OUTDOOR TECHNICAL TACTICAL EQUIPMENT BLOG

Discover why the Otte V2 Helmet Bag is the preferred choice for military, law enforcement and serious civilians. Offering unmatched protection, quick deployment abilities, and customizable storage for helmets, night vision gear, FPV drone goggles, and more. Ensure your tactical gear stays mission-ready.

SHOT Show 2025 Recap – OTTE Gear’s Biggest Year Yet!
We just got back from SHOT Show 2025, and it was like drinking from a fire hose! This year’s show was packed with energy, incredible conversations, and exciting new opportunities. We connected with a lot of new customers looking to upgrade their gear, and one thing we heard loud and clear: major clothing and outerwear brands are struggling with supply chain delays. That’s where OTTE Gear steps in—we’re ready to deliver, and the industry is taking notice. 


Our collaborations and growing network continue to strengthen OTTE Gear’s position as a premier choice for high-performance tactical apparel and gear.

Product Launches That Stole the Show

The DireFAK MP – A Game-Changer in Medical Kits
One of our biggest launches at SHOT Show 2025 was our DireFAK MP, developed in collaboration with Dire Armory. This innovative, ultra-compact IFAK (Individual First Aid Kit) is roughly the size of a 20-round 5.56 AR-15 magazine, making it an easy fit for standard AR-15 magazine holsters and placards. It includes essential life-saving components:

•⁠  ⁠SWAT-T Tourniquet
•⁠  ⁠QuickClot Combat Gauze
•⁠  ⁠Hyfin Compact Chest Seals (Twin Pack)

The DireFAK MP is already generating serious buzz among first responders, military personnel, and prepared citizens alike.


David from DIREARMORY showing the DIREFAK IFAK.

Helmet Bag – The Must-Have Gear Storage Solution
Our Helmet Bag continues to gain traction as more professionals and prepared civilians look for a rugged yet streamlined solution to store their helmets, night vision devices, and essential accessories. Investing in one means protecting your expensive, mission-critical gear from damage and disorganization.

SLNT x OTTE Gear – Faraday Protection in Poppies of War
We also launched a collaboration with SLNT, the Faraday bag experts, featuring their mid-sized phone case in our exclusive Poppies of War pattern. Whether you’re traveling to high-risk areas or simply want to protect your data from bad actors, this stylish and functional Faraday pouch is a small investment in security.

Down Range Pant & Shirt – The New Standard in Combat Uniforms
The Down Range Pant and Shirt continue to turn heads. Designed for high-mobility, high-risk environments, these pieces offer:

•⁠  ⁠Stretch NYCO fabric for superior durability and movement
•⁠  ⁠A streamlined modern fit that eliminates unnecessary bulk
•⁠  ⁠A revolutionary integrated knee cap & pad system that solves major pain points for operators

Masters of Gloves (MoG) – Tactical Gloves for Every Mission It’s no surprise that door kickers are taking notice.
Our partnership with MoG Gloves keeps getting stronger. We are the US Distributor and we showcased nine styles, from cut- and needle-resistant gloves to FR (flame-resistant) options and rugged combat gloves with knuckle protection. European military and police brands are huge fans of MoG and so are we. The feedback from people who tried them on was overwhelmingly positive, with several team orders on the way. We’re stocked and ready to ship. 


SHOT Show Highlights – Who We Saw & What We Loved
SHOT Show is always a great time to reconnect with industry friends and check out cutting-edge innovations. This year, we spent time with:
•⁠  ⁠Sons of Liberty – Their new hunting line is looking strong
•⁠  ⁠Spiritus Systems, Crye Precision, and S&S Precision – Always delivering cool, forward-thinking gear
•⁠  ⁠Blue Force Gear – A booth buzzing with energy and innovation. Founder Ashley Burnsed is a class act and a generous host.
•⁠  ⁠Magpul – Not only did they bring out some awesome giveaway stickers, but they also showcased several impressive new products.

Todd with Anderson Silva at the booth.

