5.11 reviews

3.4

52% would recommend to a friend

(252 total reviews)
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Troy Brown

47% approve of CEO

46% positive business outlook

5.11 has an employee rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars, based on 252 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The 5.11 employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Retail & Wholesale industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

252 reviews
5.0
Jul 17, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I started at 5.11 Tactical as a Service Specialist at one of the highest volume stores in the company and dived straight into Ship from Store operations and feel in love with it. I was welcomed with open arms from colleagues, supervisors and district managers. This company puts the customer first and takes care of their employees.

Cons

I would love to see more team members put in decision making or advisory boards, as I experienced this in college.

2.0
Jul 16, 2013

Don't drink the 5.11 Tactical Kool-Aide!!!

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great Story! Decent products. Exciting Industry.

Cons

Strange "Cult of Personality". They admittedly profile and seek "adaptable" candidates and attempt to indoctrinate new hires to their "Ethos". Be prepared to be talked down to, dismissed and threatened as part of the job. Management preaches "Trust" but instills zero trust in their employees. They try to force feed their agenda, but don't practice any of what they preach. Very Toxic environment. Horrible work/life balance, employees are encouraged to work 16+ hour days (5am-11pm is the running joke) and expect to always put the Company ahead of any personal life. Their ethos driven model discounts hard work & results as secondary performance criteria. Performance is evaluated on a totally Subjective platform, persecuting anyone that doesn't "fall in line" and drink the Kool Aide. If this Company practiced even half of what they preached, it could be a decent place to work. Instead, they treat their employees like minions and resent any customer that doesn't buy their B.S.

1.0
Jun 5, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good employee discounts and company product is pretty well made. Some good employees but most of the best employees have left the company.

Cons

Company strategy is pretty chaotic. Executive management does not communicate to the employees and they seem to have constantly changing strategies. High turnover, best employees leave Departments do not work well together HR department is not strong, no strategy and HR head seems like he spends most of time planning company events and lunches. Company has tried to use an ill-planned HR training program that comes across like "the circle of trust" - employees don't trust it, just drop it once and for all. CEO is constantly talking about selling the company, and making a lot of money, just sell already.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 252 Reviews

Glassdoor has 260 5.11 reviews submitted anonymously by 5.11 employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if 5.11 is right for you.