Tactical Talk: EOTAC’s Fernando Coelho
Nobody’s more passionate about perfecting the tactical pant than Fernando Coelho.
In 2005, the president and founder of EOTAC set out to introduce a better-fitting, more durable pant to the market. And he did just that — first working on Woolrich’s Elite Series and then for his own tactical clothing company in 2008.
Coelho has worked in the firearms industry since the mid-nineties, founding Triton Cartridge, an ammunition company that produced high performance defensive ammunition like the Quik-Shok and Hi-Vel lines. Before his foray into manufacturing tactical gear, Coelho worked at a nuclear generating station outside of New York City as an armed security officer and member of its tactical response team.
Because of his amazing ability to talk “tac pants” for hours perhaps, we couldn’t be in more awe of Coelho or his work.
You’ve designed and improved upon the design of tactical pants. What was the most important change you made and why?
I think one of the most important things we changed is the fit. Pocket placement and fabric selection is important, but the fit of the pant is what keeps one brand of pant left hanging in your closet and the other out in the field for use every day.
Tactical pants have to accommodate the end users. The type of people who wear a tactical pant have different needs than someone that is into mountain climbing or hiking. You want a pant that gives you the range of motion to allow you to drop down on a knee without the pant being tight in your crotch. You want a pant that allows you to lift your leg without your pant binding. You want a loose fit but not so loose that the fabric gets in your way. We spent a lot of time working on the fit of our pants and listening to the feedback from our team of beta testers. I think that the effort has paid off.
What’s the most recent innovation in the tactical world that has excited you?
In the tactical world, I would say body armor continues to reach new levels of development. Today’s armor is much lighter while still offering high levels of ballistic protection. Now you see armor carriers being integrated with combat uniforms, which make the overall combat uniform less bulky and more comfortable for our soldiers. When you look at clothing specifically, our new Direct Action line of clothing is exciting. We developed the Direct Action line as our answer to the combat uniform.
How many pairs of tactical pants do you own?
I must have at least twenty pairs of tactical pants and another dozen discreet pants. I wear tactical pants three to four days out of the week. The rest of the time I’m wearing our discreet denim pants.
When did you first discover tactical pants? What were your initial impressions of the pants?
When I was in the ammunition business in the mid 1990s, we started a shooting team. That team wore tactical pants, and that was my first introduction to them. Before that I always wore denim pants.
My initial impressions are the reason I’m in the clothing business now. I was so disappointed with the fit of the first tactical pants I wore. Then after you washed them a few times, the fit got worse. Not to mention the fading and inconsistent cut from pant to pant. For what I was paying for those pants, I definitely expected more. Years later the brand of tactical pant began to offer more styles, but their pants never got better.
If you got in a time machine and jumped 50 years in the future, will tactical pants still look the same? Would anything be different?
That is an interesting question. If you look back in time, tactical pants remained the same for years. Today you have many manufacturers getting into the tactical pant market. Fifty years from now physically we will still have two arms and two legs.
That being the case, I think pockets may change in shape and placement to accommodate the gear of the time. I expect the big changes to be in the fabrics used and the fabric treatments. I think lighter and stronger fabrics that are more comfortable that what we are used to will be the trend.
In: Information · Tagged with: EOTAC Tactical, interviews, tactical pants, Woolrich