Daily Defense 2-2: How Concealed Carry Influences Your Wardrobe

When coordinating your clothing choices with your daily carry gun, Jeff cautions against "dressing around the gun" every day. Instead, start by carefully choosing a firearm that will fit in with your lifestyle and the clothes you typically wear. What you wear affects HOW you will carry. The most common method of carry - inside the waistband on your strong side - gives you a lot of versatility in choosing apparel. An unconventional carry method - pocket, ankle holster, holster shirt, off body - may be good for certain situations. In choosing clothes, darker-colored fabrics tend to "print" the outline of the firearm less readily than light colors. Sweaters and hoodies offer a good combination of concealment and access, and are unobtrusive to wear in spring and fall. Heavy winter clothing makes it more difficult to access your gun in a hurry. When you add a new item to your wardrobe, do a "function test" at home to see how it affects access to your EDC gun. If the garment works OK during the at-home function test, wear it to the range and do a live-fire test with it. As EDC becomes ingrained in your life, you'll find yourself assessing new clothes not only on style and color, but also on how compatible they are with an armed lifestyle.