DEFUNIAK SPRINGS, FL, October 15, 2026: Cakes Concealed Carry, the women’s luxury concealed carry handbag brand, today announced the details of its second annual training retreat, the 2026 Cakes Training Retreat, taking place October 22 through 25 on Florida’s Gulf Coast in partnership with Alpha Female Tactical. The retreat draws women from across the United States for 3 days of training in the Cakes system of off-body carry. 20 spots are available, 10 for students and 10 for instructors seeking Cakes Certified Instructor status, and as of this announcement the instructor track is nearly full.
Why a handbag company runs a training retreat
Cakes Concealed Carry started in October 2024 as a concealed carry bag company. It grew quickly into a community, and the women in it tend to call it a sisterhood. The brand now has a network of more than 200 affiliated instructors across the country who teach female students to carry with the Cakes system.
That system has its own nuances. Drawing from a bag involves different mechanics than drawing from a belt, and the retention problems, the movement problems, and the question of what to do with the other hand are all different too. The system was built for women, and the instructors who teach it well have figured out things that are not written down anywhere else.
The 2025 retreat brought 17 of those instructors together to compare notes on how they had been training their students with Cakes bags: what worked, what didn’t, what they wished they had known sooner. The program being taught this year came out of that room.
The brand also maintains an instructor map on its website, at cakesconcealed.com/pages/find-an-instructor, that helps customers find instructors who focus on women. Cakes Concealed Carry makes no money from the map. It exists because a concealed carry bag without training is just a bag, and because connecting a customer to the right instructor means the world to the brand.
The 2026 retreat takes that a step further. It will certify 10 instructors who go back to their hometowns and train the way the brand and the original 17 found to be most useful. Every student and every instructor will still need to experiment, because every woman finds what works for her own lifestyle. The point is to give both the student and the instructor a path worth pursuing.
Who this is for
The retreat serves 2 groups. The first is instructors who want to be certified in the Cakes system, so they can teach off-body carry to the women in their own communities with the full curriculum behind them. The second is students who already carry and want to learn the Cakes system from the source: the founder, the Master Instructor, and the instructors who helped build the program.
Both groups train together. Students get the benefit of learning alongside working instructors; instructor candidates get real students to practice teaching. Although the retreat takes place in Florida, attendees fly in from around the country, and the training is built for women who already have fundamentals and are ready to work on integration, which means putting the bag, the draw, the movement, and the decision making together under stress.
What the training covers
The curriculum is run by Katrina Cain, founder of Alpha Female Tactical and Master Instructor for Cakes Concealed Carry, who co-hosts the retreat with Cakes Concealed Carry Founder and CEO Tamkin Collins. Training takes place at Bullets and Bones Range in DeFuniak Springs, about 45 minutes from the lodging in Santa Rosa Beach.
The program starts with physical combatives and retention (learning to fight for the bag and keep it) before live fire, then builds through:
● Proper holster installation in the Cakes system and the mechanics of a magnetic pull tab draw
● One-handed draw and shooting, with drills built around protecting a dependent
● Movement and stress integration
● Vehicle-based scenarios
● Structured live fire with accountability, so every round is measured against a standard
Throughout, attendees run force on force scenarios, Krav Hagana drills, front and rear assault simulations, phone in hand problem solving, and baby carrying drills. Some of that sounds unglamorous, which is intentional, because those are the situations women actually find themselves in. How do you keep control of the bag when someone grabs the strap? How do you draw when your other hand is holding a toddler? What happens when the threat is behind you and the bag is on your front? The weekend answers those questions through repetition on the range.
Ammunition for all range days is provided.
The instructor track
Instructor candidates train alongside the students, then complete an additional evaluation, teach-back, and certification block. To earn the certification they have to demonstrate safe instruction, command presence, and mastery of the curriculum in front of the co-hosts.
Instructors who pass leave with the credential, a place on the Cakes Concealed Carry instructor map, and a curriculum they can take home to the women in their own communities. 10 certified instructors teaching off-body carry properly will reach far more women than any single weekend can.
The rest of the weekend
Beyond the range, the weekend includes a welcome reception, lunch at the range on training days, 2 social dinners, and a beach farewell party on the Gulf, complete with a bonfire and s’mores. Attendees also receive sponsor goodie bags. Cakes Concealed Carry will debut new products and exclusive merch to attendees before anyone else sees them.
Lodging is recommended at Lodge 30A in Santa Rosa Beach. Attendees cover their own ticket, flights into the Destin area, hotel, and either a rental car or a fixed-price shuttle to and from the range each day. They bring their own pistol and holster. Cakes Concealed Carry covers the reception, range days, ammunition, lunches, dinners, the instructor certification session, and the picnic.
Registration
Registration is closed at this time. The retreat is intentionally small, limiting the number of attendees to 20 firearm instructors and advanced shooters only, so there is a master instructor per 5 students. This gives each trainee the level of attention they need to succeed.
The 2026 Cakes Training Retreat is supported by industry sponsors across the firearms and everyday carry space, including an ammunition sponsor The Gun Food providing 3,000 rounds of 9mm for the weekend. Brands interested in sponsorship for future retreats can contact inbox@cakesconcealed.com.
Thank You to our Sponsors!
Magna Lens magnalens.com
ProHear prohearsafety.com
Concealment Labs concealmentlabs.com
Protection for the People (Level4Armor) level-4armor.com
ROSE by SIG SAUER sigsauer.com/firearms/pistols/rose.html
Nextbelt nexbelt.com
Tactical Snacks tactical-snacks.com
The Gun Food thegunfood.com
Bestie Defense bestie-defense.com
LAG Tactical lagtactical.com
UpKnife upknife.com
Desert Roots
Timney Triggers timneytriggers.com
Bullets & Bones Range bulletsandbonesdfs.com
About Cakes Concealed Carry
Cakes Concealed Carry, Inc. designs and sells luxury concealed carry handbags for women, built with a dedicated lockable firearm compartment and made to be carried anywhere. Founded in October 2024 by Tamkin Collins, the company launched its first product in January 2025 and was named Emerging Brand of the Year at the 2026 Gundie Awards. Cakes Concealed Carry operates a national instructor map of vetted women focused firearms instructors at cakesconcealed.com/pages/find-an-instructor and hosts the annual Cakes Training Retreat. Learn more at cakesconcealed.com.
About Alpha Female Tactical
Alpha Female Tactical is a women focused firearms and defensive training company founded by Katrina Cain, who also serves as Master Instructor for Cakes Concealed Carry. Alpha Female Tactical co-hosts the Cakes Training Retreat and delivers the Cakes system curriculum developed with the instructors of the inaugural 2025 retreat.
Media inquiries: inbox@cakesconcealed.com