SHOT Show 2025 Attendance – Bigger & Better Than Ever
This year’s attendance seemed higher than previous years, with steady booth traffic and several moments where we were completely overwhelmed by the crowds. It was an incredible experience, and we’re already looking forward to SHOT Show 2026.

SHOT SHOW DISEASE
The plague was strong this year. 

Stay Connected with OTTE Gear
Whether you met us at SHOT Show or are just discovering OTTE Gear, make sure to stay connected: 📍 Follow us on Instagram: @ottegear 📍 Shop our latest releases: www.ottegear.com 📍 Sign up for our newsletter for exclusive product drops and industry insights.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth—we’ll see you in 2026!

OG Helmet Bag Photo Contest

We just got back from Ohio Range Day put on by Achilles Heel Tactical and MC’d by Rick Crawley.  The skies may have been overcast and a little rainy but it didn’t put a damper on the amazing vibes and positive energy. This event is packed with world class trainers and attracts the best of the best.  When you are surrounded by epic people doing epic shit is always a great time! 

We set up our booth with the other fantastic retail vendors – Rhonda from Safariland, Donny from Blue Force Gear, Andrew from Henry Holsters, Matt from Eleven 10, Nightfall Optics, UF Pro, Born United, Howitzer, NeoMag, Steiner to name a few.  Our friends from HOP munitions were supplying the ammo.  Paul and Joe from Modern Materiel, were demoing their latest and greatest rifles.  Zeromark was showing off their anti-drone rifle-mounted systems – how that is even possible blows my mind, but it’ll be a total game-changer soon enough.  Parker Mountain Machine demo’d tons of belt-fed machine guns – 50 cal, M60, Mini-gun.  If you ever want to part with $300 in 3 seconds and have the time of your life doing it, 100 rounds of a minigun’s the way!

The hot sellers at the OTTE Gear tent were the Range Bags (which we sold with the Velcro Mag Board and Pouch Organizers included) and the V2 Helmet Bags which are clearly becoming a new industry favorite for the USA-made quality and features. And again the Shade Shirts and Field Manual Shirts, both perfect for range days, blew out.

The training was world class.  Some of the best trainers, doing pistol, carbine, combatives, low light and night fighting.  Each year the list of countries attending, exhibiting and participating grows, which is super exciting.  There were folks from Italy, the UK, France, Switzerland, not to mention about 20 US states.  If you are in the LE community or just a prepared citizen, this event is hard to beat with the depth and variety of training offered and the connections you’ll make.      

EnforceTac and IWA March 2024

We are back from the EnforceTac/IWA, an international trade fair for security agencies that transitions into IWA, the world’s leading exhibition for the hunting and target sports industries.

We were hosted by Recon Company, a premier German distributor and retailer with a strong online and brick-and-mortar presence in Salzgitter. Their team of industry veterans, experts and one great son, made us feel right at home with good vibes and conversation. Our neighbors in the booth were Darren and Kevin from Snugpak who kept the laughs going with their amazing English sense of humor.

We stayed in the beautiful walled city of Nürnberg, famous for many things including the Nürnberg Bratwurst and “Schäufele” (pork shoulder with crispy skin), two local Franconian dishes that we almost couldn’t get enough of. We ate at authentic restaurants with communal tables and toasted local beers with local people – Prost!

TACWRK, another top German retailer and distributor, graciously invited us to their industry dinner. We shared a table with two former US Navy SEALs, Zach Steinbock and Sean Matson from MATBOCK.  On our other side was the crew from BeaverFit, a containerized fitness solution out of the UK.  Their English sense of humor gave Snugpak a serious run for their money.  We knew we were in for a great time when they started off the night apologizing in advance for the inevitable shenanigans. Let’s just say, it was an amazing dinner.

