Portugese Trousers with Odd Stamp

Back in the early 90's after the Soviet Union break-up, Russia exported a lot of uniforms to the United States. You could go to gun shows and find piles of used Soviet uniforms ranging from camo to standard field uniforms.

One time I was going through a pile of Soviet uniforms and found this unusual pair of camo trousers. It didn't look like any Soviet pattern I had encountered, so I picked it up anyway for like $5. It wasn't until much later that Eric idenified these pants as being of Portugese manufacture. If I am not mistaken, he said they were 1980's manufacture (if I am wrong, please forgive me...Europe isn't my field of expertise). How they got to the Soviet Union is beyond me. It is pretty obvious these pants weren't "Made in USSR"! Just thought I'd share one of my camo oddities.

Close up of the "Made in USSR" stamp. This uniform has been used hard and has several holes and rips.

Is the cloth HBT? Buttons brown plastic? My guess is that they are, indeed, Portuguese. You'd be surprised how much oddball stuff winds up in the Eastern Bloc. A bunch of super rare Bundeswehr stuff wound up in Budapest's second hand markets for a few bucks a piece, while on German eBay they were rarely seen and going for $50 or more a pop. Makes no sense

Steve

CollectinSteve wrote:Is the cloth HBT? Buttons brown plastic? My guess is that they are, indeed, Portuguese. You'd be surprised how much oddball stuff winds up in the Eastern Bloc. A bunch of super rare Bundeswehr stuff wound up in Budapest's second hand markets for a few bucks a piece, while on German eBay they were rarely seen and going for $50 or more a pop. Makes no sense

Steve

HBT- Yes
Brown plastic buttons- Yes

Like I said, these pants have seen better days and have human grease stains that are common to many Soviet era uniforms. If you collect Soviet era uniforms, then you'll know what I'm talking about. Whoever had them, used them in the field.

According to US import laws the manufacturing country of origin must be indicated on the garment. Ink stamps and adhesive labels appear to be the most common methods. My guess is someone got a big pile of stuff to import, had them all stamped, then brought them into the US. Still, it's a really strange trip for it to have traveled!

Steve

had them all stamped, then brought them into the US

God I hate this , I have a bunch of DDR stamped Made In East Germany , the sad thing is that they stamped in the worst possible place , front of canteens front of UTV suspenders , front of mag pouches , you get the idea , sucks !!!!

Hi

It's possible that those trousers are from portuguese origin. It's hell try to identify any portuguese gear from the past because dispite of the label OGFE and size number they have no other reference on it. But the pattern is similar to that used by portuguese forces in the african colonial wars and my guess is that some soviet military advisor used it in Angola in the 70's and when got home toke it with him.

best regards

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