PMCI - December 2019

pmcimagazine.com
THE FADE WITH 5.11 TACTICAL GEAR
THE FADE WITH 5.11 TACTICAL GEAR
THE WHOLE “GREY GEAR” IDEA HAS BEEN ANOTHER OF THOSE TRENDS IN THE TACTICAL WORLD THAT HAS
JUST CAUGHT ON, AND VIRTUALLY EVERY MANUFACTURER OUT THERE SEEMS TO HAVE THEIR “WOLF, SLATE,
STORM” OR SIMPLY PUT, GREY. BILL LOOKS INTO THIS PHENOMENON AND PICKS SOME PIECES FROM 5.11
THAT WORK FOR HIM!
We live largely in a “grey world”, both
in terms of built-environment but
also is relation to a lot of jobs that
the thoroughly modern contractor
may be faced with. Whilst most
things are written into “SOP”
sometimes it’s the “grey areas”
where these guidelines don’t seem
to fit that makes life… interesting!
A few years back I started to notice
that certain clothing and gear manufacturers were adopting
grey into their product lines; Arc’teryx LEAF in fairness were
probably the first of the “Names” to drive this forward in any
meaningful way, but others were lightning fast to follow their
lead and numerous manufacturers came together to create
mutually supportive and compatible clothing and tactical
gear that all worked well together as a system.
Now the idea behind this is a straightforward one; in
today’s modern urban environment we have a LOT of concrete
and tarmac so grey is an obvious choice to “blend in” to the
background. Previously tactical teams would inevitably be
drawn to the “traditional black gear”, but in reality black
actually sticks out like a sore thumb in most urban situations
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