We met Tom Short from Ops-Core/Gentex, those guys use our OTTE Gear Helmet Bags.  Gary Robbins from High Speed Gear came by the booth. He loves the TACOS we did with them in our POW Poppies pattern.  On our Day 3 morning metro commute, we introduced ourselves to two fellow Americans, Aaron Zar and Eric Imsland from SLNT. SLNT makes innovative Faraday packs and pouches to keep your electronics protected.  We hung out with the Noveske crew at their fave local bar on the square and stayed up waaayyy too late sharing stories and laughing.  Our friend and Multicam vendor from 1947 Ocean State Innovations took us to a great Italian restaurant with a few industry friends. Being on that side of the pond made it easier to catch up with our French and Dutch distributors, TR Equipement and Noorloos respectively. 

It was great to be exposed to interesting products from European brands we don’t see in the USA much: Helikon-Tex had some cool products made in PenCott, Frogskin/Duck Camo, and Rhodesian Brush Stroke; Corinthia and UF Pro had big booths showing off their new lines. We met Andreas Schlosser from Mil-Tec by Sturm, they do a lot of affordable tactical outdoor and paintball products and use a new camo called Phantomleaf.   There were other smaller brands with new camos and new designs.  Lawrence Holsworth and Dom Hyde from PenCott Camo came by to talk about how defeating thermal drones is still a work in progress. 

Our German friends from ePig Group who have shot videos of our booth for the past 5 SHOT Shows were there en masse.  They had 10+ crew shooting videos of almost every booth!  It was great to break bread with them on their home turf at a farm-to-table restaurant outside of the city.

On our way out, we touched the brass ring placed on the fence that surrounds the square’s main monument. Legend says visitors who find the ring and touch it will return. So we will be back to this beautiful Bavarian city to see old friends and make new ones! 

Mary & Todd

Last fall, I celebrated my 30^th anniversary of hiking the entire Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine, all 2088 miles of it.  I first heard of the trail in 1988 when I was in college at Boston University.  I think I saw a poster of the trail map at a local outdoor shop and was just amazed that there could be a hiking trail that was that long, spanning 14 states.  I bought the poster, hung it in my dorm room, and added it to my fledgling bucket list. 

When I graduated a few years later I got commissioned in the Army and moved to Fort Benning Georgia to complete the Infantry Offices Basic Course.  I was given a choice of dates, I chose the one that ended in early April, when most people start hiking the trail.  As a reserve officer, my active duty ended after IOBC so I was free to hike afterward.  Luckily for me, Fort Benning was only a few hours away from the southern terminus of the AT, Springer Mountain, GA.

The plan was to hike and finish the trail in four months, then start a corporate job in Boston.  To do the whole trail in 120 days I would need to hike about 19 miles a day with 7 days off to rest.  Coming out of IOBC where every other day you are either road-marching with a 100 lbs rucksack or performing field training exercises, 19 miles seemed manageable…or so I told myself.

My IOBC classmate, Shannon Suggs, drove me and classmate Mike DeAntonio the 200 miles from Fort Benning to Amicalola Falls Start Park, Georgia.  At the visitors center we weighed our packs: mine tipped the scales at a ridiculous 86lbs!  As a young, dumb 24-year-old, inexperienced at thru-hiking, I had no idea that what I was carrying was a VERY heavy load. 

Later that day at the summit of Springer Mountain, the official starting point of the AT, a couple hiking with their dogs shared with me that their packs weighed 35 lbs & 30 lbs, and the dogs each 5 lbs.  When I told them my pack weighed more than all 4 of theirs put together they laughed and thought I was crazy. Needless to say, I started to wonder if my extra pair of boots and 20 lbs of canned food were necessary and 3 days later at Neel’s Gap I shipped 10 lbs of gear home and left 15 lbs of food at the hiker's hostel.  With a few dips during unsupported sections of the trail, my pack weighed about 65 lbs from there on out.

On the AT, most hikers take, get, or are given a trail name.  It usually has something to do with why you are hiking, who you are, who you are choosing to be, or what’s important to you.  Mine centered on the latter: Chow Hound was born!

I started the trail thinking that this experience would be a wilderness adventure, just me and Mother Nature.  It ended up being a very socially gratifying experience. I met fellow 20-somethings just out of college, high school dropouts, retired firefighters, divorcees, school teachers with the summer off, business executives, Israelis just out of their military service, and US Vets.  Even as a motley crew, we formed an amorphous sort of family unit, spending hours together talking about life while setting up camp, cooking, and doing chores.  The experience of telling and listening, letting the B.S. that defined our lives pre-trail wash away, letting egos down and learning about each other was pretty magical. 

