WHY 3D PRINTING?
The short answer: 3D printing allows me to provide a more comfortable holster using a material that aligns well with the use case of everyday carry, at the prices I have.
If you look closely at the product photos and you’re in the know, you’re going to see artifacts that give away how my stuff is made. And since you’re in the know, you’re going to have some questions, and doubts about whether these can possibly hold up to “serious use.”
Serious use is another way to say “what I’m doing with the holster.” Would I want to use a level 3 OWB holster made my way for police work? No. They’re fairly tough and could probably handle getting knocked on the way in and out of a car, but odds are good that falling onto the holster would separate it from its mount, if not crack it badly enough that the gun would no longer be retained. Kydex, of course, is ductile enough that it would stay attached in that situation.
What Kydex isn’t great at is dealing with heat. Where I live, cars get hot in the summer, especially in 2026. Leaving a Kydex holster in a car this July would be a great way to end up with loose hardware and a warped shell. It would be even worse if it were in a portable lock box. The filament I use has enough heat resistance that my holsters remain unaffected by a hot car, assuming you’re not letting it bake all day.
That difference is the most immediate benefit to the people these holsters are for. If you’re carrying a concealed handgun every day, the holstered gun is going to spend time in a few places: your abode, your clothes, and your vehicle, possibly in a portable lock box when you’re not wearing it. You’re going to remove the gun from the holster for training, maintenance, and storage, except for that rarest of days that you need to draw it in self-defense. A plastic with more heat resistance and reasonable allowable strain starts to make sense from this perspective, even at the expense of ductility and impact resistance. As stated in the care guide, be careful not to drop it, but feel free to leave it in your car on a hot summer day.
However, there are some other benefits that are more easily realized with 3D printing than thermoforming. Foremost is how easily I can accomplish a more comfortable holster form. Generally, if we must have a hard plastic object being pressed against our skin, we’d prefer it to have rounded edges, and a large contact patch against us to spread out that force. It would be difficult to accomplish the unique sight tunnel bend and biomorphic bumps that make the holsters more comfortable if I were using thermoformed sheet, though perhaps not impossible.
The other benefit of 3D printing is the ease of development and customization. My selection right now is meager, but if you have a firearm that isn’t listed on the product pages, and this short essay somehow convinced you to want me to make you a holster, feel free to reach out to sales@mockingbirdholsters.com. I’ve got a process that can put a Blue Gun in a holster pretty fast.
Happy 4th.