Red Nichols the Holstorian

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Join date: Apr 30, 2020

About

Red Nichols is the author with John Witty of the reference book titled "Holstory - Gunleather of the Twentieth Century", 2nd Ed copyright 2022, 3rd Ed copyright 2025. He served the gunleather industry itself from 1970 after joining Bianchi Holster as chief designer until 1990, and continued his design work from1990 with two dozen more makers as Nichols Innovation until retiring to Australia 2000. He fully retired as a gunleather designer/maker in 2020 on his 70th birthday. His most famous possession? He owns the famed "Berns-Martin" registered trademark, of James Bond shoulder holster fame.

Posts (9)

Mar 14, 2026 ∙ 1 min

Somehow I'm Still Relevant

The other night I had a look at the new Yellowstone series that is called Marshals, and spotted one of my designs for Aker Leather on the main character. Let's face it, concealable holsters get used in film and tv only when they are paddle holsters, because the director can have the propmaster add/subtract a holster without requiring the actor to remove his or her waistbelt (cowboy era gunfighters have their complete holster and belt set added/removed, ditto the Dirty Harry character had...

Feb 24, 2026 ∙ 2 min

It's Been a Minute.

A recent, excellent image on eBay of a vintage Seventrees SSS model for the 1911 pistols, inspired me to compare it with my TCAT ('To Catch a Thief', a Cary Grant film that made a big impression on me as a teen). The latter holster was inspired by the former but it is not a copy, with both having their own points of excellence. A forum post, though, made me realise that it's quite hopeless to think consumers can become educated enough to buy the very best holster for themselves, because all...

Jan 11, 2025 ∙ 3 min

The Last Word on Holstory -- Holster History of the 20th Century

To build the book required ten years of research online, and 50 years of first-hand experience in the gunleather industry. But it wasn't realistic to try to fit all the tiny details into the book itself. Oh, sure, there was space, but I couldn't let it get bogged down with words when the full color images are what set this book apart from all others on the subject. Above, Sam Myres' original steel stamps from his El Paso years; so, after his founding years in Sweetwater. Notably there was...

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