2024 has started great here at Pistol-Training.com, as we hope it also has for you. It’s a little cold to do much effective pistol work today, so I think it will be a rifle day if I can put my shotguns down long enough. I am having a blast with the big bore problem solver.
A friend sent us a post that Raven Concealment put up today, and I think it is important enough to comment on here.
In their post, they say that they invented the muzzle wedge. After saying that their holster came out in 2015, they mentioned that prototypes had been around since late 2009. TLG and I had been using holsters with wedges since at least 2008, and our first collaborative design was released to the public in 2009, here at Pistol-Training.com. That holster was the first commercial holster to incorporate a muzzle wedge, designed over quite some time, with no input or knowledge of the Raven people.
When I spoke to the Raven people at SHOT show the year they released the Eidelon, they also claimed to have invented the wing. That feature was not only already in use in other forms from some of the earliest holsters we did, it was in an actual wing form with the SME. TLG wrote about this at the time. I was wearing the SME at SHOT that year and showed it to them.
Raven wasn’t even the first to do a wing in plastic, as Tenicor’s owner (before Tenicor was founded officially) was making kydex holsters with wings for a long time, after asking and receiving permission to use the design. It’s a classy thing to do that some people seem to forget about. I do think that Raven was the first to make a plastic wing accessible to other holster makers, and theirs was the first I know of to use a 90-degree attachment method. That 90-degree attachment is essential for a plastic holster, but not for a leather holster.
It is not unheard of for multiple people to develop the same concept simultaneously and separately. The difference here is that holsters were already on the market for some years before Raven ever released theirs. Development started on those holsters before Raven started development on theirs.
At any rate, we are very happy to see the proliferation of AIWB holsters on the market, as well as the widespread acceptance that form of carry has attained. It would be nice if credit was given where due, something TLG and I have tried to be sticklers about. Equipment is nice but training is essential to use an AIWB safely. It is something TLG wrote about quite a bit, and is a core concept in any class I teach.
So regardless of whose AIWB holster you are using, or if you are using some other holster position, go get training! As TLG always said, train hard and stay safe!
Some years ago they were very adamant in their claim that they invented the trigger guard style “holster” as well.
I remember that. My understanding is that Dale Fricke invented it first, but when I asked him about it, he was unwilling to say which came first for sure. I took his speech pattern at the time as being humble.