The PHLster Enigma is marketed as an option for concealed carry without relying on a belt, such as when you're wearing sweatpants or a dress. I recently purchased one because I'm often wearing pants with an elastic waist that just don't work with a traditional gun belt and holster setup.
After a bit over a month I can say I'm Enigma-pilled. This thing is pretty sweet and the sports band actually expands my ability to carry quite a bit, almost making this part of my "everyday carry" items.
For people that don't find themselves wearing belted pants/shorts often the Enigma is pretty sweet and kind of hard to beat. It's fairly comfortable; I haven't done like over 8 hour days with it, but for some hours at a time walking/sitting/driving I've never been particularly uncomfortable. I certainly notice it's there but it's totally bearable for me.
Pros:
- I like sweat pants and the Enigma is massively better than just a holster for that. It also makes it possible to carry on your body if you are not wearing pants.
- Expands EDC capacity quite a bit without needing to carry a bag.
- Much faster draw (around twice as fast for me) compared to off body bag.
Cons:
- Expensive, with the sports band (recommended) it's like $140.
- Very much limits your available holster selection, especially if you have a weapon mounted light.
- Small thing for most people, but changing out your holster (if you maybe rotate your carry gun regularly) is a bit of a process, not a huge deal but you need a screwdriver at least.
- Bigger deal I didn't initially think of until it came up, but if you ever need to disarm, maybe you're going into a prohibited location, the process of taking your holster off is much longer, but possible in a car or something. However, if you want to put the Enigma back on that is going to be mostly not feasible unless you can stand up (or maybe lay down). Inside the waistband holsters are massively less comfortable without a gun in them, so you may have to weigh getting stabbed in the gut by your holster constantly vs. not being able to bring your gun if you're running errands or something vs. being real creative.
- It stays pretty well fitted throughout the day just doing normal things but if you're frequently drawing and re-holstering, say during dry-fire practice, the system definitely will loosen up a bit, begin to droop and need to be re-tightened. generally not an issue you will have with a belt and standard holster.
This is just my experience, but all in all, if you are like me and wear sweatpants/elastic waistband pants (or maybe you don't wear pants) I definitely recommend the Enigma as a solution. But for anyone that wears belted pants and likes their holster I don't think this will blow what you have out of the water and probably isn't worth the cost of you buying it and likely needing to buy a new compatible holster for it as well.
