Last week we mentioned that Outdoor Research had been honored as Washington State Innovator of the Year for 2012. This article from 2008 tells a little about the program.
USSOCOM has awarded Outdoor Research, Inc. (OR), a $54 million, five-year contract to manufacture the Outdoor Research Generation II Modular Glove System for U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF). What is important about this announcement is that it is for the second generation glove system. In 2001 OR was also awarded a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant to develop the original modular glove system. Although a full contract was never awarded for full procurement due to competing priorities for dollars, the handwear developed under the SBIR was purchased with unit O&M dollars. Additionally, the research yielded excellent results and brought OR’s military and commercial lines further forward. This latest generation of handwear is FR and offered in brown rather then the black of the earlier family of gloves. The FR fabrics are offered in conjunction with Massif.
The system consists of five types of compatible handwear: a contact glove, a flame resistant combat glove, an intermediate waterproof glove, an extreme cold weather waterproof glove, and extreme cold weather waterproof mitt. Each set of gloves is Berry compliant and can be worn alone or in conjunction with other pieces in the system. I had an opportunity to look at the individual pieces at Outdoor Retailer and am very impressed. The gloves are for the most part refinements of military gloves they have been producing for the last couple of years. I have been using OR gloves for over ten years and these are the best products they have ever developed.
I think mountaineering legend Mark Twight sums it up best. “Using modern materials and their up-all-night ingenuity, the designers worked closely with military users to develop the Modular Glove System,†said Mark Twight, elite alpinist. “For over 20 years, OR has been testing handwear in the harshest environments on earth. No company is better positioned to build gloves for the U.S. Special Operations Forces.”
For more information visit Outdoor Research. The SOCOM Gen II Modular Glove System is available for purchase from ADS.
Outdoor Research Modular Glove System, Generation II: Firebrand Mitt (top left), Firebrand Glove (top right), Poseidon Glove (bottom left), Overlord Shorty (bottom center), Hurricane Glove (bottom right).
Photo courtesy of Outdoor Research.
