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Burlington to Produce Fabric for the New Army Green Service Uniform

Continuing its tradition of supplying the U.S. Military for more than 55 years

June 27, Greensboro, NC – Burlington Industries LLC, a division of Elevate Textiles, is proud to announce it will supply wool blended fabrics for use in the newly-updated Army Green Service Uniform, specifically the jacket, tie, and bottoms. These fabrics will be produced at the company’s facilities in Raeford and Cordova, North Carolina.


US Army photo of new Army Green Service Uniform

Burlington is honored to be an integral part of the defense supply chain for over 55 years. The development of the new Army Service Uniform fabric has been underway for over two years in partnership with the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), the United States Army, and several private industry partners. Continuing in the Burlington tradition, the entire process has focused on one core concept – serving the men and women of the United States Armed Forces.

These new fabrics allow their wearers the confidence to be their best with unmatched comfort, durability, colorfastness, and appearance as they represent the best of our nation both at home and abroad. Burlington’s Raeford operation is known for superior consistency and color continuity, which is a requirement for a force as large and diverse as the United States Army. Skilled workers, many with more than 20 to 50 years of experience, carefully tend to each process, ensuring the yarn and fabric are produced to meet the highest quality standards.

“At Burlington, we honor our public servants with a dedication to quality and innovation, to make sure those who serve are always served by the garments they wear,” says Allen Smith, President of Burlington. “Our Raeford brand of worsted wool fabrics are engineered to provide the soldier with advanced durability, comfort, and wrinkle-resistance, and provide Burlington’s unmatched color capability to ensure each uniform issued matches over the span of many years. As our nation prepares to celebrate the anniversary of its independence, we are honored to see the new Army Green Service Uniform in action and to pay tribute to the men and women who protect our freedoms each day.”

Since 1923, Burlington has been a global textile leader with core competencies in worsted wool and performance synthetics and has been an integral part of the defense supply chain for more than 55 years. Offering a diverse range of vertical manufacturing capabilities, fiber, and fabric blends, Burlington® Military is proud to provide quality fabrics for United States Military personnel. Through innovation, Burlington’s in-house Research and Development department, Burlington Labs®, engineers advance fabrications and technical finishes that are applied to protect and enhance performance while providing troops protection, easy-care, and advanced comfort in all their diverse environments.

Burlington Military combines the resources from the Burlington, Safety Components, and Carlisle business units to create an extensive military products platform of diversified fabrics developed to service the specific needs of the military market. Products include fabrics for Class A dress uniforms, camouflage combat and utility uniforms, physical training and extreme cold weather wear, flame resistant and firefighting protective clothing, high performance equipment, ballistic fabric for body armor and load carrying equipment, and other specialty items.

About the Army Green Service Uniform

Previously referred to as “pinks and greens,” the new uniform is inspired by World War II-era uniforms. These new uniforms are expected to be adopted Army-wide by 2020.

The current Army Blue uniform will now serve as a formal dress uniform and the Army Green uniforms will become the day-to-day uniforms for soldiers. The Army’s combat uniform, Operational Camouflage Pattern, which is produced in part at Burlington’s Carlisle Finishing facility in South Carolina, will continue to be their duty day and field day uniform.

About Burlington

Celebrating over 95 years of textile leadership, Burlington is a global diversified provider of textile solutions across performance & specialty apparel fabrics, active wear, advanced uniform fabrics, and technical fabrics. Burlington operates as part of Elevate Textiles, Inc. with worldwide operations in the United States, Mexico, and China. Elevate Textiles’ business units include: American & Efird, Burlington, Cone Denim, Carlisle, Gu?tterman, and Safety Components. To learn more visit www.burlingtonfabrics.com; www.elevatetextiles.com or follow us at @burlington1923.

28 Responses to “Burlington to Produce Fabric for the New Army Green Service Uniform”

  1. Loopy says:

    So does this mean I will be able to get this uniform on sale at Burlington Coat factory once the Army switches back to polyester in five years?

  2. T.O. says:

    Man, I hope they reduce the size of those massive pocket flaps on the jacket, and do away with the silly “20-mission crush” on the service cap! Both look ridiculous. Glad we’re getting the garrison cap back, as long as it’s not as tall and goofy looking as the one we wore in the ’90s. And honestly, pinks ‘n greens looks fine but a matching dark green coat, pants, and shirt with khaki tie and belt would look much better, IMO – especially in the class B combination. And it would be distinctively Army. With the khaki pants and shirt, we’re going to look a lot like Naval officers. All of that said, anything is better than that awful looking uniform we have now – especially the class B variant, which looks like a doorman’s uniform or a circus performer…

  3. 32sbct says:

    They have to fix that hat. It looks ridiculous. It looks equally bad on every Soldier in the picture. Glad I’m retired.

  4. TominVA says:

    The covers (hats) are totally Gestapo. Totally El Presidenté.

    I know it’s well intended, but it reminds me of when the Marine Corps was “testing” gaiters in the operating forces about ten years ago or so. One of the test items – saw it with my own eyes – was leggings. Probably made of cordura, but still, the design was no kidding lace up leggings from dubya dubya 2. Amazing and not the good kind of amazing.

  5. Ray Forest says:

    It’s the hat that ruins it. It’s such a fake crush. It looks fo artificial. It’s going to look like th huge issues black beret did. Everyone who knew anything bought a shaped aftermarket beret so as to not look so goofy. The hat is goofy. Not everyone in WWII wore their hat like that. If they could fix that it would go along way.

