Pre-warning: This is a copy+paste from Instagram hence the formatting is not ideal for the website.
So I walk up to the @spiritussystems booth mid afternoon and every square foot is packed except for one small area where I could get in and look at some of the displays. Both to my pleasant surprise and confusion, this one bit of space is by a display of every variant of Micro Fight from what I’ll call the Mk0 all the way to the current Mk5. Most companies out there would never dream of posting pictures of their earliest prototypes let alone have them out for anyone to touch and analyse up close.
The original example here in Multicam was sewn by @the_adam_holroyd himself, I believe up in an attic. After deployment in Afghanistan he’d been frustrated at having to spend ages regularly swapping PALS pouches on his issued gear in order to carry the magazines for different weapons being used. It has all the hallmarks of someone first starting out, but that seed of the idea is clear to see.
It’s actually made from 330D cordura since that was a hot thing at the time, with a fixed flap for the non-modular front pouch with a bit too much velcro and elastic organisation inside much like some of the currently sold inserts. There’s no hook on the rear, a chest rig harness was made at the same time. The spacing of both the top and side buckles is too close together for an unknown reason. The main rear pouch can of course take an insert however which is the main thing here.
Moving on to the Mk1 and there’s been a big change so we start to see what would evolve in to the Mk3/4. Both pouches are now modular but at the time they were hook-loop vs loop-loop. Side buckles still a bit strangely placed and the construction causes the rear hook field to curve at the base which wouldn’t be great for adhesion, but overall a big step up. My favourite story on this version is that Adam went to @jonacres of @optactical (I believe the biggest stockist of Spiritus) and was told essentially that the idea was solid but the sewing needed some work.
Once we step up to the Mk2 we have something that’s really very close to current production. The velcro alignment was changed to what we see now and the construction issues fixed. Changes from this over to the Mk3 were fairly small.
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