#Uniforms

5.11 Tactical announced the launch of its latest array of products for the year 2024. The new products, including some not-so-secret 5.11 prototypes, cover an extensive range of categories including apparel, load-bearing gear, footwear, as well as professional uniforms and accessories. The new releases emphasize durability, functionality, and comfort – let’s take a look.

In this episode of TFBTV, James Reeves is at the 5.11 Tactical booth during SHOT Show 2023 to see the XTU series of uniforms being made by 5.11 under the V.XI brand. These well-thought-out and feature-filled uniforms look promising, and it will be interesting to see if V.XI manages to break into the BDU market.

Safariland has unveiled a phone-based program designed to make sizing body armor and uniforms quicker and with less hassle, rather than having others take the measurements.  Safariland’s sizing technology is called XpertFit, and is said to take only two minutes for the user to find out which armor or uniform sizes will be recommended for them. I don’t know if social distancing was a prime motivator for Safariland when they created XpertFit, but that may be one of the benefits for agencies or distributors that want to limit contact.  Safariland describes XpertFit below:

Recently, I came across an interesting video, which shows the evolution of Chinese and Taiwanese (officially Republic of China) uniforms and firearms. It compares them side by side in chronological order. You can watch that video below or scroll down to see the screenshots for a quick reference. The screenshots cover only military uniforms and arms shown in the first half of the video. The second half is about dress uniforms. If the history of uniforms is interesting to you, it worths watching the video to the end.

While not capturing every uniform that the United States has fielded, Business Insider has an excellent video showcasing the major uniforms of the US Army in less than two minutes. Its a fascinating watch, especially for gear-do’s like myself.