Norway prototype ?? British style jungle jacket

I bought this for 99p (75 cents), I know the print is Norway and the cut is British 1985-1995 tropical style.
I have never ever seen anything like this before, I know Norway model the camo suits after the American m8i in ripstop. This jacket is in a tight poplin style but unknown it's fiber contents.

I really can't figure out this one. The buttons, the material it's made and the camo looks ok, but the small pockets on the sleeves doesn't look like anything I have seen before. The tag should have some info, but it looks blank to me. All the M98s and later similar uniforms I have seen have four pockets, but it looks to me like this one has only two. The pockets are also positioned in a way I have never seen before and usually all uniforms issued by the government comes with the Norwegian flag sewn on the right sleeve, so this one is a strange one.

The Jacket is a direct copy of the British Tropical shirt but with larger buttons. The tag is blank and looks like nothing at all ever printed on it.

As far as i know and seen, i've never come across a replica Norway camo print, not even from China.
All i can guess is that the Norwegian Army contracted a British company to produce a prototype jacket/shirt , i may have that sample. I know the Danish Army produce clothing and equipment through British Contractors.

The M98 uniform is based on the M94 khaki uniform that was used only for a short periode of time. It’s basicly the same uniform, but in the same camo as the M75 field jackets. Most of the uniforms at that time were produced by Cato Ringstad and as you say this is maybe a British prototype that was never adopted.

Bravo_2_zero,

As far as i know and seen, i've never come across a replica Norway camo print, not even from China.

Tons of 'em In fact, I have one in my possession that I'll be getting rid of shortly. There's a number of Norwegian militaria shops online which sell "fake" stuff.

I've also seen a fair amount of "fake" stuff in various patterns made in British P84 (or later) cuts just like "fake" stuff made in BDU style. If you're a clothing maker the biggest investment you can make is in the patterns and training of your workforce. Different materials costs absolutely nothing other than the difference in the materials themselves. This is why a company like Sturm has a dozen different camouflage patterns right now in BDU cut. They get variety without the cost associated with having different cuts. So if you are a company set up to make British style stuff, for whatever reason, then swapping the cloth is easy.

If the material seems to be correct, there are a couple of different possibilities to consider. First and foremost is that China is a source for actual issue Norwegian items. Once China is thrown into the mix the old rules tend to go right out the window. Some extra cloth is either sold to another company or is manufactured by the contractor in some cut other than the Norwegian one (i.e. to avoid violating contract conditions). Happens all the time. A few weeks ago I sold off a couple of commercial Hungarian camouflage shirts made in Hungary by a Hungarian contractor using genuine cloth BUT in a cut that was never used by the Hungarian military. Or how about all of the bad early production CADPAT cloth that went to the two types of FRONTENAC uniforms.

My personal belief is that the Norwegians never would have done a 100% copy of a foreign cut uniform in official cloth, therefore it must be some sort of commercial item. Doesn't make it any less cool (especially at that ridiculously low price ), but it does (IMHO) take it out of the military sphere.

Steve