The most talked about product of SHOT Show 2016

One of the interesting things about not attending SHOT Show was I got to observe all the product related chatter that goes on around the products announced at the show. Usually when you’re actually there, you sort of get stuck in the “SHOT bubble” and don’t necessarily get a good track of what’s resonating with consumers outside the show. This year, I was able to do that, and it was pretty eye-opening. The reason it was enlightening was the product that was the most talked about wasn’t a gun, it wasn’t ammo, it wasn’t even really gun related.

It was a pair of tactical yoga pants. I’m not even kidding. When 5.11 announced their Raven Range Capri (the product’s official name), it was instantly everywhere on social media, on gun blogs, you couldn’t get away from it. It outstripped even the Kimber K6s Revolver for mentions on twitter, which is pretty impressive. Most of the talk around the tactical yoga (toga?) pant has pretty positive, although there are some criticisms leveled by female shooters which make sense in context. I won’t get into those here, because I think these pants are great.

I’m a big fan of 5.11 gear, and I wear my 5.11 Ridegeline Pants just as often as I wear jeans. They’re lightweight, comfortable, and because they don’t have huge cargo pockets don’t scream “TACTICAL” when you look at them.

But the real question is what do you think about the new yoga pants from 5.11? Awesome? Silly? Sillyawesome? Let me know in the comments.