PMCI December 2019 | Page 10

pmcimagazine.com 10 THE FADE WITH 5.11 TACTICAL GEAR THE WHOLE “GREY GEAR” IDEA HAS BEEN ANOTHER OF THOSE TRENDS IN THE TACTICAL WORLD THAT HAS JUST CAUGHT ON, AND VIRTUALLY EVERY MANUFACTURER OUT THERE SEEMS TO HAVE THEIR “WOLF, SLATE, STORM” OR SIMPLY PUT, GREY. BILL LOOKS INTO THIS PHENOMENON AND PICKS SOME PIECES FROM 5.11 THAT WORK FOR HIM! W e live largely in a “grey world”, both in terms of built-environment but also is relation to a lot of jobs that the thoroughly modern contractor may be faced with. Whilst most things are written into “SOP” sometimes it’s the “grey areas” where these guidelines don’t seem to fit that makes life… interesting! A few years back I started to notice that certain clothing and gear manufacturers were adopting grey into their product lines; Arc’teryx LEAF in fairness were probably the first of the “Names” to drive this forward in any meaningful way, but others were lightning fast to follow their lead and numerous manufacturers came together to create mutually supportive and compatible clothing and tactical gear that all worked well together as a system. Now the idea behind this is a straightforward one; in today’s modern urban environment we have a LOT of concrete and tarmac so grey is an obvious choice to “blend in” to the background. Previously tactical teams would inevitably be drawn to the “traditional black gear”, but in reality black actually sticks out like a sore thumb in most urban situations