Amateurs and Experts
Amateurs and Experts is brought to you by Erica Chin and Jessica Adanich from the Women’s Outdoor Media Association (WOMA). WOMA is dedicated to encouraging women in the outdoor endeavors of shooting sports, archery, fishing, and hunting. In this podcast, Erica and Jessica share their experience in outdoor sports as well as interview female experts. The goal of this podcast is to educate and empower women who are beginners, hobbyists, and competitors in a fun and relaxed setting.
Amateurs and Experts
From Bra to Boot: The Ultimate Friction Holster Guide with Eric From Sticky Holster
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Have you ever wondered how to hide a tool safely when your clothes don't have pockets? In this fun talk, Jess and Erica chat with Eric from Sticky Holsters. They talk about how their special holsters stay in place using just a little bit of pressure and a "sticky" outside. Erica shares a secret about how she hides hers in her bra so she can exercise without it moving!
Eric explains that his company makes everything in the USA. They don't just make things for hiding firearms; they also make gear for hunters. He tells a story about a "modular sling" that lets you use one strap for many different firearms. This helps keep your storage safe and neat. The team reminds everyone that carrying a firearm is a big responsibility. You have to practice a lot and always be very careful. If you want to find these products, you can look in thousands of stores or visit their website!
Links
Sticky Holsters: https://stickyholsters.com/ - Full line of American-made friction holsters and concealment systems. (17:40)
Otis Technology: https://otistec.com/ - The booth hosting the podcast at SHOT Show. (00:15)
She Never Quit: thewoma.org - A support organization mentioned in relation to the hosts and Sticky Holsters. (00:44)
Streamlight Wedge: https://www.streamlight.com/ - A light mentioned during a TSA search story. (06:26)
Key Takeaways
Body Type Inclusivity: Friction holsters are often superior for "fluffy" individuals who find traditional IWB (inside the waistband) clips uncomfortable.
Modular Utility: A good concealment system (like Sticky’s) should work across various platforms—belly bands, ankle rigs, and vehicle mounts.
The Safe Struggle is Real: Modular slings help prevent accidental damage to expensive optics and rifles in crowded safes.
Safety is a Mindset: Respect for the firearm is the most important part of any lifestyle change involving concealed carry.
Key Words
Sticky Holsters, Concealed Carry, Friction, SHOT Show 2025, Venatic Collection, Stock Pad Riser, Modular Sling, TSA, Bra Carry, Belly Band, Accidental Discharge, Lifestyle Change, American Made.
Welcome to Amateurs and Experts Podcast. Today we are SHAT Show 2025. This is the third day, and um we're halfway through the third day, which is weird. It's flying by. It is. We're in this uh beautiful booth from Otis uh again this year. I don't know how they uh picked us, but I am so happy to be here and uh it's pretty bougie. It is bougie. We are bougie. I don't know. I call myself um I I tell everybody that my sister's classy and I'm trashy.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, but I'm rubbing off on you, and apparently I'm bougie. Apparently, yes.
SPEAKER_02You're welcome. Thank you. Everybody thinks you that knows me. And we're here with Eric from Sticky Holsters, and um they've always been such a great support for She Never Quit. And uh their products, I use them because uh they totally fit my body and um they fit in places that uh most holsters don't. And TSA will not find it. You know, I'm just joking.
SPEAKER_01I'm just joking the way you phrased that made it sound like after hours.
SPEAKER_02Oh yes, yes, yes. I'm always we always talk about doing an after hours podcast, you know. Hi, welcome to amateurs, experts, after hours.
SPEAKER_04A few adult beverages.
SPEAKER_01We're gonna do that one of these days. I swear. Oh my gosh, we should. We should. We get funnier.
SPEAKER_04Oh, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_01Deb might fire us from the volunteer board that we're on, but your engagement's gonna go way up though. How do you get fired from a voluntary position? Let me tell you.
SPEAKER_02I could find a way. We have the podcast episode to prove it. Anyway, um, like I say, I love sticky holsters. And um to get more serious, I just segments gonna be that. I think we're delusional at this point. Um, I actually so I've tried other brands out there, and um I'm fluffy, so the you know, the in the waistband isn't really for me because I have a lot to fill that waistband. And uh, you know, I stick a holster in my waistband and sometimes it um maybe sticks out. Like a little fat roll thing going over. Um, and that's not cute or concealed, you know. Or comfortable. Or comfortable.
