.
Chris
The Kydex itself, sure.
But all the rest of the stuff is modifiable by me (because I like to tinker). I can round edges, cut parts off that poke me, add retention by heating and dimpling, loosen it by smoothing etc.
Bingo. I'm with you. I like tinkering and I often make significant modifications to even "top tier" products. Cuts in the hood for certain optics, adjusting sweat guard and knuckle relief for draws, removing and smoothing corners, etc.
These days I've just been buying Glock holsters and heating then pressing them to fit various other guns.
I altered a Glock 21 holster to fit an Alien...
I will modify JMCK, Dark Star, and PHLster holsters, but while I haven’t had a WTP I’ve had examples from the same tier and there is a difference. My best description is that they’re 90% there but that last and crucial 10% of thought and effort isn’t there. A major issue for me is the holes for attachments being just not quite where they should be, leading to ride height being imperfect, claws being too far outboard, etc. With AIWB especially the tiny differences matter. A JMCK is just quite clearly made by someone who uses the products daily and spends time designing and perfecting them. Things like WTP, it seems they don’t think much beyond just getting the hardware attached and calling it good enough.
The tier 2 stuff is fine if it’s all that’s available for a given gun, but between JM, Dark Star, PHLster, Tenicor, Keepers, and others in tier 1 I’m likely forgetting, if I have a gun they don’t support that’s probably my problem. And I’ve been there and done that - it was my problem.
Now that I'm thinking about it, I did notice something with mine: it has a striking similarity to a holster body I bought from https://holsterbuilder.com/ a while back for a holster project I did.
They may be, in some instances, buying premade shells and tossing the hardware and clips on and selling. Seems alot of lower tier manufacturers do this.
The w.t.p. ads on you-tube are excessively annoying, and the belt-specific ad(s) appear to be aimed at buyers who simply do not know much. So, w.t.p. gets a “nay,” from me.
Of course, I started using old-school Blade-Tech, a number of years ago, so started with top-tier Kydex. Every time I tried a Kydex holder from a second-rate maker, well, disappointment happened.
Retar’d LE. Kinesthetic dufus.
Don’t tread on volcanos!
Yeah, it's cringe-tier marketing.
I'm not so sure that "kydex is kydex". Haven't most places actually been using Bolatron or something like that since the early 00s? It would not surprise me to see some grades of material crack or deform more over time. I have some Ready Tactical holsters from the mid 00s that still appear to be fine despite several years of daily wear. Depending on the attachment style I've seen some kydex holsters crack once you get a few years of daily wear on them. Usage patterns play a part but over the long term I have feels if not data to indicate material does as well.
Just mind-balling it how consistently the manufacturer controls heat could be the difference between a holster that lasts for several years and one that starts to crack after only a few.
I think that begs the question of whether a holster is a durable good or a consumable.
Remember those Gen 1 and Gen 2 Glocks that are now shiny and slipperier than shit now?
For something like a holster there might be favorable short term characteristics that reduce long term characteristics superficially. Think about car tire shelf life. Short term flexibility comes at a long term durability trade off.
So you have to define what’s your primary metric for success.
The only kydex holster I have ever had fail was an expensive Red Hill Tactical.
Because I was training in sub-zero weather.
Yes, that is definitely true. But I don't think a holster should be disposable by default. I think quality holsters have been seen as a durable good for a very long time now and that shouldn't change. There are cases where that's appropriate (if not inevitable). But those are pretty niche. A regular Joe Civilian holster used for regular daily activities should still be serviceable in 20 years. That should be the default, and if that's not true (unless it was explicitly designed to compromise lifespan for some other niche property) that holster should be considered either low quality or defective.
Without getting into the difference between kydex and leather... We could start a thread in the gallery titled "show me your old holsters" and a lot of people could post pics of stuff they have that survived years if not a decade or more of daily use and is still usable today. That's not a big ask, even for holsters that get regular use.
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