Several months ago I reviewed the Ambassador holster from N8 Squared Tactical. As I discussed in that review, the holster uses plastic clips to hold the holster in place. I was generally positive about the holster, and it remains the most comfortable holster I own.
I have also used both plastic and metal clips on my Aliengear Holsters, and there are positives and negatives to both. The metal clips are great for retention early. That is, when you first get the holster, the clips will hold it on there tightly. The problem comes in when you have worn the holster for a year and the clips are now loose. You can bend them back into position, but the effect of that is temporary. Before long you’ve gotten a sprung clip with metal fatigue and you’ll worry about whether the clip will hold when you need it.
Plastic clips, of course, are prone to fracture and that too can be a problem. So I was a bit skeptical of the N8 Squared product because of these plastic clips. However, in daily wear over the course of 6 months I can honestly say that the clips have performed well. They’ve held the holster and they’ve never let go.
My wife cannot identify the midline of our garage, and as a result, the room left for me to get in her car when we go somewhere is tiny. Add to this the fact that she moves the front seat up into the glove box (and she drives a Mini-Cooper just like me) and the job of getting into the car is like trying to push 10 pounds a concrete through a paper soda straw. When I attempted it several weeks ago I heard a “pop” and when I got out of the car I found my holster dropping well below my waistband. The clip had broken due to the stress of me trying to get into the car.
I would like to point out that this is not a clip failure. This is a holster-wearer failure. I should have told my wife to back out, fixed the seat, and gotten in the car. But I did not. I was in a hurry (it was Wednesday and so it was meatloaf day at Kitchen 3810). The clip broke, but not because it was defective, but because I put way more stress on it than I should have.
I had talked to the N8 Squared folks at the NRAAM and they said the holster had a lifetime guarantee and if anything broke to let them know. So I sent them this picture.
I demonstrated the broken clip by image, and before the day was out the clip was on its way to me via USPS. When it arrived I replaced it in about 30 seconds. I handled everything by email. The customer service folks were a delight to deal with!
Even really great products sometimes fail. The measure of a company is not whether its products never fail, but what happens after they do. N8 Squared honored its warranty, and did exactly what they said they’d do. You really can’t ask for more than that.
N8 Squared Tactical is a company that stands behind their work. Find them here!
The Well Armed Attorney 