LBT was getting out of gray - I thought. But not too far back, Crye Precision went gray for their G3 uniforms, and now Arktis UK has launched a line in gray - I may be leaving other manufacturers out.
Can one of the SMTs here please bring me up to speed on the uniform/gear manufacturers going in on “tactical gray?” Is there a study of some type or end user/pro experience that influenced this move?
Thanking you in advance for the inside scoop …
Urban ops! A sign of things to come.
Basically it’s similar to the special ops dry suit color.
“Grey man” and urban camouflage. Just a way of blending in, without sticking out.
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Clark Kent
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If it’s MAS gray, I believe it was developed for special operations.
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A bunch of the “gray” shades are Alpha Green or Ranger Green. The actual gray clothes are for either for SWAT “operators” or preppers that misunderstand “the Gray Man” theory. A lot (most) is just marketing.
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Community users can comment as they wish, but- Gray is neutral, is compatible with other stuff as base or gear layers, takes on other colors around it, and works well in some environments in particular. Gray stuff has been available longer and from more places than most know.
We’ve rocked it in cold weather since at least ‘06. A Ranger buddy and I just LARPed in Block 0 and Block 1 PCUs all weekend. I was a tester for Block 0 back in the day.
It’s becoming more popular in the hunting world as well Grey is a neutral color that’s blends in well with a lot of backgrounds, especially later in the year and in rocky environments.
Seems to me more that grey’s resurgence is actually been dying off. The big push was right after Arc’teryx released Wolf Grey, and has been tapering off for awhile now (I’m surprised Crye took this long to bring Wolf Grey as a regularly stocked color, though special runs of it had always been around). As others have noted, grey isn’t really new at all, with MAS Grey being one of the more well known and older colors.
And really, “grey” is kinda a broad term, just like “green” or “brown”. Wolf Grey and MAS grey are pretty far apart, IMO, with UF Pro’s Frost Grey also standing alone from the other greys. Consider that Milspec Monkey wrote this well over a half a decade ago: https://www.milspecmonkey.com/articles-page/63-articles/454-a-real-urban-grey & https://www.milspecmonkey.com/articles-page/63-articles/455-a-real-urban-grey-part-2
FYI, for the story specifically behind Wolf Grey:
Wolf has an interesting background. The brief that I was originally given, touched on external studies stating that that a dark neutral grey was more likely to blend easily into its background under low light conditions than black. The idea was to use this knowledge to identify the ideal grey to be applied to a new uniform program for specialized LE teams. However, as these uniforms were not always going to be used in the dark, we didn’t want the uniforms to be too dark of a grey. They needed to blend into the urban environment under differing light conditions. Taking all of this into consideration, I spent some time doing personal exploration around the city (Vancouver) observing the various shades of grey as seen from roads, buildings, cement barriers, etc. As well as reviewing countless images from other major cities across the world. I was able to narrow down to 4 shades, which we reviewed as a group to zero in on the best option. This was the birth of (Urban) Wolf. Wolf then became widely adopted in the industry, it was an exciting colour evolution to be a part of.
Source: https://soldiersystems.net/2018/08/03/the-story-behind-arcteryx-leafs-wolf-urban-grey/
As always, I am very grateful for the knowledge, information, and links provided by the M4C membership. The replies are all much appreciated - thanks very much, Gentlemen.
Best I can recall, feldgrau was a conscious decision. Not sure if Confederate gray was a choice or somewhat of a limited option necessity. Think it was done with Butternut?
Not sure about other manufacturers, but early Camelbak packs in foliage green were just gray, no greenish tint at all. Several other vendors in the early 2000s had grey gear and called it grey. Kelty and Patagonia had at least 1 shade of grey and I think first gen PCU outer components were grey except the level 6 rain pants.
Similar story to the evolution of Pullman Green as a color for railcars. Color scientists at Pullman looking to replace the old and high-upkeep Chocolate Brown that they had used up to around the turn of the 20th century found that urban dirt was blackish while rural had more yellow tones, so they needed to formulate a “yellowish black” to hide both rural and urban dirt and the olive-drab they settled on was the result.
Apparently in the 1800s gray wool was much less expensive then other colors.
West Point (USMA) uniforms were gray because it was the least expensive option. The USMA uniform factory is who explained that expense drove the original selection of gray. It was an interesting tour, they’ve been making uniforms there almost since 1812.
Army blue would have been the natural pick, but blue is one of the more expensive dyes. Dyes were not near as sophisticated then, and I believe the only medium to dark blue was indigo.
I would assume the butternut Confederate uniforms were similar, has the Confederacy had very little money and many units had to outfit themselves or were funded by their colonel. Butternut is not gray, it’s more of a dark natural brownish yellow.
I don’t know where the idea of Confederate gray came from because all the uniforms I’ve seen or read about have been butternut. There might have been gray forage caps.
Back on topic, I’ve had gray backpacks and bags long before any tactical gray surfaced. I selected it as it was a neutral color that didn’t look out of place in business environments, etc. And specifically it was not olive, khaki, or similar.
What people now think of as tactical gray actually has a lot of blue in it and does poorly in camouflage, even in urban environments. So to me it’s not tactical at all, it’s just a neutral color. I despise the super brightly colored backpacks just as much as I do black.
There is an aspect of contextual camouflage in play, and the opposite: My roll-on bag is a pelican bag with wheels and handle in khaki that I found on sale. Coming and going on a lot of military bases, it nearly always requires inspection while larger bags don’t even get a glance. Same thing with an ammo can that I carry my traveling tools in.
If I do use that pelican carry-on bag I pack my underwear clean or not on the very top then if they want to rummage through it they can.
It’s a bit silly and a significant security blind spot… Bag should be checked on what they could possibly contain rather than their exterior.
Someone said it here first but I believe it to be true, the best low profile bag or color is a well used scuffed up baby diaper bag as no one will look in it.