NeoMag Alias: A Great Low Vis Option
Updated December, 2023
Back in October of 2021, I picked up a NeoMag Alias, a low visibility belt clip option for concealed carry. I’d previously switched to carrying appendix a few months prior and needed something to wear with a suit that didn’t obviously show the clips. Carrying strong side on a suit was easy, but having the holster up front required something more discreet than a large black plastic clip over a brown belt.
The alias comes in two parts, a receiver that slides onto your belt and a mounting option to your holster. NeoMag offers a wide variety of holster mounting styles. Regardless of what style you choose, it fundamentally works by mounting a receiver and a clip. These two pieces lock together and are only released by a button on the side or bottom of the receiver. I used this setup primarily when wearing a suit on Sundays, with a KORE Essentials belt and a Neptune Concealment Triton holster. This seems to be the specific use case the Alias was built for. The receiver slides on easily, stays in place, locks into place well with the holster, and blends in well with a suit.
While I used the Alias weekly for over two years as my suit carry option, ultimately, I’ve migrated away from it for a PHLSTER Enigma. While I can easily conceal an HK P30 using the Alias with a dress setup, I’ve found other carry options work better for my use case.
A Solid Platform
The Alias is the most solid belt mounting solution I’ve used for concealed carry. I’ve had issues in the past with plastic clips deforming, sliding off the belt, getting caught on a surface, or not clipping down all the way. The Alias suffers from none of these issues. The aluminum receiver slides onto the belt and is not coming off. The steel holster clip locks into the receiver and will not release without pressing the button on the unit. This makes stowing the firearm much easier. If you live in a state where no gun signs carry the force of law, and are regularly keeping your gun in your car, having a single button to release the entire holster setup is ideal. The gun remains safely in the holster, and you don’t have to go through a gymnastics routine to get it out of (or back on) your belt.
NeoMag also offers a variety of mounting solutions like MOLLE, hook and loop, hard mounting, and others besides the standard belt. I don’t have a use case for a setup like this, but for those who can use it, it is available.
The Alias has held up well for the over two years I’ve used it. It is just as solid as it was when I first bought it, the screws have remained well seated and the release action is still firm. Admittedly, I’m not putting it in a particularly tough situation. Wearing it with a suit doesn’t expose it to hard use and doesn’t even expose it to wear. One thing I’ve noticed is that the metal clips will start to tear up a leather belt over time.
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The Most Adjustable Clip?
One really great feature of the Alias is the height adjustment. I’m using the wing style mount, and it allows the widest range of adjustment of any holster setup I’ve seen. I can get the holster to ride at exactly the height I want: there is no reliance on pre-drilled holes or trying to cant it to fit where I want. I just set the height, tightened the screws, and was good to go. It’s so good that I’ve dedicated that holster to just run the Alias, while I keep the other holsters for the traditional clip setup.
Which of course begs the question: What prevents the Alias from being my every day carry setup? A few things: First is that the receiver can only handle belts up to .2″ thick. My everyday carry belt is a Beltman with an internal stiffener, which is too thick for the standard Alias setup. It wouldn’t be hard to get some longer screws and make it work and I’d like to see NeoMag offer this as an option in the future. Another other issue is that for sidecar setups that have both a holster and mag carrier, you will likely want two Alias clips, one for the holster and one for the mag carrier. I’m sure this setup would work well, but that starts to get pricey: At the time of writing, this setup would cost just under $100 without shipping, just to mount your holster setup to your belt.
Why I No Longer Use an Alias for Suit Carry
The final reason is that while the Alias was a great option for me and I used it for years, I subsequently found the PHLSTER Enigma works better for me. I can use it as both a workout and dress option, and I’ve found that from a comfort, concealment, and consistency option, the PHLSTER works better for me. The big shift for me was the ability to use the PHLSTER for working out, something the Alias doesn’t do as well.
None of this is to say that the Alias is bad, but simply I found a better option that works for me. Where the Alias really shines is the ability to mount it on a variety of surfaces like MOLLE, Hook and loop, and even hard mount options. This would be a great option for me if I needed to swap my holster easily between different mounting points, or if I needed to disarm regularly. Since that’s not my use case, I’ve found the Alias doesn’t fit my needs as well.
Overall, I really like the Alias, but it seems to be more suited to a specific use case: low vis carry where you want to swap your holster to various mounting points but since that’s not my use case, I’ve moved away from it in favor of a PHLSTER Enigma. Is it a poor carry option? Not at all, I still recommend it to students with that need, it’s just no longer the right fit for my use cases.
Any gear mentioned in this post was purchased for my personal use. I have not been compensated or incentivized by any company for any product reviews, highlights, or opinions.
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