Latvian Stuff

Thanks once again for the detailed photos and album of reference pics!

Very nice!

I just realized that the old 1990s uniform comes in two forms. The one you have has shapes that clearly overlap each other, but there's another version where they do not. It is a 2 pocket jacket with only velcro fasteners. Mine has metal "LV" emblems on the collar. My guess is it was for a non-active military component, such as police, home guard, etc.

I also have a variant with slightly different colors, but otherwise seems to be the same. Standard production variation I suspect.

Steve

Very nice collection, I remember seeing the Latpat at Fort Sam Houston in 2008, worn by the Latvian medics. You can spy a lot of unusual camouflage at the school house.

Both variants with insignia to boot, great finds!

Magnificent score, Congrats Sean. Normal one on right is difficult enough to find, but that left one is simply unobtanium !! WoW !!  


Here is a newer one I recently found to replace a faded one..








                                                                                                                                            

Thanks for the side by side Sean, and definite congrats on that one.

Many years ago someone offered me the experimental desert that had the shape of Latvia baked into it. It was a lot of money at the time ($500?) and I decided to pass on it. I still think I made the right decision, but... only just barely! Those turned out to be super rare and I've only seen maybe one other since.

Steve

Hello everyone! I've been collecting primarily Latvian uniforms for the last few years, I've found some really neat pieces as of late. I also have a fair bit of Latvian butan uniforms, if anyone is interested in seeing them.

These are just my Latvian made BDU's, from roughly 1994-2014~.

1. Named Latvian naval forces ripstop BDU, made by "AUS", named to a Pāvels Lebedevs, who stationed in Liepāja between 2000 and 2003
2. Latvian ripstop BDU, made out of US 100% cotton ripstop, I'm not sure what branch it came from, as there's only a small trace of a "Latvija" patch
3. Latvian twill BDU, also owned by Pāvel, he modified the collar, so it would permanently be an open collar uniform, has the rank of "Matrozis"
4. Latvian Zemessardzes twill BDU, sadly the seller of it removed the name patch, however it has the rank of Virsleitnants, it also has the english language "Latvia" patches, which were mostly seen on foreign deployment uniforms. I also have the guy's old M65, with the same rank and patch setup
5. Factory reject twill BDU, made by "Neja&ko", its made out of a roughly 70/30 mix of cotton and polyester, which was commonly used on Latvian twill uniforms. However, I believe some uniforms were also made out of US made 50/50 NYCO
6. Zemessardzes reservist's/private's BDU, its missing its shoulder board cyphers and the rank, which was only really done by people who had just enlisted in the Zemessardze, or people who were reservists. This practice was most often seen after the mid 2000s, so my guess this uniform was issued after 2004 or so

Excellent ensemble of woodland there czech_beer, great showcase of the pattern variations!

TennoHeikaNate wrote:Excellent ensemble of woodland there czech_beer, great showcase of the pattern variations!

Thanks! Later I'll post some of the Latvian butan uniforms, I have a bunch of Zemessardzes issue ones from 1992-1994 and also an extremely rare transitional Zemessardzes butan tunic with woodland insignia from 1994-1997, they were worn by rear-lines/reservist nationalguardsmen, almost impossible to find photos of them in use.

Below is a photo of one in use by a kaprālis in 1996 or 1997  

Haven't been able to make some good photos of my Latvian butan uniforms recently, but I can try soon enough.

In June, I was able to get some more Latvian woodland BDU's from the 2000s, all of them made by NEJA&KO.

Two of them are the cotton variant while the middle one is ripstop, the one with velcro features pleated waist pockets, while the darker one doesn't

The middle one is really minty, its completely unissued, most likely came from a liquidated National Guard stockpile, condition wise its one of the best Latvian BDU's I've ever had  

The woodland patterns on Latvian made uniforms can vary a lot sometimes, the difference usually boils down to the fabric having darker browns and greens or being simply reminiscent of the original US template, although some of the early Latvian BDU's were seemingly made out of US supplied 100% cotton ripstop or they'd just outright be US made BDU's, sometimes with added-on shoulder boards (this modification was only done by the Latvian National Guard).

If anyone's interested in seeing the rest of my Latvian camo collection, I can make a separate thread and try posting all of my 30 or so Latvian camouflage uniforms