Two months into the hike my father came down to Virginia and hiked with me for two weeks.  He was given the trail name “Papa Chow” and loved it!  We hiked the Blue Ridge and ran across the spot where Audie Murphy, the most decorated American Soldier, had died in a plane crash.  Eating lunch with my dad, now passed, at the big granite monument in the middle of the woods, soaking up the sun and the views is one of my favorite memories.

It took 188 days, of which I took 42 as “Zero miles”- a day off.  My toes were numb for about 3 months after and they shed skin like a snake!  Coming off the quiet made it hard to be in loud and crowded areas for a while. I realized then and now that my body, mind, and spirit had wanted to be worked and pushed. Even a year later, I longed to be back out there.  It was a powerful chapter in my life. To say the least, I made lifelong friendships and saw some amazing and beautiful places. 

If you get the chance to do a Thru-Hike, do it!  Hopefully, it will great time and leave a lasting impression like it did for me. 

Chow Hound

Enter contest at the link below.
https://gleam.io/7GIDc/packing-cubes-photo-contest

OTTE Gear just got back from SHOT 2024 and I can say that the pandemic is a distant memory for exhibitors and attendees alike. All our European and Asian friends came (let’s go!) and nary a mask was seen!

We previewed our new SS24 lightweight puffy coat, the Ursa Minor. It’s addition to our current insulated lineup of HT (200g Primaloft® Gold) & LV (100g Primaloft® Gold) will nicely round everything out for our customer. The Ursa Minor features 40-gram Primaloft® Active Insulation with a super lightweight 40D Quantum shell fabric making it one of the lightest jackets on the market. It has a DWR coating so it repels water and light snow.  Use it standalone in chilly conditions or as insulation under our Patrol Parka. This jacket is also super-packable and will be an easy addition to all travel adventures.

We also previewed our Down Range Pant & Down Range Shirt.  The Down Range deserves a bit of backstory: Fall 2019, I had a recurring dream that I could make a better combat pant than what was on the market, though the market admittedly had/has some legends. My focus was on the knee/kneepad construction and on finding a stretch fabric that would move with the operator in all intensive situations since that was missing from the market options. Cut to 2024:I feel strongly that we have addressed those issues with our integrated kneecap and pad system and the stretch-NYCO fabric. We made sure the fit and silhouette were more modern too cause we care what you look like.  We are bullish that the end-user will be stoked by the advancements. 



We are excited to partnered up with MoG Gloves and showed 9 new styles, from Fast Roping, Cut-and-Needle Resistant gloves to robust combat styles with knuckle protection and high dexterity. They were well-known by the international attendees (they are a European brand) and they were VERY well received by US individuals and units alike. We are proud to announce we will be the first to launch them in the US this year!

Lastly, Mary and I want to thank Eric (“Grizz”), Chris Van Loan, Gage, Stephen (Deen), Derek and Thomas for their amazing help and great vibes. They made this effort in and out of the booth a lot of fun.

We attended the Demolition Ranch Range Day with Brandon Herrera, Donut Operator and lots of other industry personalities outside of San Antonio, Texas last week. It was a great time to shoot some exotic firearms and hang out with some interesting folks in the community. Range Day culminated in shooting a Hummer and an afterparty at The Thirsty Horse Saloon. 

Some things are different in Texas than back home. Like spurs and cigarettes in vending machines. Pretty cool!

Donut Operator, the most entertaining police incident commenter in the game, according to us. 

Administrative Results getting Napoleonic. First unmasking and now this. Keep an eye on this guy. 

The Undertaker! Just in case someone didn't make it through range day. 

Alex Zedra. I don't think that's the hang loose sign. 

Scott from Kentucky Ballistics after informing me a .700 BMG existed. 


Chuck hanging loose. Unfortunately we did not get to witness an overhand right going hot on the range. 

