The Tru-Spec 1/4 Zip combat shirt in NYCO, if you missed my video look, check it out:

I specifically bought this just to post about because I spent a long time digging through dozens of different combat shirts within the realm of commercial options and this came out right near the top of what I could see online.

I’ve recommended military surplus gear for a long time in terms of the utmost cost effective camo clothing, but colour options are fairly limited if you want to get the best price. It will usually be 1 temperate and 1 arid pattern that’s available cheaply and in large quantities in any given country. The US is a bit difference because of MARPAT and all the bad decisions like UCP and NWU1, but in the UK for example the options would be DPM, DDPM and MTP. They’re fine of course and will cost as little as a third of the price of a good commercial equivalent, but if you want more selection (i.e. stuff that’s never been standard issue) while retaining a decent quality, there’s very few ways around shelling out a bit more cash.

The Tru-Spec was certainly the best option for a combat shirt using good Nylon/Cotton fabrics I came across. They offer the Polyester/Cotton version too but it really wasn’t much cheaper at all, definitely not enough to make up for the loss in resilience and colour fastness you experience with PYCO.

The one thing I can’t commend on is the long term resilience of the torso because it did seem thinner than I would like, but the overall simplicity of the cut means it would be a comparatively easy job to stitch in a replacement t-shirt body if the original did wear out on you. Plus of course the original fabric is a real blessing in hot weather.

I have briefly mentioned before about the differences between the AOR Patagonia sets issued (to people who get issued AOR) and the multicam/solid colour sets that can be purchased online if you’ve got the right sort of ID card. I picked up both these pairs of Level 9 trousers within a short time frame so it feels like a good time to mention the comparison.

From what I’ve read, the issued AOR gear is sewn by somewhat less skilled and motivated people by comparison to the sort-of-commercially available apparel. There’s various conjecture out there about prison labour which is entirely a possibility in the US military supply chain, but I have no hard evidence to support any theory either way.

I’ve mentioned in a previous post about the rather less common (compared to Navy Custom) Army Custom cut uniforms in AOR patterns and I very much imagine this will be the only example I ever have to show here.

I’ve absolutely no information on AOR1 vs 2 production in AC cut or indeed field vs combat type, all I have read is that there was a brief period when US Army SF (to include their really sneaky unit) did use AOR patterns around the time SEALs and the like also adopted them. But either way, personally I’m a big fan of the field cut shirts in woodland/temperate patterns, an update on the classic uniforms of the 80s and 90s if you will.

I won’t post a standard shot of my G3 combat lowers in regular Multicam, because everyone’s seen that a million times. Here’s a couple of close ups.

What I would say while I’m on the topic – if you’re going to put the money down for any Crye clothing, I’d strongly recommend you go for something unusual if you can. I’ll admit I do have a lot of original MC, but that’s just because so many good sets have been made in the pattern. I also have far more other stuff than I have standard Multicam.

The Emdom USA/militarymorons.com IAP, or Immediate Access Pouch. Without doubt the best mag pouch design I’ve ever seen that never gained any significant notoriety, which is pretty crazy given what it does and the time it was brought to the market.

It’s difficult to track the timeline of any given piece of equipment since there isn’t exactly a wikipedia or IMDB of tactical gear, but I did manage to dig up that fact that Emdom brought this thing to market at least 8 years ago, if not even earlier than that with prototypes. We may live in a kydex utopia now of brilliant pouches that provide good retention while still allowing instant access, but that was not really the case for the most part when this pouch came to market. The Eagle FB pouches and ESSTAC KYWIs have been around for a while of course, but they never really gained a huge amount of popularity because it takes a long time for the market to adapt to new concepts. One of those concepts being the idea of not having anything going over the mag for no-question retention.

If you’ve ever felt I only say positive things about gear 1. You’re wrong anyway 2. Here’s another example for the collection. The Magpul Industries Corp. Technical gloves.

My interest was piqued when Magpul released their entire line of gloves to the market in one big bunch a little while back, but all in all I’m not sure they really filled any niches when you look at the line. I’d say most of the options were already well covered by other gloves on the market.

I opted for the technical over the patrols, breachers or flight gloves as I tend to lean more towards something quite minimalist for a glove that’ll be used for any sort of shooting or airsoft in a civilian context (or hot weather), then I’ve got much thicker insulated gloves for less comfortable environments. Unfortunately I’ve struggled to actually get any testing done on the technical gloves as the proportions of the fingers to the palm area simply do not work for me at all. The main body of the glove fits my hands, but the fingers are so long I’m left with a lot empty space at the tips and this makes the gloves basically unusable for me. This could be handy for some folks of course, depending on the proportioning of your digits. Whether a smaller size might work better for me I’m not sure, but I’m not planning on buying another pair on account of some other issues I have with the design.

My personal preference is to try and collect the overall best example of a uniform I can find for a given pattern, preferably in a combat cut that will accept Crye pads. These PLATATAC Tac Dax Mk2s represent the all around highest quality combat cut trousers in the Kryptek Outdoor Group patterns that have ever been manufactured to my knowledge and I was pretty lucky to find this pair new and in my size just a bit less than 2 years ago, especially since they were long out of production at that point. These patterns have of course fallen significantly in popularity within the ‘tactical’ realm since they first hit the market, so quality combat type uniforms are much less common at this point (something Kryptek themselves are working on changing at the moment), but the patterns do seem to have caught on with hunters in the US fairly significantly.

The pocket layout here is essentially Crye’s AC/Gen 2, but you’ve got the stretch panel in the groin and the waist adjustment from Gen 3s. The main fabric is 5050 NYCO and the stretch material is either the same as Crye uses or very close. The knee pad height adjusters are notably not present, but this is if anything a small bonus from my perspective as I always leave my knee pads at the lowest possible setting and still find them slightly too high. Also this is a feature that could very easily be added in, if you did prefer to have that adjustment.

The Mandrake, Highlander and Typhon variants of these sets from Platatac were the largest quantities produced from what I’ve seen and Haley Strategic Partners carried them briefly in the US as the ‘D3 Uniform’, which I reckon is a partial result of Travis being somewhat an enthusiast for the same sorts of camo sets as I am. Though admittedly there’s no way to 100% substantiate that, I’m just going off what I’ve seen him wear in a lot of the HSP firearms classes when he teaches.

The Tac Dax Mk2s were also made in a couple of Aus Army patterns, Multicam, Kryptek Nomad (which I’ll be posting here down the line) and possibly some AOR/NWU as well as others. I’m hoping Platatac might make their Mk3 PTGs (which take Crye pads) again in future to include some rare/interesting camouflage patterns using regular NYCO fabrics, instead of just the solid colour FR line they currently offer. Fingers crossed.

Next up; the UF PRO Striker XT Combat shirt, first generation. Said it before and I’ll say it again, if you’re not going to get blown up or shot at with a flame thrower, it’s right up there with the best for hot climate usage. NYCO sleeves and collar, all synthetic torso that dries in no time, merino blend under the arms and extra zipped vents for more airflow (amongst other features).

Since I ended up going to a larger size after they moved to gen 2 I made a comparison video a little while back, which you can check out here if you missed it:

This pouch was the only thing I had on my armour that rattled before I went to go see some sand. The ‘upgrade’ zip pulls are the only thing I own that’s Blackhawk now I’d say.

Never underestimate how much you can improve a lot of gear (sometimes even fancy stuff) with snips, scissors, paracord and a lighter. Maybe tape…