Woodland is making a massive comeback thanks to HSGI, B5 Systems and Tactical Distributors who have teamed up to introduce several new products to the market. Although woodland camouflage has been all but abandoned by the US military it continues to remain popular due to its effectiveness in the environments it was designed for. Even the US Army Jungle School continues to issue woodland hot weather BDUs to its students and MARSOC CSOs use it for certain applications.
Below is a short press release from High Speed Gear who have introduced several of their most popular items in woodland camouflage complete with woodland pattern webbing.
B5 Systems has also introduced exclusive, woodland dipped versions of their popular firearms accessories, including stocks, grips, and forends.
Additionally, Tactical Distributors has an entire category for woodland items on their site.
SWANSBORO, NC – 17NOV2014 – We’ve settled the camouflage debate!!!!! A large portion of our product line is now available in M81 Woodland Camo, based on military and shooting sport customers demand. However, instead of just producing in the vintage fashion, High Speed Gear® commissioned our webbing provider to produce, jacquard M81 Woodland webbing to match the Cordura®. No more olive drab PALS covering the pattern, everything matches, and High Speed Gear has this exclusively.
The Woodland pattern was the default camouflage pattern issued to United States military personal from most branches of the armed forces starting in 1981 with the issuance of the BDU (Battle Dress Uniform) until its replacement in 2006.
High Speed Gear® is dedicated to building the best 100% Made in the USA, Battle Proven Tactical Nylon Gear™. Our products are designed for the highest level of comfort, functionality, and versatility. Satisfaction is guaranteed for all of our customers, whether military, law enforcement, or responsibly armed citizens. Our products are user driven and have been designed based the operational experiences from a wide variety of end users.
For more information, please visit www.highspeedgear.com
To order these woodland camo products visit Tactical Distributors.
Tags: B5 Systems, HSGI, Tactical Distributors
I believe this is the Eternal camouflage. No reason for it to ever be completely phased out, it will last as long as the green on this earth will.
What was old is new again! 🙂
I have a love for woodland camo because I grew up playing navy seals in the woods with it. After we determined our vietnam tiger stripe camo more cool than it was useful. Woodland is a good pattern and doesn’t appear to clash with multicam too bad.
I got in when BDUs were issues – and I keep going back to it as my choice of camo – there is something nostalgic about it.
*issued
In the September October issue of Kommando there are Marsoc wearing woodland with considerably less black in it than usual. The Germans are in the process of doing the same thing with Flecktarn. I am not in the “black doesn’t exist in nature” camp, but it is clear that it not great in huge patches on camo.
That has to do more with the fabric than an actual change to the pattern.
I don’t think so, have you seen the photos? Lawrence H./Strikehold gets the magazine in digital form, perhaps he can send them to you.
Yeah, I have. I have a copy around here somewhere. I also have one of the uniforms. It’s the base fabric.
Out of 16 photos I only see one on page 30 (SAW gunner’s back of leg) that has a large swatch of black. If this isn’t a modified pattern it appears they hand picked what to use and what not to in order to have minimal black. I do realize the colors are a bit different however.
Thanks Zach. I actually get the magazine in hardcopy, and Eric’s right – those uniforms feature standard M81 Woodland pattern camo. If I recall correctly, its actually an FR fabric (Defender M?) printed with the pattern – which is why the colors might look a bit different than usual.
I also notice that Beyond is currently selling their Mission shirts, pants and blouses in only MultiCam or Woodland.
It’s either Tencate Defender M or Drifire Foretrex depending on how old it is. Either way, they are FR fabrics and don’t pic up dye quite as well as cotton or even nylon.
Lawrence and Eric, I appreciate your expertise on the subject and doubt there are many that know camo like you both do. I am sorry to beat a dead horse, but having looked at these photos 100 times it is just so odd that the larger black swatches so common on woodland seem to almost not exist on these. I suppose the extra pockets create fewer large areas too. Is hand picking what areas on large pieces prior to production a possibility? Or could they simply not pick uniforms with more black when they get them. Thank you both for your patience on this one.
Regards, Zach OCD camo-aholic
Hi Zach – having worn the pattern for 4 years, as well as having looked at hundreds (if not thousands) of garments in the pattern, I have to say that it looks “normal” to me (apart from the tones being a bit ‘off’).
What you’re seeing is probably just the effect of the fact that those uniforms are composed of more pieces of cut fabric (and many of those pieces being smaller in size) than a typical old-skool BDU.
If you also look at photographs of groups of troops wearing Woodland camo BDUs back in the day, you’ll also see a lot of variation in how black is present on their BDUs. That’s just due to the randomness of the cutting and sewing…
Thank you for all your info.
