How many times have we heard that a bag with MOLLE or tactical labels is a giveaway you’re carrying a gun? It seems to be a regular piece of knowledge in the gun world. You’ll get the “that’s not very ‘grey man’ of you” comments. I’m going to question that supposed common knowledge. I admit it was true, or close to true, for most of the GWOT. I cringe at the idea of calling them tactical bags because the tacticalization of everything gets annoying, but what else do we call them?
These bags aren’t the big giveaway they used to be. I don’t think a bag with MOLLE, or a bag from 5.11, London Bridge Trading Company, Vertx, or whoever else is now some big giveaway that you’re carrying a gun, a cop, or a soldier. As the Vice president says, we can be unburdened by what has been.
Tactical Bags Aren’t Tactical Anymore
This isn’t something I sit around thinking about, but was inspired by basketball tryouts. Specifically my son’s basketball tryouts and the fact I saw no less than three MOLLE-covered backpacks amongst the 28 people trying out for the team. After that, I kept my eyes open and realized that these bags are more common than one would think.
In fact, I had one closer than I imagined. My wife, the least tactical (but most beautiful) person I know, has a sling bag covered from head to toe with MOLLE. She doesn’t carry it anymore, but apparently, it was her go-to work laptop bag before getting a sweet work-from-home job. Why? She could attach a water bottle pouch, and it had a flap for an umbrella.
It was that simple. In fact, the boys I saw at the tryouts had bags with a side pouch for water bottles occupied by Prime bottles. I didn’t see any pouches attached to the MOLLE, but I saw pens, keychains, and even a basketball-themed moral pouch.
Over the last few days, I have become haunted by these bags. In fact, a coworker carries a similar bag when he rides his motorcycle to work. When not riding, the MOLLE straps hold his gloves and sunglasses in a MOLLE-compatible pouch. I saw another at the gym, which had plain MOLLE but an occupied water bottle slot. Another guy at the park carried the varied discs for disc golf in a tactical-looking bag.
At Walmart, my eyes were accosted by laptop bags from SwissTech with MOLLE straps, and cheap brands in their outdoor goods aisle had more MOLLE than a rave. For years, I assumed they were giveaways, but MOLLE, PALS, or whatever has entered the collective consciousness.
The Modern Tactical Bag
These days, the usual suspects of tactical bags all have low-profile options. 5.11 has the COVRT series, and most of Vertx’s bags are low-key. Maxpedition and even Tactical Tailor all have low-key options. It seems like most of us gun guys who still wanted the features of a tactical bag without the tactical look have shifted to lower-key bags.
But do we have to? It seems like the appeal of tactical bags has spread to the mainstream. Nike makes the RPM, which is covered in MOLLE. Under Armor has tactical bags. Jansport even rolled out a military series. Tough, modular, easy-to-organize bags now seem to be the mainstream and certainly don’t have the same reputation they did ten or even two years ago.
The MOLLE-covered tactical bag has gone the way of the fanny pack and shoot-me-first vest. It’s no longer just associated with cops, soldiers, and gun guys. They are everywhere and used by everyone. If you start looking, you’ll see them with hipsters, kids, moms, and more.