SPEAKER_04That's the key there, yeah.
SPEAKER_02The belly band, I I've tried some, and and sticky does have a belly band. Um, I I don't know. I don't really like having something around my belly because I feel like I don't know. I feel like I already have a big belly, so to add a belly band, it's not my favorite. But I actually carry my sticky holster in my bra. Oh. The look on his face was so genuinely shocked. And I actually emailed Mike about this and he's like, um, can you tell me more about that without the pictures, right?
SPEAKER_01She sends me the picture. I didn't get the picture one time. And it would look great, right? It looks great, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I love it. I think that I mean, for me, I I am, you know, healthy chested. So to put um, I I have a lot of storage and space.
SPEAKER_01And so Eric is like, This is not what he expected.
SPEAKER_04It's a good thing I'm aging because I would be bright red right now.
SPEAKER_02I'm sorry. But it it is a great place. I mean, I've done vigorous workouts. I actually have a a video out there, uh, like, you know, and I told my trainer when I when I was there, I said, hey, I have a gun in my bra. Can uh in a holster, can I do a workout and see if it stays? It did not move. I love sticky holster.
SPEAKER_03Thank you.
SPEAKER_02Um, and then also their um mat mag pouches and stuff like that. That's all I use. So fantastic, thank you.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I mean, I think the benefit, first of all, I always tell people holsters are like shoes, right? Uh you're gonna have your favorite, your everyday kind of normal walking shoe, same with holster, but you can't run a marathon and go to a wedding in the same shoe or hike a mountain or you know, go mudding or whatever, at least you shouldn't. Right? So it's good to have options and just like shoes. There's a hundred different, hundred thousand different brands of shoes. Some people like Adidas, some people like Nike. The same thing with holsters. And um, you know, the benefit with ours is you can experiment, and if it works with you with a little bit of friction compression, you can carry it anywhere, anywhere. You're not constrained by the clip or the strap to only carry it one or two certain ways.
SPEAKER_02Right. So yeah, and it does. Deb tells a story that um she had her gun in a sticky holster in her purse, and after she was cleaning her purse out and she saw it, there was the jelly rancher on this on the sticky holster. I think Mike still has it. Yes, she said it right now. Yes, and it was the fact that you know it it does protect your gun from whatever's in your purse and God knows what is in Deb's purse. Yes.
SPEAKER_04Anybody for some dark holes in some purses that you yeah, I call mine the black hole.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00Mine's like the Mary Poppins bag. Like I don't, I just keep pulling weird shit out of it. Like a plastic dinosaur, three knives. Like, why do I need that? Yes. A platypus, yes, platypus. 17 lipsticks. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And you only take two of the three knives out before you fly. And TSA guys pulling out dinosaurs.
SPEAKER_00That is my life. You just met me and now you know me. I have no idea that was there.
SPEAKER_02I get it because I was I was flying a couple weeks ago and I had a streamlight um wedge, and they thought that it was a knife. And then they decided to search my bag at me. It's like, how does that work? But I don't know.
SPEAKER_04I we could have a whole separate podcast about TSA. Just my experience with that wonderful, fantastic organization.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yes. It's yes. I have several of them. Yes, and recent. Every time I fly almost. Are you on a fly listing? I feel like I am. Like they they love to um they love to touch me. In places that people shouldn't correct.
SPEAKER_04Yes. Yes, yes, violating Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights every day.
SPEAKER_02Oh my gosh. Yeah. Like anyway, that's that's another segment. It's a different podcast. Maybe that's the after after dark. After dark. Yes, yes, yes.
SPEAKER_04Dark stories with TSA. Yes.
SPEAKER_02I like it. So, Eric, tell us as you had talked about different products before we hit record. Um, why don't you tell us about some of the sticky products?
