Guide to Tactical Pants Pockets | Tactical Experts | TacticalGear.com (2025)

The number, types and placement of pockets on your tactical pants can have subtle but significant effects on your ability to do your job. There's a short Pockets 101 section in our main guide to choosing tactical pants. Here, we'll do a deeper dive. We'll cover tactical pants pocket types, designs and placement, as well as the pros and cons of various pocket closure systems.

Tactical Pants Pocket Types

Broadly speaking, the pockets on your tactical pants fall into one of eight types or categories. Each is designed with a specific purpose in mind.

• Slash pockets, so named for their aggressively angled openings, are for small items to which you need quick and frequent access.
• Cargo pockets are large and roomy—great for items that are bulky but not heavy, or for several small, lightweight items.
• Knife pockets are sized and shaped to snugly retain most folding knives.
• Magazine pockets are low-profile, discreet storage for semiautomatic pistol magazines (ideally single-stack magazines; double-stack mags will be tricky to hide).
• Accessory pockets are meant to hold your phone, notebook and other frequently used items of roughly similar size and shape.
• Handcuff key pockets (typically found only on tactical pants marketed to police officers) are tiny compartments just big enough for one or two handcuff keys. They're usually sewn into the waistband for extra security and retention.
• Concealed pockets are, as the name suggests, blended into the surrounding fabric such that the pocket itself is difficult to spot. Often, the opening will be disguised as a seam.
• Segmented pockets have item-specific compartments designed to securely hold several different items within the same pocket. A common configuration is a cargo pocket with a narrow segment for a pen, a slightly wider one for a folding knife or small flashlight and a large one for a notebook or phone.

Tactical Pants Pocket Designs

While pocket types describe the intended function of the pocket, a pocket's design is the specific way in which it's sewn into the pants. Most tactical pants pockets fall into one of three broad categories.

Patch pockets are the most common. These are the standard pockets that you have on your jeans and on most of your other pants. The pocket is simply a fabric pouch with a (usually) open top. When there's nothing inside, the inner pouch lies flat against your leg.

While patch pockets hold stuff between the inner layer of fabric and your leg, box pockets are attached to the outer surface of the pants. (Your magazine pouches or radio holder could be thought of as box pockets.) Box pockets always bulge out a bit, even when empty. They can accommodate significantly more than a patch pocket of similar size.

Bellow pockets are box pockets that can lie flat when empty. They're made with accordion-like fabric that opens like an expanding file folder. They're more low-profile and convenient than standard box pockets, but their design is more complex, making repairs more difficult.

Tactical Pants Pocket Placement

Everyone's legs are a little different. The exact placement of your pants pockets relative to your hands and to other pockets is an important but easily overlooked consideration. Here are a few quick tips:

• Consider your height, leg length and arm length. You should be able to reach the bottom of any hip or thigh pocket without having to lean over or bend at the waist.
• Your most critical items should go in your hip or thigh pockets for quick access, so choose pants with pockets in those areas that are numerous enough and large enough for your needs.
• Consider which hand you use for various tasks and look for pants with pockets that are arranged accordingly.
• Buy pants with pockets that are slightly horizontally offset from your belt pouches and from all items attached to your vest or plate carrier (if applicable). What use is a pocket that's physically obstructed by something else?

Tactical Pants Pocket Closure Systems

Almost all tactical pants use one or more of the following five pocket closure systems. As with most things, each has pros and cons.

• Open pockets have no closure system at all. They offer the fastest access to items inside but are least secure in terms of retention.
• Compared to open pockets, Velcro pockets are slightly slower to access and slightly more secure. The hook-and-loop patches are difficult to clean if they get dirty, but on the upside, Velcro is easy to replace (a 15-minute sewing job, in most cases).
• Buttoned pockets are slowest to access. In exchange, you get decent retention and easy button replacement (even easier than Velcro).
• Snap pockets are between buttons and Velcro in terms of access speed, and they offer good retention. Snap fasteners are easy to replace, but you'll need special tools (a snap fastener replacement kit) to do so.
• Zippered pockets are fast to access and highly secure, but of these five closure systems, zippers are most prone to damage and hardest to replace.

Other Considerations

Before you buy your next pair of tactical pants, take a moment to look at a few other things more closely.

• All cargo pockets should be triple-stitched for maximum strength and durability. All other pockets should be double-stitched (at least).
• Large pockets are good for bulk but not weight. Items heavy enough to rattle around in the pocket or bounce against your leg should go somewhere else, such as a belt pouch or backpack.
• Regular maintenance is key, especially for the insides of pockets (where holes and rips are most common and least visible). In many cases, a small tear in a pocket can be easily repaired, but if a minor rip gets too big, fixing it may be too costly or time-intensive to be practical.

Pockets are arguably the most important part of tactical pants despite the fact that most of us usually don't give them much thought. An extra half-hour of pocket-focused research could be the difference between a so-so pair of tactical pants and one that will serve you well for many years to come.