    • Joe says:

      Reminds me of typical wear of an unshaven and wet formed black beret when introduced, but bass-ackwards. Authorize the crush, hell, mandate it, but let the individual make that happen, not this “pre-distressed” awfulness.

      Note: I guess I could have just said +1…

      • Sommerbiwak says:

        Just as dumb as brand new denims in the “used” look with wear holes from the factory.

    • T.O. says:

      Yep. Service caps definitely didn’t come that way back in WWII – that “50-mission crush” was earned.

  6. Ray Forest says:

    That girl on the right looks like a female Noriega in that outfit.

    • xdarrows says:

      They need to bring back the female service cap. Looked at an old picture of my wife in her Class A Green Uniform with female service cap … that was a good look.

  7. Mike D says:

    Why is the hat so friggin tall? That thing would double as an E-Tool with the size of that rim. I mean, it adds 2 acres of flat plate drag alone. Tone it down to the shape of what it used to be on the Class A’s and it might not look so retarded.

  8. Paul says:

    Bwahahaha I just showed my wife this and asked what she thought – she said, “Don’t buy that costume.” Oh man, I’m dying lol

  9. Adam says:

    I’d no shit earn a Beret just to not wear that disgusting cover.

    Dear god it’s hideous. Why not have a piss cutter like the Corps? We looked sharp AF in our Alphas. Probably the single classiest dress uniform in the military.

    • Sommerbiwak says:

      Because they do not change it every few years and if anything, they refine it. Move a button or a stitch. Not flipping everything over every few years.

    • CJ says:

      This uniform will have a garrison cap as well.

  10. Attack7 says:

    Saw them making the material at Burlington last year (Raeford NC), yeah, I’d still go with Marlow White premium myself.

    You all are right, this ‘crushed’ service cap is about as bad as soiled uniforms, dirty boots and sagging PCs worn as a baseball cap.

  11. Brett says:

    Those covers are absolutely cartoony, but I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

  12. Ton E says:

    OK timeout I was under the impression the Green Class A’s were nixed to streamline the number of uniforms the Army had. Only to adopt a version of the Pink and Greens to take the place the Green Class A’s used to have. I’m probably in the minority who actually admire the ASU. I see little to no utility by allowing this uniform to be pressed into service.

    • Mike D says:

      Definitely the minority, like myself. I think the historical NODS that the ASU has are great. It was a totally new design with cues taken from other eras. The AGU is too much like the exact uniform worn in WWII, which I feel should be left for that era. Even though I won’t have to own it before I retire, I feel like I’ll need to get a set for my next DA Photo, as it’ll probably be a discriminating factor for future promotions/selections.

    • xdarrows says:

      ASU is terrible as a “Service Uniform” … period.

      It was great as “Dress Blues” but it’s too formal and too awkward to move around in for daily service use.

      When working with allied and partner nations in numerous multinational environments, there is a clear need for something like the AGSU to fill the gap between ACU/OCP and ASU … especially since MANY of our allies/partners like to wear their service uniforms.

  13. J says:

    I am a former infantryman and wonder, When will this retro madness stop? These uniforms are pretty ugly. Why not get a new Class A uniform to match the new OCP uniform? What was wrong with the Green Class A’s? Nothing. WWII D-Day just had its 75th anniversary. This retro idea someone had just will not work well. Not many Americans born in the last 30 years will identify with this new Class A uniform these days. Are our soldiers in 25 yrs going to be wearing 1776 style Colonial Revolution Uniforms? If, you are going to issue new Class A uniforms do something original. Like a Coyote 499 or Coyote 498 colored uniform or something else.

  14. Yawnz says:

    Good to see the Army wasting money on another useless dress uniform.

  15. John says:

    If I’m not mistaken they re-proportioned the hat. There was a photo circulating not too long ago of an officer with a correctly proportioned cap. It was… acceptable, and definitely not as large as what we’re seeing in the older photos.

    • Stefan S. says:

      They have. I have an original WW2 “Fifty Mission”. It is not that tall in the front. Big enough for the Officers Eagle Insignia.

      • CJ says:

        I believe John is referring to the new version and its past prototypes. I remember seeing the picture as well, the photo shown in this post are older prototypes I believe. General Milley can be seen wearing a non-crush smaller proportioned version during the D-Day events this year.

  16. Kirk says:

    All is proceeding as foreseen… In ten years, we’ll be asking the same questions about this uniform that we are thinking right now about the ASR: “Who the hell thought this was a good idea…?”.

    I think the whole thing is predicated on wishful thinking, custom-made materials, high-grade tailoring, and a whole host of things that aren’t going to happen for the mass-issue version of the uniform. The actual uniforms that get issued to PFC Schmuckatelli are not going to look as nice as the prototypes, and will, in fact, likely look like ass.

    It’d be nice if the people running the Army and making these decisions could figure out that it’s not the uniform that makes the soldier, but the soldier that makes the uniform. If we put everything we spent on these continual “improve appearance” initiatives on training and stuff that actually made our troops to be better soldiers, you wouldn’t have to worry about all this BS–They’d look good because they were good, instead of this false-front nostalgia crap.

  17. AbnMedOps says:

    A third or fourth-order effect of this new headgear should be a requirement to change the Installation Property Furniture Table of Allowances (or whatever it’s called nowadays) for all units. You see, some years ago, the allocation for HAT RACKS was removed and all accountable hat racks were turned in. Presumably they went to DRMO for disposal, or maybe they are mothballed in the desert somewhere. Starting the paperwork on this change could be a free OER / NCOER Bullet for someone!