Tactical sewing classes anyone?

[SmileDocHill]

So, show of hands, who here does "Tactical sewing"?
As much as we all get into the gadgety pockets, BOB's with 100 pouches, hidden spaces and so forth I'm surprised I haven't seen any tactical sewing classes offered in the Tactics and Training forum. Sewing mods start around 2:30 and machine use around 6:00.

YouTube - KAHR PM9 Holster Modification



Only kind of kidding.
I've always kept a needle in with my waxed dental floss and have used it many times to sew and repair camping gear.

 

[shibumiseeker]

I own a company that makes heavy duty outdoors gear, so I do a lot of "tactical" sewing, and when I started hiking and camping at age 14 I couldn't afford fancy gear so I sewed a lot of things by hand with dental floss...

 

[CountryBoy19]

Learned to sew when I was very young. In 4th grade we had a 3 week sewing class where you could opt to stay indoors for recess and sew. I was the only guy that took the class... I was pretty popular with the girl because of that.

 

[SmileDocHill]

I own a company that makes heavy duty outdoors gear, so I do a lot of "tactical" sewing, and when I started hiking and camping at age 14 I couldn't afford fancy gear so I sewed a lot of things by hand with dental floss...

shibumi....what is the company if you don't mind my asking?
One of my hiking and canoing buddies from a hundred years ago was VERY into ultralight trips. He hand made his own gear so that it was all extremely light. It was fun to watch and learn the logic that goes into the design of all that stuff. His purposes were not in the same category as "heavy duty", he was a serious dude (having hiked Everest & A.T., and qual.'ed for Olympics in paddling, and is a world class triathlete) but he likes his gear to be more purpose specific and would be considered light and fragile by most standards.
My mother has a computerized sewing and knitting machine that will make about anything you can dream up.
So, yeah for a guy that still (barely) has his man card I've been around a fair amount of sewing.

 

[shibumiseeker]

shibumi....what is the company if you don't mind my asking? .

I'm not going to say in public since I prefer to keep my online and real life seperate, but if you're that curious and will respect my desire for staying low profile, PM me and I'll tell you.

 

[MerKWorK]

No one wants to offer tactical sewing classes because people would make their own gear and stop buying it. Then everyone would want to sell their designs too! Less money for the guy who could simply retain his knowledge and sell it!!!

 

[shibumiseeker]

No one wants to offer tactical sewing classes because people would make their own gear and stop buying it. Then everyone would want to sell their designs too! Less money for the guy who could simply retain his knowledge and sell it!!!

No, not really. The biggest thing I get potential designers telling me is how much I can make buying their latest and greatest design.

Textiles is such a cutthroat market that the real key is marketing and sales, not design and manufacture.

Sure, you can design and make your own backpack or holster or whatever, but I guarantee that I can design and create it about ten times faster, and once I have the pattern and production sheet down I can cut that time in half again. I can also guarantee that my materials cost will be a quarter that of the hobbyist. And I can really guarantee that if you want ten thousand of them made, I can find a developing nation manufacturer who will take my patterns and production sheet and make the product for a tenth of what I can do. But now you have to get it to market, and that's the real challenge. Far too many people think that a $15 backpack at WalMart is just as good as a $100 backpack I make. It isn't, by a long shot, but there's far fewer people who are willing to pay for a well made product made in this country by a company who will stand behind it.

 

[MerKWorK]

I had no direction to the comment, 90% snark 20% truth! I know nothing of the business!

 

[shibumiseeker]

I had no direction to the comment, 90% snark 20% truth! I know nothing of the business!

No worries, it's just a pet peeve of mine since I'm always being told about this great new design someone has for me and they'd be willing to sell it to me and how I can make a fortune making it. Hell, I've got several dozen neat products I've designed over the years that I use all of the time, but I either can't make it for cheap enough to sell, or I can't get my vendors to carry it because it's yet another thing they have to compete for valuable inventory shelf space.

 

[williamrights]

I have seen a lot of survival on here and I think some people do undervalue sowing. It if goes bad there will no longer be items to replace everything and learning to sow would be a good thing to learn now.

 

[6birds]

My day job has a department that can sew heavy cloth and vinyll, sewing repairs on the wall tents is done by hand, and my wife and sisters have large sewing machines for quilting and such. I get my leather sewn by a shoe guy on the south side for occasional holster and sheath work.