Russian "SMK' camouflage

My set ,which is commercial , yours looks issue !

Filupe,
Real nice winter lined SMK urban set. I had the summer special model and Danilo and Roan both got those in trades. Mine was commercial as many of the SMK sets were. Good to see photos of a winter set. I brought back 3 winter sets of differant patterns. The shipping cost me more than the winter sets! Bruce

I love this pattern, but man... that nylon is about as waterproof as tissue paper facing a tsunami!

Steve

SMK is one of my favourite pattern.
There have been 3 different versions, each made by different producers.
The "real" SMK was made in the 1992 for MVD troops and also (in other models) for civilians. GRAN produced these camouflage, but it wasn't probably the only one.
The spots were more defined and "sharp" than the spots in the other versions, like the Filupe's and Panzerwerk's ones; their SMK sometimes is called also "gorod".
The "gorod" version should have been made by NPO-SM, a russian producer.
There exist also another one, based by the "gorod" one, made by SPLAV, a bit darker.
Here there's my urban GRAN suit, civilian version...(you could notice, that GRAN spots are vertically oriented, while the gorod's ones horizontally):

Here is a photo of the leather "Gran" tag sewn inside the jacket of the SMK. This uniform was purchased from Mike Powlen. Here is what Powlen wrote about the Gran SMK;
"The Urban SMK suit is (was ..no longer produced) manufactured by a company called Gran....and has their label.
They subcontracted suits for Laboratory of special equipment and technology (Laboratoria spetsial' nykh materialov i tekhnologi) in St. Petersburg who issued these suits to various OMON and Vitiaz units.
Special Materials has (had..no longer produced) the same pattern suits as well as several other Material Companies in Russia. All were issued to OMON, Vitaz and Alpha units ...along with several other Ministry of Interior Special Operations troops."



It is my understanding that the early SMK's had black or gray linings. The civilian versions of the uniforms had flannel linings like the hat shown below.



There are some SMK uniforms that are unlined, however.

Here is an SMK Urban vest that has a Special Materials Manufacturing tag.

I recently acquired this strange, ridged case. As you can see it unfolds. My guess is medical supplies as the interior doesn't appear strong enough things that are heavy or metal based.

Steve

I dont really understand, is there a solid way to tell if one is issue or a civilian copy?

With Russian gear, especially during the 1990s, the line between official and commercial is as clearly defined as a jelly fish in a blender. I've basically adopted an attitude that if it has a military look to it then someone probably wore while in service. But that's just me not having the energy or time to figure out the real story

Steve

CollectinSteve wrote:With Russian gear, especially during the 1990s, the line between official and commercial is as clearly defined as a jelly fish in a blender. I've basically adopted an attitude that if it has a military look to it then someone probably wore while in service. But that's just me not having the energy or time to figure out the real story

Steve

LOL! I understand.

hi guys! someone remind me the correct russian name of smk?
i remind Odan (Одан) but i'm not sure.

here's my gorod set

i have one splav gorod-t set too. Nice pattern.

One of my latest receipts ... its mis-placement in the wrong category meant that I snapped it up for less than $20!





I suspect it is probably commercial (purple twill lining inside the zippered pockets) but it seems to nicely match the other SMK garments I have.

Hey Filupe...well, it's not so easy actually to understand if it's commercial or not.
It looks to me a sort of "copy" of another vest made by NPO-SM in the '90s, which was very close to this one.
There are some things here that generally you don't find on russian hunting/commercial camo items, like the strange reinforcements on the shoulders (..probably for rifle sling), or even the belt loops etc..
But yes, there's something unusual there that makes it looking not military.
Where have you found it?
Here there's the model I mean, very similar to yours:

The other indicator (to me) that it's not military is the pocket configuration i.e. lack of AK magazine pockets. It came out of Manions online auctions - placed in the 'US' category!

Hey Guys,
I just found this forum and thought I could share some things of my collection, I'm currently at work and will post some more pictures when I'm back home.
Some names here sound familiar to me.








Cheers,
Kolja

shoru wrote:Hey Guys,.
Some names here sound familiar to me.

Hello my friend! Finally we have even you here
Thanks for share your stuff (..we are waiting for some photos of all your rare items around the forum!).


If possible I would like to change my previous words that I wrote here in the past, as my knowledge about SMK stuff is now changed and a little bit bigger.
I had written that GRAM was the main producer of this nice pattern, and NPO-SM and Splav were only secondary...
Actually it wasn't like that, I was wrong.
GRAM produced only civilian SMK and NPO-SM produced SMK equipment for russian Army, in various versions.
There were many different versions, almost all of them for winter season.
I will post here some photos that show the various models...
Sorry for my past mistake!

Hey Filipo!
Sure, I will post some pictures when I'm home and have access to my HDD.

Personally I know of 3 different versions of the woodland-ish SMK (of course not that rare VSR-like color scheme!).

Two of them are visible in my previously posted pictures, I call them blurred-edge versions.
The body armor cover has deeper colors, also the brown colors are a bit more intensive.
The SMK Plash and SMK rain poncho have the "common" blurred edge pattern which is visible on some war pictures.

At home I have another 2 vests, one SMK tunic and one (probably commercial) Ammo vest.
Both are in the sharp-edged pattern, which imho has been produced by NPO-SM.

Did Splav only do Urban SMK? I've never seen a woodland-ish SMK item made by Splav.


Cheers,
Kolja

Well, the versions I meant were all into NPO-SM production.
I've "studied" many pictures from the '90s and from the war in Chechnya and I concluded that at least 3 or 4 models existed, different by hood (removable or not), pants, jacket cut, etc....
I still trying to understand if I have identified all the models...but I'm quite sure that I didn't..
About Splav...I guess it makes/made a "gorod/SMK" camouflage, similar to the blurred-edge pattern.

I used to have ac picture showing one (civil?) person posing in the snow-covered mountains while wearing a woodland SMK anorak with a fancy hoodie-like stomach pocket.
So it seems like you have to do some more research to cover all the variants out there.

Do you mean this photo here? https://2img.net/r/ihimizer/img819/3606/3414022.jpg
I don't know if it's a civilian o military jacket.

Damn Filipo, you have every picture I've seen yet saved on your hard disk!

To me it looks like a civilian product, mainly because of the big pocket on the front.

But what is the right guy wearing?

As these haven't been posted yet, I'm contributing two pictures of SMK vests I own.



(I already have a replacement part for the mismatched shoulder pad! )



Both have the sharp-edged SMK pattern, as probably seen on NPO-SM items (the second vest is made by NPO-SM).


Cheers,
Kolja