In a recent piece from Active Response Training, Greg Ellifritz answers a question as to what is appropriate attire for a firearms instructor. The short answer he gives is "who cares?" and, if you do care more about what he is wearing than what he is teaching, he doesn't want you in his class. But he does provide some history of the 5-11 slacks and polo shirt which seemed almost a uniform among certain types of people. He relates:
FBI firearms instructors started wearing Royal Robbins climbing pants (the pants model was called the 5.11, named after a difficult climbing route) and polo shirts as their uniforms in the 1990s. Royal Robbins spun off the 5.11 pants into a separate sales division called 5.11 Tactical in 2003. That’s the brand you all know well.
There weren’t a whole lot of professional commercial firearms instructors in the business in the 1990s as compared to now. Most of the commercial instructors in the business at the time had taught at the FBI academy or at least at their regional offices. Those commercial instructors emulated the FBI instructor/agent look because it appeared sharp and was somewhat unique. I remember when wearing 5.11 pants from an obscure outdoor clothing company (which had to be ordered by mailing the company a physical order form and a paper check) was like a secret code. It meant that you were one of the cool kids who played with guns for a living.
Looking back on that time, it now seems quite odd. Most firearms instructors I know are free thinkers and a bit anti-authoritarian. Even if those instructors were (or had been) cops, very few had a high level of respect for the FBI. Yet everyone jumped at the chance to LARP like an FBI instructor without the slightest bit of cognitive dissonance.
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