Where did you hear about the Flecktarn revision?
From a German author that served in the army and very much knows the inside scoop.
That B5 set looks pretty sweet. This may spark another AR build.
Well for those that are interested Woodland has never left. Just because the DOD as a whole quite using it SOF never did. It is and has been an authorized pattern. It was our primary uniform in 09 and later. For obvious reasons we didn’t wear ACUs unless absolutely necessary. It is good to see options become available again. I personally liked the pattern and it was ridiculous to have gotten away from the pattern. Don’t get me wrong there are better patterns but it has worked so very well for so long. Any ways, that is my two cents.
Presuming Murdock jacquard, which MAKES this thing work.
oops meant to reply to topic. Mondaze.
Woodland camo works, end of story. Multicam works too, both great patterns. I wish I had the funds for some woodland in those new crye/tactical cuts.
Could always buy some decent BDUs and your T-shirt of choice and send them in to be modified, that’s what a lot of guys do. Unconventional Tactical does some pretty great work, though I am not advertising here. Lol
Or do like we did with our BDUs and DCUs; carefully cut-off the lower pockets from the blouse and have the tailor sew them onto the upper arms of the blouse. If you were really HSLD, you would replace buttons with Velcro.
Although Raid modding is cool and I have actually done that to a BDU and a DCU Top. It’s not as satisfying as turning it into a combat shirt with the ability to hold elbow pads, and knee pad ability with the pants. Takes a lot more than moving the pockets and adding Velcro if you want to be high speed now. 😛
Thanks gents, yeah I haven’t found a good sew shop in my new area yet, I have done the shirts before, I mostly would like to protect my achy knees.
next up for coming back as a cool camo pattern ERDL come on all you crazy cats out there lets get ERDL back out there
0241 Tactical already has a good start on that, but it’s limited to Pack, Goggle, and optic covers, give them a Google.
Thanks for telling me about em
ERDL has my vote too. I tried to order several repro sets from Moore Militaria (Green dominant) last week, but out of my sizes, Trey informed me more in the Spring……..
Good enough for Vietnam, good enough for Pacific pivot.
M81 will always have cache, has and will continue to be hip.
Im still wanting a erdl boonie hat from moore so the spring huh
Spring, yes, that is info Trey emailed me. Waiting messes with my instant gratification thing.
bwahahahahaha mine too lol
I bought a set of ERLD from the market downtown in Panama City, Panama when I was stationed there in the mid-80s. They were the second most comfortable uniform after the OG-107 Jungle Fatigues. The ERLD camo worked perfectly in Panama.
Despite great advances in the science of camo, we take a step backwards and go with something that works only slightly better than ACU. Great news! Easier to shoot whoever wears this stuff. Smh, why can’t we accept advancement when it has been proven? Why are we so afraid of change and improvement?
FYI, ACU is not a camo pattern, it’s a uniform pattern much like BDUs are a uniform pattern. The current standard issue Army ACU comes in UCP or Universal Camouflage Pattern and that’s what you’re confusing ACU for which stands for Army Combat Uniform.
Because that matters? Im fairly sure everyone understood what I was talking about. Still, the point is this pattern is a step backwards.
Don’t be such a square Riceball.
HAHAHA! +1
To Caveat off of Riceball. M81 Woodland is a step forward from UCP. M81 Woodland has been proven to be highly effective in Jungle/Wooland evniormnets.
UCP has been proven to be highly effective in couch type enviornments.
And quarries.
Any Army element that finds itself fighting to the death for a cool swimming hole is poised for victory.
And gravel…
I once saw a clip of troops on the DMZ in Korea: if the NROKS ever invade, the guys should just lay down on the gravel – they’ll be invisible!
correction *NORKS
Its not highly effective at all. Its definitely more effective than UCP, but calling it highly effective is a bit of an exaggeration. Look up the research and testing thats been done on all the main pattern groups. M81/NATO Woodland consistently scores at the bottom of the list, just about UCP.
If it does what it was designed to to do well, then it is highly effective. Period. At symbol.
If M81 Woodland is more effective than UCP means that it is a step forward for the Army.
Just because it isn’t the latest and greatest or the “best” doesn’t mean it’s ineffective or a stepbackward for the Army.
How is something that is designed before another a step forward? M81 was designed LONG before UCP. Just because something kinda works better than UCP doesn’t mean its a logical pattern to use. Use what works best, be it Multicam, MARPAT, CADPAT, Flektarn, whatever.
Nostalgia doesn’t win wars or save lives. Advancement in training, skills, science, and research does. M81 is a huge step backwards when we have patterns that work ten times better than M81 ever will, anywhere.