Colion Noir on the super quiet Maxim Defense 240B and at the after party. 

He says he's a lawyer but I think he might be Batman. 


Kagan Dunlap also hanging loose. We need to get this dude into some OTTE Gear Aloha kit. 

Armed Scholar, our favorite place for updates on the current state of 2A Legal struggles. 


Nigel Jones!


The aftermath of the Hummer Shoot. 

16 November 2023

Night Ops Summit, Barnwell, S.C.

Year 2 of being as a sponsor of the 4-day Night Ops Summit proved to be even more rewarding than the last because of all of the great people we met and the new things we learned, saw and made happen.

The Summit, hosted by Greenline Tactical, takes place at a decommissioned nuclear fuels processing plant in Barnwell, SC called GTI. Don Edwards, Sam Houston and the rest of the Greenline cadre offered a ton of shooting classes all revolving around night fighting which the facility is especially suited for as it is blackout capable.

Legends of the industry were in attendance. Brands showing their best-in-class technology like Ops-Core’s new powered helmet/ARC Rail system, TNVC’s new military NODs wowed the crowd. 

We met up with Chip Laskey at Unity Tactical for some real talk about the state of world affairs.

The sponsor tent was teeming with people searching out A-list brands like B.E. Meyers, L3, Aimpoint, Echo Arms, Rosco Barrels, Blue Alpha, Federal Ammo.

We ran into our friend Tom Marshall from RecoilWeb who was there filming the best that brands and participants had on offer. We took a pic with Tom and Gabe Cabrera, Pres of Cobalt Kinetics, who was showing off the new CK-Scrambler suppressor.

We sat in as observers at Chuck Pressburg’s 4-Man CQB Night Course. That was rad.

YouTuber WhistlinDiesel was there taking in the training.

The cherry on top was exploring the plant’s innards with Instagram personality, Hailey Lujan @haylujan Hailey was kitted out in NVG’s, our LV Insulated and our Chest Rig/Placard combo. We captured the adventure. Check it out here. Thanks for playing, Hailey!

The Gamut Challenge 2023, an amazing weekend down in Fort Meade, Florida at the Gamut Challenge, a bi-annual two-day event consisting of 20 miles of running or rucking, and shooting.  

Recently, I had the opportunity to put OTTE Gear’s new Universal Armor Carrier System to the test, as I had signed up to do OPFOR for a course at the Direct Action Resource Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. I spent an entire week wearing the set up for multiple hours each day, so I became very familiar with the features and benefits of the UAC. With this being a force-on-force course, I was going to have to wear full PPE and have equipment that could withstand simunitions fire. 

I needed to utilize the placard for ammo carriage, and therefore selected a simple configuration of the triple 556 pouch and wide flap for the admin section. Not so much for medical gear, but more so for extra coverage from SIMs. I did run the dangler pouch and stored some ammo in the elastic cummerbund.

I ran the carrier with a set of Hesco 3810s, which are my preferred plate for duty/overt applications. It’s not a heavy plate (4.8 lbs), and it features a soft backer. The UACs shoulder pads were great for added comfort especially after hours of action each night. 

The quick attach system for the cummerbund was very easy to utilize, and found myself operating it by feel the longer I used the carrier. This was useful in low light environments and when my vision was obstructed by face protection. 

One of the major characteristics about the carrier that was a huge plus for me was its minimalist design. The sleek design in conjunction with the UNITY Tactical FAST mount I was using made shooting my rifle with NODs and a gas mask perfectly comfortable. With some carriers and/or incorrectly sized plates, shouldering a rifle and getting a good sight picture can require added attention to one’s shooting technique, so I’m happy to report that was not the case with the UAC. 

I also converted the placard to a chest rig with our Universal Chest Rig Harness which shows the versatility of the whole Universal Armor Carrier system.  While this set up had reduced coverage and ammo capacity, I gained a lot in mobility and dexterity. 

Overall, I was very happy with the UACs performance as a plate carrier and can recommend it to those looking for a plate carrier that offers plenty of ammo storage and modularity while still staying light and comfortable. 

