On Her Own

PHLster Enigma: First Impressions

I know I don’t talk about concealed carry here a lot, and please excuse the mess as I continue to move into my new office, but this is SO EXCITING that I couldn’t wait to share it with those of you who do carry guns and are interested in making it easier to do safely, effectively, and without compromises.

I’ve had a long-standing relationship with PHLster and am proud to call them friends. One of the perks is that I often get the opportunity to test new products, and just got the final version of their all-new Enigma system today. I was already super happy with the beta versions, but the production version is amazing. I know I look a tad fluffy and bumpy in these pictures, but I am carrying a LOT of stuff under here: my Boresight Solutions LLC Glock 19, my custom fixed-blade knife you saw last week, a POM Industries pepper spray, and a SureFire, LLC Stiletto. The Glock is in a PHLster Pro holster attached directly to the Enigma front panel, and everything else is living on a “everything-but-the-gun” belly band that was made for me as a test piece. All between my hip bones, and I’m a pretty small girl: 5’4″, a woman’s size 4 or so. It’s my initial setup with this set of gear and I’m sure it’ll change some, but the fact that it’s possible at all is pretty awesome…and I say that as someone who’s been playing with carry methods for over a decade. I can’t wait to set one of these up for a smaller carry gun for when I need ultimate concealment.

There’s are two very important lessons here:

You do not HAVE to significantly compromise your lifestyle for your safety, or your safety for your lifestyle. There are ways. They may take work, and there might be little gives here and there, but you can have your yoga pants and your gun too, in high quality gear and supportive of high quality training and skills.

Sometimes, the gear you need simply doesn’t exist yet. It took several years of work by folks with deep expertise and knowledge about holster design and carry methods to come up with this solution. I’ve made do with lots of other great products over time, but it’s always worth keeping an eye out for what’s new and innovative. A lot of it is developed by people who don’t have the necessary background and won’t be very good, but keep an eye on the ones who do. Evolving your tools can be very, very worthwhile. I know this won’t be my final configuration, and I’m looking forward to seeing how I can incrementally improve it over time.

Oh, and for the record, the standard Enigma fits my large mammal boyfriend too. But it won’t once I trim the tail of the belt to only fit me 🙂

Hi, I'm Annette.

Recent Posts

OHO on Facebook