Unfortunately not an item I have been able to acquire for myself, hence not the usual photography, but given the interests of many readers of this site I think it would be the wrong decision not to post about this just for lack of cleaner pictures. As always, if anyone out there reading this happens to own one of these shirts (or similarly rare items) and wants to send in photos or lend it to me for photography, please do get in touch via my e-mail here or any of my social media accounts.
From the what little information I have read online, there seems to have been a small batch of maybe 30-40 of these made back in the very early 2000s. I would presume there were also matching trousers, though I don’t have any pictures of those.
There are a few potential origins for small runs of non-standard camos such as this. Most likely is that they were purchased by some small SOF element, which naturally would most likely have been within the USMC, though when it comes to SOF use of camo patterns you can never guarantee for certain that your first assumption is necessarily the right one. An alternative origin might just have been Crye doing some manufacturing of apparel in unusual fabrics purely for demonstration, as an attempt to win certain contracts. Even if that was initially the case however, then the uniforms might still have been issued out and worn in the usual manner regardless of original intent.
As is shown above, the zips for the bicep pockets and the loop fields are standard in style for a G1 combat shirt, as is the PVC brand tag.
The light brown-coloured wicking fabric used for the central torso area is unique in my experience to this MARPAT production.
There was a standard elbow pad pocket layout for most G1 and G2 combat shirts, with the pad passing through from outside to in. All relevant type elbow pads included the straps shown here, which is an unusual elastic type fabric that happens to have an exterior surface similar to loop velcro. Rather than a pad being inside a pocket on the shirt sleeves, the straps were intended to be securely wrapped around the wearers’ forearm just below the elbow, really anchoring them in place. Good for positioning, but inevitably sweaty over long periods, which is why I would imagine the design was changed for G3.
The elephant in the room here of course is the legit USMC twill fabric in the arid type MARPAT camouflage, with the usual EGAs present throughout the pattern. From a close examination, I don’t see anything about the fabric here when compared to more common desert MARPAT FROG garments that gives me cause for concern around validity.
This label is of the usual style/layout for G1s, but has the Custom/Custom text that was most often used on non-standard camos and style of G2 uniforms, such as the ‘UKSF customs’, the Flecktarn offerings and most of the UCP items.
Condition and size of the shirt is quite nice, as an XL/R Gen 1 would be similar to a MD/R Gen 2 combat shirt.
When I saw this listed on eBay originally (August 2026) the asking price was around $3600, far too rich for my blood, but as mentioned I had to at least save the images for posting here. With rare examples like this, there is a strong chance they will disappear in to a rich individual’s collection and literally never be photographed or see the light of day ever again.
Leave a Reply