Yesterday, we showed you a picture of the knee of USSOCOM’s Protective Combat Uniform level 9 combat uniform component manufactured by ReadyOne. You may have noticed these interesting holes on the corners of the double knee.
The holes are for a new two-part kneepad system developed by Patagonia for this uniform.
The two-piece design consists of a foam padding component that fits inside the double knee through a slot in the bottom that is secured with Velcro. The male portions of the snaps are aligned in the four holes located at the corners of the double knee and the outer, hard plastic shell is snapped into place, providing abrasion resistance and protection from sharp objects.
As you can see, they snap together and fit through those holes. These are only made for the PCU Level 9 and are not compatible with any other system.
As an added bonus here is a snapshot of the Block 2 PCU Level 3A we wrote about back in January. It uses a Polartec fleece-based insulation sandwiched between a level 4 face fabric and a soft nylon backer fabric. As you can see, it is quilted like the old field jacket liner and is very comfortable. Level 3 now offers 3 options. The classic fleece level 3 jacket, this model (3A) and the 3B which features a WL Gore fabric story.
So, I’m assuming that the inner pad is the soft, spongy bit and the outer part is an abrasion resistant hard shell?
Yes, I didn’t think there would be any question. I’ll add some details.
Yeah, I have a talent for asking the bleeding obvious question. 😉
Its a very clever idea too by the way! A nice way to get around the issues with traditional external knee-pads and Crye’s approach that has been copied a million times.
I hope we start to see this system appearing on other clothing systems too.
unbelievable. that is a pretty spot on design. leave it to patagonia to develop some innovative kit for the modern warfighter.
I’ve developed a fondness for Patagonia stuff. Nice to see this design. Are they doing under the auspices of ‘Patagonia’ or do they have a separate entity?
This PCU gear is developed by Patagonia specifically for USSOCOM and manufactured by ReadyOne. These items are not available commercially.