With the acquisition of my Sig Sauer P320 Compact, so came the need for a OTW (Outside The Waistband) kydex holster.  So I decided to reach out to the fine folks at Pro-Tek Concealment, thanks to a recommendation from a friend and fellow product reviewer – Snareman.

There’s a TON of manufactures both big and small who make Kydex holsters.  But I wanted to give Pro-Tek a try because they offer Kydex “J-clips” – belt clips with offer the option both put on and take off the holster from your gun belt without actually removing your belt.  The Kydex holsters I’ve been using as of late have “closed loop” style belt clips – you have to fish your gun belt through them to both put on and remove the holster.  This can be inconvenient – particularly when just want to quickly take off your gun and holster to run into somewhere with the dreaded “no guns” sign posted.  A holster with J-clips can be easily unclipped, removed, and stored in your car.  Of course the trade-off here is that J-clips introduce the possible risk that the holster will unintentionally come off your belt when drawing your gun – not good during a defensive encounter, and something that can’t happen with closed belt loops.  Does that make closed belt loops the better choice?  Concealed carry is often about trade-offs – what are you willing to accept in order to get something you desire.  Want lower weight?  More concealability?  More comfort? If so, it  means potentially accepting things like lower magazine capacity, more muzzle flip,  and a gun that doesn’t fit ideally in your hand.  You have to accept “negatives” to get the “positives” you’re after.  Which positives and negatives you ultimately accept or reject, is up to you.  For me, the risk being introduced by the J-clips is a small one – I’ve both trained and competed with J-clip equipped holsters before, and never had a problem.  So the positives they bring (convenience) is worth the risk.  That said, if I knew for certain I’d not need to remove my holster during the day, I might well opt to use one of my closed loop holsters.  Having options is a good thing.

It took about two weeks to receive my Pro-Tek Concealment holster after ordering which is pretty darn good turn around.  The quality and comfort of the holster was as good as any I’ve tried or owned, with another innovative feature I’ve not seen on too many other holsters – a retention adjustment screw.  This gives the user the option to dial in their preferred level of holster retention (how tightly the holster holds on to the gun).  It’s a pretty slick feature that I think many users will find useful.

Pro-Tek Concealment offers a variety of custom options to set up the holster to the users individual preferences, including of course the color of the Kydex.  As of this writing Pro-Tek’s website does not show any color samples, so make sure you communicate well with them if you want any color other than black.  I ordered mine in “FDE” when in reality I should have ordered “Coyote Brown” – the holster that I received was a little greener than I wanted but ended up being a decent match to the FDE in the P320’s polymer frame:

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I’m so impressed with this holster I’ve ordered two more – another for my P320 Compact in black (as I do want to get a black P320 Compact) and a Coyote Brown holster for my M&P 9C.

Here’s my video review of the Pro-Tek Concealment OTW Kydex holster on the ThruMyLens YouTube Channel:

Here’s my buddy Snareman’s video review of his Pro-Tek Concealment holster: