There are so many ways to carry inside-the-waistband (IWB). Ask anyone who has been carrying IWB for any length of time, and you’ll find a long list of well-thought-out answers. For close to 20 years now, some diehard IWB fans have been singing the praises of Crossbreed Holsters.
What are Crossbreed Holsters?
It is fair to say you know one when you see it. As holsters go, these are distinctive.
Crossbreed Holsters was the vision of Mark Craighead. The company, like so many in this industry, grew from one man’s vision (and maybe a bit of frustration) with something that worked well enough, but maybe not as good as it could. In this case, it was the common holster.
When Crossbreed opened shop in 2005, many garage-based Kydex benders were working their magic in the holster space. Kydex—a versatile thermoformed plastic that provides an exceptionally tight-fitting holster for a firearm—can be an ideal material for securing a gun in a holster. But that doesn’t mean it is comfortable.
Leather, on the opposite end, can be exceptionally comfortable. Humans used the material for almost as long as we’ve been humans — Neanderthals used it too. Leather is ancient and (up to a point) gets better with age.
Leather, too, can take on the exacting form of a gun and make for an exceptional holster. It tends to bend more, though. Wet-forming leather (which is how that exact detail and perfect fit are achieved) is hard on guns, as the gun needs to sit in the wet holster until it dries.
But I was waxing poetic about Crossbreed when I got sidetracked there with a bit of material perspective. There’s a point though. Crossbreed Holsters, above all else, are known for taking the comfortable feel of leather and combining it with the molded acuity of Kydex. The result is a distinctive-looking design that has become the brand’s defining aesthetic.
What makes Crossbreed Holsters different?
The holster’s back — I’m looking mostly at the IWB designs — is made of leather. This is most often a thick and somewhat rigid piece of vegetable-tanned leather. The leather itself isn’t bent, though the company’s Celtic cross logo is stamped into the face.
The one I’ve been testing is the Supertuck. This piece of leather is flat with no definition for the gun. It is cut wide — well oversized — to allow the clips to be attached.
In an era when many Kydex makers used single-clip IWB designs, Crossbreed favored two. That was part of why they needed the large leather holster back, though I can’t say which came first—the need for two clips, or the need for the wide leather back.
The leather is the part of this holster contacting your skin. This provides a warmth that feels much better than the plastic of Kydex. The rough side of the hide is against your hide, which prevents the holster from shifting or moving much once it is on the belt.
The Kydex Part
While the leather is fairly simple, the Kydex shell is distinctly Crossbreed. The molded plastic covers three distinct sides with just enough to securely hold the gun. The edges flare out, and provide enough space for the Kydex to be riveted to the leather.
This shell has to be engineered in such a way that the bend allows for sight channel clearance. On the bottom of the gun, the plastic wraps tightly over the trigger guard, preventing finger ingress from the front. The back of the trigger guard is protected by the gun sitting flat against the leather.
Wearing the Crossbreed Holster
Unlike all-Kydex designs, a Crossbreed holster will break in. The leather, as it absorbs sweat, will loosen up a bit. You can replicate this with oils to keep the salt in your sweat from drying the leather out like you would an old baseball glove.
These holsters feel atypically large to those who are accustomed to single-clip IWB designs. Most IWB Kydex holsters simply bend the material in half, taco style, and that cuts down the bulk of the holster body — at least from side to side. On the front, though, a clip mounted to the holster can, in some designs, add depth to the whole holster, making it more difficult to conceal.
Crossbreed spreads this out. The design acknowledges a truth some overlook. It isn’t the side-to-side parts of the holster that are hard to conceal. As such, the uniform thickness of a Crossbreed design — the widest of them, at least — spreads out across the body. Consequently, the width minimizes printing (which is worse when there’s a small, abrupt bump than it is when there’s a wide flat one).
I’ve seen some wearing the Crossbreed designs in the appendix position. I’ve seen others rocking them out onto their hips, strongside IWB. While narrower holster designs with two clips won’t bend well enough to wrap around the hip, these tend to have more give.
Crossbreed’s clips
Crossbreed’s design has — for as long as I can remember — used steel clips to secure the holster to the belt. The leather backing includes a couple of hole sets for the adjustable ride height up or down, putting the higher or deeper into the pants.
These clips have a bit of an hourglass shape to the front but flare to a wide thumb shelf that makes getting them on and off the belt easy enough. The backside of that clip has a flat bend to keep the belt from walking back through once it is on the belt.
How do they wear?
This is far from my first Crossbreed. Years ago, many years ago it feels like, I carried a Springfield XD-S in one. The thin design with the thin single-stack was an effective combination. While there are times when it felt like the holster was a bit too big, I never felt that way while wearing it.
Some of these wide pancake designs, especially those with a padded back to them, strike me as too large. For me, Crossbreed’s designs are more comfortable for long-term wear.
With the J-frame, the cylinder rides out fairly far with any of the IWB designs. Though the gun is small, it isn’t super thin, so I tend to stress more about printing. There’s not a design I’ve found yet that can make nothing out of something, so you learn to live with it.
And you’ll wear the holster more frequently if it is comfortable. So, no matter which design you choose, make sure it is easy to wear.
The Crossbreed for the J-frame runs in that $75 range. For IWB holsters—especially for J-frames—that’s in the high-middle range. Pocket holsters start much lower. Single-clip IWBs are the next step up, price-wise, and are arguably more versatile for concealment. The Crossbreed, though, has earned its place in this lineup and remains competitively priced.
