March 29, 2024
Grow Your FFL Business

Innovation with CrossBreed

In the last several years we have seen a surge of people choosing to conceal and live the armed lifestyle.  With a large percentage of that influx being women, the firearms industry as a whole, and even more so the holster industry is now shifting to accommodate the new needs of the women’s market.  

During the last 3 years, 25% of CrossBreed’s® new products were developed solely for women while the remaining 75% were non-gender specific, allowing women the option to choose from 100% of new products.  The women’s market requires a much different approach from the standard “one size fits all” that has been used in the firearms industry.

As we all know, the women’s market brings its own unique set of challenges.  Unlike most males who conceal, women want to wear the current trends that change with each season. Women also have a much larger wardrobe selection, needing carry options that can be utilized with anything from form-fitting athletic wear to a Friday night cocktail dress, and everything in between.  To say the least, this creates a new challenge for holster companies and gives CrossBreed® an advantage right out of the gate.  Being a women-owned holster business and having women working in product development gives CrossBreed® the advantage of creating products designed for women by women.

Along with the differences in the people carrying concealed, there has been a return of alternate carry positions including appendix, cross draw, and off body carry.  With these trends, safety has been at the top of the list of concerns. It has even pushed some instructors to ban certain types of carry in training classes.  As a holster manufacturer, CrossBreed® must find a way to accommodate the customer’s request for these carry options, while still allowing for a safe and secure carry method. CrossBreed’s® hand molded pockets give the user the perfect amount of retention while maintaining a smooth, fast draw when needed.  CrossBreed® strives to make each carry option as comfortable as possible by designing the holster for many body types and shapes, then selecting the correct piece of leather for the customers’ needs based on the pistol they select.

With the boom in the firearms industry and more people than ever arming themselves, people are also customizing their carry weapons.  Whether for accuracy, ergonomics, or looks, many people are choosing to add accessories to their carry pistols. Everything from micro red-dots, suppressor sights, lights, lasers, extended/modified pistol function levers/buttons are being used. As these customizations make the pistol more personalized for the user, they make it harder to manufacture holsters that accommodate these features.

One of the biggest challenges for a holster company is to acquire all the firearm molds with the vast amount of combinations of accessories that customers request.  This challenge is exacerbated when each holster is handmade to an exact model with the mounted accessories like CrossBreed® offers.  CrossBreed® continually adds different firearms and accessories to our gun list to accommodate customer requests.  Striving to be the best means we will never stop being innovative.