SHOT Show 2023 felt like old times!  The pandemic mostly in our rear-view mirror, and folks were out and about and enjoying themselves.  It was good to see all of our old friends who couldn’t make show since Jan 2020. 10 months in the war in Ukraine, many of our European friends are now seeing a spike in business.  Recon and TACWRK in Germany, TR in France, Endeavour Tactical UK.  Entities from Asia were also back; Lin from Survivor tactical Taiwan made the trip.

Our helmet bag, rash guard for conceal carry, shade shirts, and new Andrew Bawidamann Hawaiian shirts were the most popular items checked out in the booth!  People also like our classic packing cubes, range bags and LV insulated jackets. Eric Graves from Soldier Systems Daily came to check out our new chest rig/placard and cummerbund attachment system. we are putting on our new chest rig and UAC (Universal Armor Carrier) plate carrier.  We are also selling these parts to other nylon gear companies and the reaction was amazing!  They are both a lightweight and elegant way to attach your gear together.

We also saw:

• Tom Marshall from Recoil Magazine
• Dana Gleason and D3 from Mystery Ranch
• David Kramer from MagPul and SOC-F
• Ernesto, Matt and Greg Thompson from Crye Precision
• Joe Savio from Modern Material and Holosun
• Zane and Adam from Spiritus Systems
• Jon of Larp Labs
• Zach Stone, Christina Rhine, and William from Son Of Liberty Gun Works
• Chip Lasky from Unity Tactical
• Zach with Cana Provisions
• The TNVC crew
• Don Edwards, Eric and Sam Houston from Greenline Tactical
• Redbeard Tactical
• Christian Craighead, who told us about his “adventure” in Nairobi Kenya
• Social Media personality and Army soldier, Hailey Lujan hung out in the booth for some laughs

The daily after-show parties were also a lot of fun! SOC-F (Special Operations Care Fund), kicked it off the good times at the Leatherneck bar! Also sponsored by us, Sons of Liberty Gun Works, and Big Tex Ordnance with affordable drinks, sausage, and meatball buffet!  Garand Thumb was also spotted prior to his food poisoning as well.

The Blackwater party was fun over at the Battlefield Las Vegas property. We had fun playing on old armor fighting vehicles, watching old Blackwater training videos projected on massive screens, and gorging ourselves on burgers from the In-N-Out Burger trailer.

Every year the Crye Precision party is always a special event, and this year it did not disappoint!  Held in a massive arena, this year’s theme was Honey I Shrunk the Party – Buzz & Woddy’s Sausage Fest.  It included massive life-sized games from our childhood, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Rock’em Sock’em Robots, Legos, Operation to name a few.  Some of our new team members had never been before, so at closing time we had to drag them out as the gravitational pull was so strong. Pretty sure we also forgot Austin and he had to catch an Uber back.

The industry has its challenges, a popular culture and big tech that has a love hate relationship with the gun and adjacent industries as well as political head winds.  That said I feel pretty optimistic about the state of the industry and its future.  Enjoy the rest of 2023 and see you next year!

-Todd Fairbairn (Founder and CEO)

My son is a High School senior and a football player.  He loves the game.  He loves the workouts, the lifting the physicalness of the sport.  He loves the showmanship and the battle on the field.  He loves his teammates.  Midway through the season his bicycle got run over by a car, when I grilled him about it, he told me one of his teammates ran over it.  When I asked which teammate, he refused to tell me, he said that the football team was his other family and that “snitches get stitches” … 

At the beginning of the season his team lost players to some of our local private schools that are known to poach the best public-school players.  He was devasted and upset that they lost their “secret weapons”.  There were no longer any superstars on the team.  My son and his teammates realized that they couldn’t rely on a few great players to do all the work… they were going to have to do it themselves…  This was probably the best thing that could have happened to them.  With no egos to get in the way, they jelled, the seniors and juniors bonded and supported each other, they really became a family, on and off the field.  The English language doesn’t really have a word for this bond, the closest word we have is love, these kids loved each other, they played with heart and passion and it showed.  It was, esprit de corps.  They were not the fastest, or biggest and went up against some bigger dogs and won. 