SPEAKER_04So we offer a full line of concealment products from holsters to um different straps and things, like you mentioned the belly band, the garter belt, and the ankle biter, all those convert a sticky holster into a thigh holster, garter holster, or ankle holster. Um, one thing that separates our company and our brand from a lot of our other competitors out there is we try not to just release products. Um, we want them to work together in one concealment system, and the center of that concealment system is the original sticky holster. So you don't have to, you know, if you're carrying multiple different guns, buy multiple different ankle holsters, you buy our ankle binder and it converts any sticky holster into an ankle holster. Um the same thing with the belly band, you know, you use your existing sticky holster and you can wear it um around your torso, your hips, or anything else like that. The travel mount if you're going off-body in a vehicle, center console, ATV, boat, nightstand, wherever. The gun never has to leave your holster. And for us, that's paramount because it helps eliminate um the potential for negligent or accidental discharges. I mean, most people know, you know, for me, it's like you're driving in a car, you're on the phone, your kids are screaming in the back because they want more goldfish, and now you're trying to take your unholstered gun from the vehicle mount that you installed and screwed into your thing, but it's unholstered, so now you're trying to shove it in your waistband, in your holster, you get distracted, things can happen. So with our systems, the trigger's already always covered, it always stays in the holster. Um, and then as far as developing new lines of products or um or into other spaces in shooting sports, almost everybody at the company is a shooter, uh, hunter, fisherman, has military or law enforcement experience, and through our experiences and honestly a lot of feedback from customers about issues or problems, that if there's not a product out there that can solve the issue that they're having, we'll take that feedback and look at, okay, what's the market research say? Is there a demand for this product? And try and either make, as Mike would infamously say, a better mousetrap, or redesign something completely from the ground up that's completely different and will still solve problems for consumers. So um we don't launch products every year. Probably at any one time we have eight to twelve different products in the RD process. Not all of them will make it to market. Um either market demands change, or someone came out with a really fantastic product and we're like, we can't do better than that. Or for whatever reason on the manufacturing supply side, we as an American company that makes everything in the United States can't offer it at what we would consider a reasonable or affordable price for the average consumer. Um so typically, you know, we launch stuff every you know two or three years, but we're not gonna just force new products down your throat just to come out with a new product at CHAT Show every year. We really want to try and help the consumer and solve problems, make their lives easier.
SPEAKER_02And you talked about the hunting products. Yeah, yeah. Can you can you kind of describe what that would be like?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, absolutely. So two years ago, we launched what's called our Venatic collection. Uh Venatic means anything to do with hunting. So we we had um ideas for products going back many, many, many years. And one of our products I we actually used two years before we launched it, so it was almost like four years of RD and using it. I'm passionate about hunting. Um, our CEO, our CEO Kyle is passionate about hunting, he's my hunting buddy. Our production manager, we all three of us hunt together quite often.
SPEAKER_03Nice.
SPEAKER_04And we didn't want to have our one of our first products branching outside of concealed carry, but we really wanted it to be something special and um that solved a lot of problems, and that was the stock pad riser, uh, which can also be it mounts on any bolt gun, lever gun, shotguns as well. So it's made out of our sticky material. And the problem for that I incurred with, you know, optics are getting bigger. So you know, some of the most of the stocks don't have an adjustable comb on there, so you need a little bit of help to get your eye in line with the center of that optic. Um and all the other ones that would carry ammo are either made out of leather or nylon, and they would always move or slide or adjust on you. And um, for the hunters out there, you know, when you're breaking that shot, especially maybe on a really expensive hunt that you've saved up most of your life to go on at one opportunity to take an animal, um, you don't want anything moving. You know, that's bipod, scopes, toe rings, everything should be well done. So um, from an unfortunate bat experience that I had, I've you know, we kind of developed this this product. It's ambidextrous, it comes with a rifle ammo holder, it comes with a dope cart holder, which typically I use to carry my hunting license in, so it's always with the gun. Um, and we do have the optional 12-gauge shotgun shell um carriers as well. So that was one of the first three products that we came out with. Um the second was a modular sling, also um comes from my experience. Um, anybody who has more than one long gun in a safe with slings uh has probably encountered this where you go into the safe and you want to pull out one of your long guns and a sling catches a bipod or a scope or something, and then all eight of them come tumbling out of the safe. Is that how many you have? No. I will not disclose that number. Yes, no, significantly more.
SPEAKER_02Um eight's just his favorite number. Yes, correct, correct. Only eight come out.
