Lisa Looper set out to make a Concealed Carry Holster that worked for her body and ended up Founding Flashbang
Photos by FLASHBANG
When Lisa Looper was working in her family’s business selling belts and holsters to law enforcement officers from all over the Oklahoma City metro area, they would constantly tell her that she should be carrying a gun. At the same time, they would relay the struggles they had finding a carry method for their wives and daughters. “I believed them about what I should be doing, but even after going through every option I could find, I couldn’t come up with a solution that worked with how I dressed or how I was actually built,” says Looper. “So I went with the old standby of ‘kick ’em and run’ if trouble ever crossed my path.”
That changed in May 2005 when she became a first-time mom. “When my oldest was a baby, I was at a gas station filling up my car, and he was asleep in his car seat,” she recalls. “Some man walked up to the front of my car. He didn’t really do anything wrong. He just got closer than I was comfortable with, and I instinctively stepped back. Then I realized I’d stepped away from my son. That man was closer to my baby than I was. So I stepped back up. He wandered off, and it wasn’t an issue. But standing there, it occurred to me that I couldn’t get my son out of that car seat and get both of us away safely, not if I needed to. Running away had been my entire plan, and it wasn’t an option anymore.”
“So I got serious about finding something that worked, failed at it repeatedly, and eventually discovered that the little curve right under the bust line is a great hiding spot for a gun. I made something that fit my body, hid under the clothes I was already wearing, and didn’t get in the way of taking care of my son. It worked with my curves instead of against them.”
Looper says she wasn’t trying to invent a product or start a business. “It just met my need at the time, and it turned out a lot of other women needed the same thing,” she says. “That holster became the Flashbang, and that mindset started a whole company.” As Looper explains, most companies take a design made for men and modify it to work better for women. Her company, on the other hand, starts from the ground up. “The Flashbang began with me asking where I could best conceal a gun based on the contours of my body. Then: How do I secure it there? How do I access it? How do I keep it safe? The answer to each question formed the design, and it’s still completely different from anything else on the market,” says Looper.
“There’s a real mismatch between what the firearms industry thinks women want and what actually works for us. It’s gotten better over the course of my career, but people don’t know what they don’t know, and that applies to everyone. When something feels simple to you, you don’t go looking for another way to do it. Racking a slide is a good example. If it’s easy for you, it’s hard to understand why someone else might struggle. Men generally have stronger upper bodies, which makes operating a gun easier to manage. Women don’t always get to rely on brute strength. We need technique.”
“The same thing happens with concealed carry. Men have relatively straight torsos and a more standard clothing pattern. Our bodies are smaller and curvier and we wear a huge range of outfits. Taking a large flat piece of metal and adding it to structured pants and a belt is fairly simple for a straight body type. For women, we’re back to technique, and this time there’s hardware that has to be designed to make that technique safe. If a man designs holsters and never struggles with strapping a full size firearm at his side, he’ll assume everyone else can do the same. Having a woman’s perspective, and the ability to design the hardware to make the techniques work, is a totally different ballgame.”
With that innate level of understanding, Looper says her holsters fill a need instead of adapting around one. As one customer, Stephanie S., recently put it: “I love this holster. It makes it easy to conceal my gun with any outfit, which used to be such a struggle for me!” While the company has expanded its offerings, their initial product, the Flashbang bra holster, as well as their Betty 2.0 inside-the-waistband holster, have remained their most popular products. While the function of each is different, the design principles are identical: Start with the contours of women’s bodies to find concealment; use the support structures already built into women’s clothing; use the mechanics of women’s physiques to their best advantage; and take the realities of women’s day-to-day lives into account when determining safety needs.
Looper has certainly built a successful brand of holsters, but her emphasis has always been on helping women gain confidence in their ability to carry concealed. “We spend as much time helping people learn about firearms, personal safety and concealed carry as we do making and selling holsters. I’m just a mom who wants to keep her family safe, and I’m passionate about helping others do the same.” ★
Editor’s note: For more information, visit flashbangstore.com