They went 4 and 0 when their fortune ran out and lost to a big powerhouse team.  At the end of the day football is an arms race, and if you have bigger, faster, stronger, well coached players you usually win.  My sons team bounced back and ended up winning their conference, the first time 34 years and qualified for the state tournament.  There were seated 6^th in their bracket and went up against an undefeated 3^rd seat.  They game was close at the half however they lost by two touchdowns.  My son came home at 10pm still in his uniform, dirty, grimy, eye black smeared on his face and he just looked at me gave me a big hug and then started sobbing…  I didn’t say anything, I just hugged him.  That is when I understood, he wasn’t crying about the loss, he was crying that it was the end of his football playing career.  He would never put the pads on, never have summer practice, it was the end of an era, that chapter of his young life was over.  For that he was sobbing, the loss of his football family.    

I remember 8 years ago when he stated playing football and the main stream media was talking about concussions and the long-term effects of football on the brain and body, especially in kids.  People were predicting the end of football.  My wife and I weighed letting him play.  In the end we felt that keeping him from playing with his friends would be more damaging than whatever blows he would be delt on the gridiron.  Boys and young men need a tribe, they need competition, they need to be physical.  Denying that would have been devastating on the boy…  I feel that football has taught my son a lot about life.  He can work on a team; he can take coaching and make the appropriate corrections.  He can work for a goal bigger than himself.  He knows how to lead and he knows how to follow.  He can listen.  He knows the beauty of victory and the sting of loss.

Some of you have been part of something, sports teams, military units, law enforcement departments, fire fighters, first responders, gyms, clubs.  I hope your experience was as rich as my sons was and you found your tribe…

-Todd Fairbairn (Owner/CEO)

Tom Marshall of RECOIL OFFGRID covers our LVZ OVT pate carrier in a recent review

RECOIL OFFGRID is a magazine dedicated to preparation and survival; featuring articles on making knives, building shelters, bug out bags, and gear reviews. The magazine primarily offers educational articles on how to survive a life-threatening situation or a man-made or natural disaster. As a perfect group of experts to test our LVZ/OVT carrier, they finished the review stating "We’ll continue to test the OTTE Gear LVZ OVT plate carrier in both training and daily “grab-and-go” use as able but, overall, we think this carrier offers a whole lot of bang-for-buck value, especially if you’re in the market for a first-time buy or want to pare your collection of carriers down to a single, modular setup that fills both concealed and overt needs. Stay tuned here and at OTTE Gear as they continue to expand their in-house line of plug-and-play accessories for the LVT OVT line."

That blog on the RECOIL OFFGRID website is available here.

And continue to test it, they did! Tom also wore our plate carrier to HALEY STRATEGIC KALASHNIKOV: THE BASICS OF SHOOTING AN AK

For this class, Tom's loadout consisted of "OTTE Gear LVZ OVT Plate Carrier with G-Code Scorpion mag pouches, which flex to accommodate the odd shape of 5.45x39mm magazines."

For that article as well, check it out here.

Check out our newest carrier, the UAC!

OTTE & QILO are NJ neighbors and it’s about time we made something together.

Introducing our Convertible Pouch in Andrew Bawidamann’s iconic “Poppies of War” print.
-Constructed 500D Cordura
-Made in USA with US-sourced materials

Drops on the site on Friday, 6/25 at 3PM EST.

$89.00

Whether for fashion or for function, camo is never totally off-trend. And at the present moment in men's style, it's as relevant as ever. Streetwear's been using it since the beginning. Hip-hop style got a hold of it in the '90s and hasn't let go since.

Grab a Beer with Industry Legend and friend Chip Lasky (@claskytac)

Yes, food (and lifestyle) impacts your Brain, Performance and Lifestyle. Here's what I learned after taking Dry January 2021 seriously and reading Genius Foods by Max Lugavere.   

Grab a Beer with Otte Gear and Bob Keller, SOF Veteran.