About Red Nichols | Red Nichols Holsters

Red Nichols is the "Yoda" of Holster Designers.

American Handgunner, 2017

Welcome . . .

G'day, I'm Red Nichols, and my holsters for professionals were once made right in here in my shop located in sunny Queensland Australia. I retired in 2020 :-)

ALL NEW in 2022:

"HOLSTORY - Gunleather of the Twentieth Century - The Second Edition".

The full-sized, hardcover 250-page book is filled with the biographies and color images of the makers, holsters and guns that created all of gunleather's history during the period 1905-1985.

The Second Edition ADDS THREE CHAPTERS to the First and finally tells the full story of the times.

ABOUT US

Red Nichols joined the gunleather industry over a half-century ago when he apprenticed as a designer/maker to world-renowned John Bianchi in 1970. He spent the decades of the 1970s and 1980s developing all of the Bianchi Holster Co.'s American-made product line and setting new benchmarks for gunleather performance and construction.

Then came the 1990s and his Nichols Innovation Co., the world's first consulting design service to the holster industry, where he created more industry standards for holster companies including Aker, DeSantis, Galco, Shooting Systems and dozens more.

Now after another two decades in Queensland, Australia designing and building the ultimate horsehide gunleather, finally Red has retired with 50 years' service to gunleather and hung up his shop apron forever. Visit his gunleather blog, though, at holsterguys.com!