SPEAKER_04Yes. And I understand that they're tools, but they're nice tools. And when you have, you know, super expensive optics and rifles and things like that. Having a huge scratch or gouge on it from your safe is is disheartening sometimes. So um, out of my frustration, I was like, there's gotta be a better way to do this. So we came with our modular sling, and it's one sling for all your guns. So we have three different, we call them dongle attachments. Uh, you pre-mount those to all your guns. So they're offered in sling stud, QD, and a regular strap. So if you're running like an old uh Colt or Beckhole CTR stock or even the old lever guns that just have the loops and you can't remove the sling studs, they're kind of built in. Um, those stay on the gun, and your sling you can hang on the outside of your safe. You pull out whatever gun you need, and it just quickly clicks in on both ends of the dongle. There's a quick release buckle. Um, so it's one sling for all your guns. You don't have to, you know, uh use velcro or rubber bands to retain your slings and keeps everything organized and things like that. So those have been our main two, two of the three products have done really well for us, and uh, we're excited to be able to have success branching away from concealed carry.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. So Sheila Hoakstra, she comes to our she never quit. Yeah, um, definitely uh a force to be reckoned with. She is amazing with the ladies. Um, she reps sticky holster soaps. Yes, she does.
SPEAKER_04Yes, she does.
SPEAKER_02And uh we had so much fun this last year. Uh she came out and all the ladies got to try it out, and and um and you know, we were out there, they were putting it around the belly band. I think a lot of them liked. Um, and it's very much a preference. Very much a, you know, not everybody likes to carry a gun in their chest, and I and I get it, you know. It's almost like um, I mean, some people love waistband and their body's made for it. Some people um, you know, love a shoulder and their body's made for it. Um, but it's definitely one of those things that you have got to practice with. If you're gonna have a concealed carry, um, practice, practice your draw, practice, make sure that you know you're not gonna have your finger on the bang switch when you're pulling that gun out and um do reps. Correct. You know, it is it is very important for safety and um and get what makes you uh comfortable.
SPEAKER_04Correct, what works for you. And I always tell people as an instructor, if you start, if you're gonna start carrying a firearm, it's a lifestyle change. Yes, it's the same as you know, deciding you're gonna change your diet or work out every day or change your religion, whatever. It is a lifestyle change. Everything from taking your largest holster when you go try on clothes to make sure that every piece of clothing you have will fit your biggest holster if you choose to carry that gun.
SPEAKER_02Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_04Um, thinking about patterns and layering and how, especially on the female side, you know, how does this shirt fit if I'm carrying a gun? Because it might fit differently if you're not carrying a gun, etc. etc. Um, so it always has to be on the forefront of your mind. Plus, you're carrying a firearm. And I always say the instant you lose respect for that thing, it's gonna hurt you or somebody else. Yes, yes. Um I've seen a lot of negligent and accidental discharges, whatever term you want to use, some of the people with the most experience.
SPEAKER_03Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_04Um, and that's because they get complacent. They get complicated kills. So the moment you lose respect for it is when it can hurt you. And so that keeping it in the forefront of your mind is part of that lifestyle change as well. Good point.
SPEAKER_02So Eric, if uh anybody's looking for a holster, sticky holster, anybody that has heard this podcast, how funny we are and how we how we conceal, um, how how do they reach out to you? How do they get a sticky holster?
SPEAKER_04Uh so we're in uh I think over close to 4,500 retail stores across the country. Uh you can find our stuff on our website direct. So if you can't get it at your local gun shop or retailer, you can always get it from us uh on our website. Uh I think it is also sold on Amazon as well, like everything else. Yes. Um, so and also if if your favorite gun shop doesn't carry uh our products, give us a call or send us an email. And we actually have kind of uh incentive program. If you go in there and tell them about us, we send you a free holster. Oh, help expand our sales force a little bit. That's brilliant. Encourages people to carry our products. Give them they're already a proponent of our product, they're looking for it. They can go in a gun shop and say, Hey, I I'm looking for this product, you should carry it. Right. We'll send a holster to them, we'll send a holster to the gun shop for free so they can try it out before they place it on it.
SPEAKER_02Perfect. Well, thank you for being on our podcast today. Very informative. Yeah, and I hope you have a great show.
SPEAKER_04Thank you, you too. Appreciate it.