Flecktarn is based off a pattern from the 1940s….. but besideds that m81 is still considered by most the most effective jungle/woodland pattern ever made
By who exactly? Anyone who relies on camo to stay hidden won’t bother with it. AOR2, MARPAT, CADPAT, Multicam, Flecktarn, and even ATACS are so far ahead of M81 its basically suicide to use it. The only reason at all that M81 is still in use in the military is the ANA. (Yes, some other units besides MARSOC/Raiders use it, but not as much as you might like to believe)
And yes, Flecktarn is old. But it’s also effective as hell, especially the Fall pattern in the woods. (problem with Flecktarn is it’s rather specific to environment and seasons.)
The fact is, in every single environment test, M81 consistently scores at the bottom of the list only above UCP / Digital Tiger Stripe and anything blue. Why anyone would want a pattern that isn’t even in the middle of the pack in rankings of *effectiveness* is beyond me.
Holy-amazing-hell someone is being informative rather than ignorant! Thank you Tom for dropping knowledge. M81 might be “cool” to wear around the bear pong table but it is inferior to the camo on the market today.
Sad thing is M81 lacks compared to other modern camos but the tri-color desert still ranks among the top.
Now if I could only get my hands on some Pencott Snowdrift overwhites..
Of course Woodland is old, and of course there have been more effective patterns that have come out since.
BUT….
Beyond its concealment performance, camouflage also serves a very important IFF function – so if the allied personnel around you are wearing Woodland, it would be a good idea to blend in with the crowd so as not to stick out. That works for Zebra herds after all…
Secondly, you fight with what you’ve got in the supply chain. The most effective amazingly effective camouflage pattern in the known universe is basically worthless if you can’t get uniforms and gear in it when you need them.
Thirdly, there’s also the law of Popular Demand – it might not be pretty, it might not be the best, but if Joe wants it then Joe’s gonna find somebody who sells it.
Tom,
Is your opinion based off what you’ve read and seen on the internet or actually using it in the field?
Who’d have thought the ANA Commando’s choice of camo over a decade ago would cause Woodland to come back.
This x1000
I can certainly see why Army guys would want Woodland over UCP, but why would Marines (MARSOC) not use their own digital woodland camouflage they are so vigorously bogarting? Is this an example of everyone has to be special, or are they not satisfied with digital woodland’s performance?
Because they are advisors to the ANA (yes, I see the irony) and the ANA wears woodland.
ANA stopped, not completely, wearing woodland while i was there.
They still had holdouts and rocked old woodland field jackets but i mostly saw their new digital pattern. Lived on a couple different ANA bases and worked with them daily.
IIRC, MARSOC began using M81 woodland to blend in with their Afghan couterparts while on patrol.
MARPAT Woodland is highly effective in the environment it was designed for.
SSD beat me by 4 seconds 😀
Now it makes sense.
There’s a strong element of being different here too. No patch, no device, etc…wearing M81 all the damn time with the excuse of “partner forces/ANA” is there way of differentiating themselves.
For the love of God, can Crye just start making their G3 stuff in Woodland already?
Not everyone likes multicam.
They already do.
Well, if you want to put yourself in the poorhouse you could already get some G3 Woodies, as shown in the picture of the MARSOC guys. But you’d need to look on places like Ebay or straight from sellers.
or, you know, man up and go to Selection.
Got my DD214 in hand–no thanks. I don’t need to “man up” to spend my own money on some camouflage clothing.
I know Crye makes the G3s in Woodland, I should have said “they need to come off it and offer it to the general public”.
And don’t give me that lame excuse of “SOF uses it so we’re only authorized to sell it to the really cool guys”.
SOF uses multicam, and they sell multicam all day long.
I think it’s just impossible to be cool. As soon as I get all my airsoft gear in UCP, I’ve got to switch to Multicam, then to Kryptek, now back to woodland. I JUST WANT TO BE 1337!!! (much sarcasm)
Just when we thought the camo wars were in decline.
PenCott GreenZone, that’s all
its a badass camo that effective as hell but sadly not to many shops make kit in it 🙁
Tactical Tailor dude. 😛 if they’re still doing it.
BEWARE! Nostalgia is a bitch. Don’t let her fool you. 😉
Thanks guys. Yup, Tactical Tailor have PenCott gear and SKD Tactical, Beyond and SEALS Action Gear have all taken sample yardage for clothing – ping them. 😉
The official reason is to “blend in with afghan commandos”…. REAL reason is becaus higher ups shit bricks every time they see a Marine wearing marpat with…. You guesse it, a BEARD! Heaven forbid that some one sees a Marine with a beard!