Real or fake CADPAT shirt?

I was wondering if this was an authentic CADPAT shirt? is the NSN tag real and all? (I've heard that some CADPAT items have fake NSN tags and such and wondered if this was the case) thank you!

It is an original item.

Yup, totally legit. This appears to be a modified 1st Model. Somewhere around 2006 the existing stock of jackets were modified to have pockets on the sleeves. There were various different configurations of velcro, but the pockets were fairly consistent. I forget what year new production had arm pocket straight from the factory. 2008?

Steve

I am not sure about the pattern change dates Steve, but it is worth noting on this modified type that the sleeve pockets were usually sourced by removing them from inside the lower front pockets. These internal pockets were sort of evolutionary leftovers from the old green fatigues, which had been designed to carry two FN C1 magazines inside each lower pocket (using internally fitted nylon pockets), plus one in each slanted breast pocket. On the green fatigues, these features were retained long after the FN C1 and 1964 Pattern Web (which lacked rifle pouches) were phased out in the mid 1980s.

Interesting. Removing lower pockets and putting them on the sleeves is certainly a common practice. However, I've had about 3 or 4 of these modified jackets and all had their lower pockets intact. I've also got a bunch of pictures of them in the field and they also have their lower pockets intact. Plus, the arm pockets are neither the same shape nor size as the lower pockets.

A friend of mine who was deployed to Afghanistan in 2006 timeframe (his is one of the uniforms in my collection) said the pockets were all added back at home before they were issued to the soldiers. I asked him about the different velcro arrangements and he said there were no standards, which meant soldiers had to sometimes do creative things to get all their badging displayed.

Steve

Steve,

The main lower pockets were never removed - there were internal pockets concealed within/underneath the outside lower pockets that were removed. It did not change the appearance of the front of the jacket.