Night Desert Camo uniforms

My 2 sets of Night Desert Camo

1st pattern coat on the Left , 2nd Pattern coat on the Right



1st pattern trousers on the Left , 2nd pattern trousers on the Right

Both sets have DoD contract numbers in them? It would be interesting to know what the production dates are. There's so much commercial stuff out there.

Steve

I could be wrong Steve , but I do not believe there are any commercial oversuits such as these , there was so much surplus .

Never seen any commercial oversuits either.

Hey I have these!I just thought one was really faded.

parafal wrote:My 2 sets of Night Desert Camo

1st pattern coat on the Left , 2nd Pattern coat on the Right

1st pattern trousers on the Left , 2nd pattern trousers on the Right

Any differences between the 2 apart from the colour?

Martin wrote:

parafal wrote:My 2 sets of Night Desert Camo

1st pattern coat on the Left , 2nd Pattern coat on the Right

1st pattern trousers on the Left , 2nd pattern trousers on the Right

Any differences between the 2 apart from the colour?

Yes , the 1st pattern has narrower lines than the 2nd pattern , this makes the squares in the pattern look bigger on the 1st pattern and it also makes it appear as if the 2nd patterns where much darker than the 1st pattern.
Here is a photo to show the difference in patterns , 1st pattern is on the bottom and the 2nd pattern is on the top.

panzerwerk wrote:I could be wrong Steve , but I do not believe there are any commercial oversuits such as these , there was so much surplus .

I'm sure I've seen ones without contract numbers on them. My guess is they were pushed out into the market because of the Gulf War publicity, but before they were surplussed. But I'm now going back nearly 15+ years in memories... that's a long time I haven't checked any out in probably 10 years as I have two sets already.

parafal, can you either take pictures of the labels or type in the contract numbers? I'm curious about dates and such.

Thanks,

Steve

CollectinSteve wrote:
parafal, can you either take pictures of the labels or type in the contract numbers? I'm curious about dates and such.

Thanks,

Steve

I will take pics of the labels later on tonight and post them up.

Here are the photos of the labels

Cool! So it looks like the "small square" type is early 1980s, the "large square" type is from the late 1980s. Very interesting! I wonder what I have in my hands now I've got a standard set and I've got a tailored set.

Steve

parafal wrote:

Martin wrote:

parafal wrote:My 2 sets of Night Desert Camo

1st pattern coat on the Left , 2nd Pattern coat on the Right

1st pattern trousers on the Left , 2nd pattern trousers on the Right

Any differences between the 2 apart from the colour?

Yes , the 1st pattern has narrower lines than the 2nd pattern , this makes the squares in the pattern look bigger on the 1st pattern and it also makes it appear as if the 2nd patterns where much darker than the 1st pattern.
Here is a photo to show the difference in patterns , 1st pattern is on the bottom and the 2nd pattern is on the top.

Cool, thanks - interesting, wonder if it was changed on purpose or just a change in production runs...?

Similar thing with 6 color desert camo. The "stones" are smaller in early items.

Does this stuff work when your not in the desert?

Does it work at all?

Hahahhaha

Finally got my hands on one of these for a decent price. Parka dated 1981,Liner dated 1984.

Mistakenly took it for granted that they would be massively oversized like the Fishtail parkas-they arent

Heres another one ,

I just cracked out my unissued set and found that both top and bottom are dated 1984, but the parka is of the "small square" style grid and the trousers are the "large square" grid style. Which means the two patterns were produced concurrently, to some extent. And judging by all the early 1980s pieces I see here and on eBay... my guess is the DoD had a LOT of these made in a short period of time and then lived off the stocks for quite a while.

Steve

Just saw a parka made in 1983 by Selma in the "large square" pattern. My 1984 "small square" example is also by Selma. For what it's worth, I've seen a lot of 1984 Selma parkas and "Glenn Berry MFRS" (aka "G B MFRS") trousers.

Steve

My Parka is 1981 by LANCER and the liner is 1984 by SELMA.

Here's a couple sets from my collection, no liners I'm afraid.

Cool info. 1981 is the earliest date so far? Selma apparently got a pretty big chunk of the parka contract.

Steve

CollectinSteve wrote:Cool info. 1981 is the earliest date so far? Selma apparently got a pretty big chunk of the parka contract.

Steve

Nice to know Steve-Thanks.

Didnt buy for the date and to be honest wanst actively after one but the opportunity arose so thought why the hell not

Just like to add a little something.

The camo print found on these garments is the old choc chip camo minus all the tan,sand and brown and leaving just the black and white "chips".

I was bored one day and lined lined them up and the green blobs overly exactly where the black and white chips go.