Dear SSD reader,
Ever wanted a combat shirt or pants in a camo pattern that simply isn’t being manufactured by anybody at all? Seen just a tiny quantity of uniforms that you’d love to own but all of which sold out long before you could get to them? I may possibly have some information that could be useful for you.
When using traditional fabrics of nylon and polyester blended with cotton the cut of the Crye G3 uniform is widely regarded as being just about as it good as it gets, but they tend to have a bit much going on features-wise for those folks who want to own a combat cut uniform, but aren’t in SOF. There’s also a demand out there for all sorts of unusual and interesting camo patterns that aren’t popular with military forces and simply don’t warrant mass production from large defence contractors. Combining those two issues I went to my buddy Roman Kurmaz with my idea for a uniform style based on the G3s but at a lower weight and available in just about any camo that most people could ever desire.
I won’t go in to full detail in this post because my website now has a new lengthy and detailed page for all that (link above), but the base idea is this: offer a ready-made package of features based on my many years of buying, owning and using Roman’s product that refines the G3s. Aimed at the commercial, sporting and recreational end user who wants the best aesthetics as well as a lighter, more comfortable uniform at a lower price without compromising anything in terms of material or stitching quality and durability i.e. no bargain-basement Chinese fabrics or stitch work.
After surveying a wide range of people from police and ex-military to paintballers, airsoft players and even just simple collectors, I did away with what I found to be the least used and least popular features of the G3s while fixing the most common complaints of Roman’s other custom production. As an example, reducing the combat pants from a rather excessive 10-pocket design down to 6 pockets, which is still more than most people will ever need, but with the fabric saved we re-aligned the material on the knee pad pockets and main cargo pockets to bring the camo pattern all in to line, as depicted below. That is usually an added extra that will increase the cost of your uniform when ordering the original G3 cut from Roman, while F9 Edition combat pants from Roman are actually slightly cheaper than the G3s he makes in the patterns that Crye doesn’t (or has only offered in incredibly limited quantities that sell for absurd sums on eBay).
You’ll also be in good company if you pick up a set because Eric of SSD himself was the very first person to order a set of the F9E fatigues and his uniform in Tigerstripe is shown here as the demonstrator example. There has been some misconceptions in the past that there are only available in Tiger, which is not the case. Any camo fabric that you can get your hands on can be used in the F9 Edition uniforms, *including* woodland and desert variants of Tigerstripe with any colour option you like able to be built in in terms of torso, velcro and stretch fabric colouration.
If you’re interested be sure to head to my site at the link below to get all the nitty-gritty details and if the F9 Edition Uniforms are for you just get in touch with Roman and place your order – links are all there on the page.
Thank you
Full9
So heres the truth:
Quality and stitching are top notch, price is fair. Also the cut is 1:1 to crye (except sleeve length)
BUT:
My ranger green set is just OD, nothing else, the sleeves on the shirt are 1″shorter than on my real g3s and the kneepads slots are to thight to accept crye kneepads.
I’ve posted basically the exact same in romans facebook group, and he deleted it instantly!!
So I guess thats one way to getbonly positive reviews.
I PMed him of course for the short sleeves, the kneepads and the colour and he only replied that I’m the only one with that complains, which I doubt.
So my advice: get real cryes
Colour I obviously couldn’t comment on without seeing the stuff, the knee thing he should’ve offered to fix for you no doubt if it wasn’t possible to fit legit Crye pads (you don’t mention if he actually did?) but the dimension thing is very much endemic to the original production of uniforms at CP. I have a collection of about 70 items of CP apparel and a one inch variation in a given circumference or length dimension is actually a fair bit less than I’ve seen in my own stuff here. If you read the facebook groups you’ll also find a lot of other people reporting the exact same things in terms of waistbands and sleeve/leg lengths for the supposed same size product varying anywhere up to 2″, maybe 2.5″ in extreme cases.
Nope, didn’t offerd to fix it.
my crye stuff was always spot on
How much does this stuff usually run for, say, multicam?
What’s a set of this in multicam usually run?
This type of combat set starts at around 220 euros, but the idea is to get camos Crye don’t produce.
My Slocam set from him is not the correct colors and it took over a month past the longest projected date. It was not a good experience at all. It’s too bad since I wanted other uniforms.
So it’s fake Slocam fabric of all things? That’s pretty surprising to hear.
That’s really your response. There is a reason many only buy from you once.
That’s not Roman lol
It’s almost like it’s in the name ya know?
220$ for a set (Combat shirt/pants)
I didn’t expect to see an article about blatantly stealing someone else’s IP for profit, especially not patented designs, here on SSD.
https://soldiersystems.net/2013/11/27/haley-strategic-partners-unveils-krypetk-combat-uniforms/
Arktis is on here too?
We’re doing camos Crye never have or will with lots of changes to the design. Do you get riled up over literally every combat shirt on the market? Because the NYCO sleeve/wicking torso thing came from one place.
SSD is well acquainted with Caleb and most of his crew over there so I’m sure being the grown-ups they are they’ll ask for this to be taken down if they’re bothered; but I get the feeling they’re not going to be somehow.
Design rights doesn’t depend on the visual camouflage used. Just because Crye doesn’t want to make G3s in Hello Kitty camo doesn’t mean that their pattern (as in the template for the product) is free to use.
Can you draft a pant pattern that ends up looking like Cryes G3s? Yes, within reason. There are active patents to be aware of. This is what Platatac and Arktis is doing.
What Roman is doing is to fully deconstruct Crye products and use their property (the pattern) for his commercial gain. The products are even sold under CPs names. It’s not even limited to Crye, there are copies of Spiritus Systems, Mayflower, Ferro Concepts and more.
While the length proportion for the knee pad pockets doesn’t look right to me, that’s not the most amazing part. I can’t beli he had all those opinions about what was and wasn’t important about altering the pants yet he didn’t fix the short fly. Nobody can take a leak in cry combats without unbuckling the Velcro flap at the waist. The bottom of the 3” zipper fly starts ABOVE your junk to begin with. That’s the only thing that needs fixing on the combat pants. They got the Field pants and the All weathers right but not the Combats.
Strange to talk in the 3rd person when I’m clearly in here, but ok.
The fly length wasn’t anything anyone had any interest in changing and as someone who doesn’t wear their waist like an IG fitness model/man from the 50s I’ve managed to go for a piss in these trousers with minimal effort or rearrangement, but feel free to get your own venture going making a combat cut type pant that fixes the issue.
My buddy’s got 2 sets of Romans uniforms and he loves them – he’s got Rhodesian brushtroke and German flecktarn. Cool uniforms for novelty and range use. If you want weird camo and nice uniforms – Roman does a good job.
Own a couple sets of Roman’s uniforms and they’ve held up just as well as any Crye sets I have too. I honestly gave up caring about IP issues after realizing companies like Crye deliberately throttle the market for some patterns *cough*M81*cough* to artificially inflate the price on something that doesn’t cost them anywhere near as much to make per set. I know the whole “buy once, crye once” schtick is paraded around a lot, but it doesn’t hold up when you can’t get the stuff in the first place because it sells out in 15 minutes and then gets relisted for scalper prices on eBay. What Roman is doing is filling a void in the market. It’s just business.
Do you reckon Crye feels like they’ve ripped off OR etc over the jacket designs they use?
Make a generic or classic design and twenty years later expect to have it adapted and evolved. It’s called progress. These guys aren’t selling fakes, and to override a design patent is a matter of 10% or so change anyway. It’s there to stop monopolization.