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The Crye Combat Shirt is desighned to be worn under a combat vest, and as such is made mostly out of a microfiber/ under armour type cloth which would shred easily in the woods without protection. If you're a pod-pack player, stop reading here. This is not for you.
When I got home, I took it back out of its packaging and installed the elbow pads. This was a bit difficult, as the pad is slightly too large for the pad hole, but most of the pad is made out of foam, so I eventually managed to shove them into place. When I put it on, I found it a bit hard to get through, but when I had put it completely on I found it to fit quite nicely, though it feels slightly tighter than UA compression gear(which turns out to be a good thing.. I'm about 5'10", 145lbs. I dont have any fat on me, but I have little muscle either.(working on that
) The Medium Long size fits me perfectly.I then took out my vest and tried out the fit. the first thing I noticed was that I needed to adjust the sizing! The combat shirt is much thinner than your average BDU, and as such you may experience more shifting of your vest than usual. Other than that, there was no problem in shifting from the field shirt to the combat shirt. The arm pockets were bigger than I thought they were, almost the same size as a standard BDU pocket. I did notice it felt slightly cooler than usual under my vest, and I think I have the microfiber body to thank for that. The arm fabric is made of MIL-PRF-MCCUU 50% Nylon 50% Cotton lightweight twill sleeves, and the elbow covering is double stitched to provide extra protection. The cuff has a unique shape, where the palm side is slightly shorter than the opposite side, so that the shirt and your hand kind of meld together. It closes with velcro, and opens up almost all the way to your elbow, to aid in the adjustment of the pads (more on that later), but can also facilitate cooling on hot days. The Garment istself is very light, and feels somewhere between UA Coldgear and a MilSpec BDU.
See the empty space?
Image of the cuff fully open.
One thing I was really eager to test out were the elbow pads. I put on my pb kneepads over my jeans, and went from coruched to prone slowly. When I noticed some slight shifting, I undid the molded cuff and reached into the sleve to adjust the elbow pad. The elbow pad stays in the sleeve by attaching to some super strong velcro, and attaches to your forearm via an elastic band. I tightened the pads and tried again, this time they worked perfectly. The cap sections of the pads are slightly rubberized, while the rest of the pad is made of a bendable foam. This allows a lot of venting to go on on your shirt, and I didn't notice excessive sweating from my elbow to my arm.
The elbow pads work REALLY well.
Notice the cuff opening extends down to the elbow.
By the way, any GRAW fans out there should be forewarned not to try Captain Mitchell's superman dive. Yes, I tried this, and though the elbow pads kept in place and kept me safe, doing a dive on concrete is not a pleasurable experience. However, on grass and mud, you will hardly feel a thing, and I encourage you to re-enact your favorite graw scenes there. Back to the review.
Big no-no on concrete
I took my Combat shirt into its initation game at our outlaw field, "nowhere" on Thursday. Though it was about 90 degrees outside, I could feel it keeping me cool all day. I never hesitated to jump down to prone, something I would have only done slowly on dirt or leaves before. I even got one of my three kills first game in the prone position (a gog shot, no less) a testament to the camouflage's effectiveness and the shirt's effectiveness itself.
Goes prone and blends really well
I really can't think of anything bad to say about this shirt, except for the high price, and that you can't wear it without a covering(ie; vest). I only bought it because my friend offered me a steal of a deal. Nobody NEEDS a $115 shirt for paintball, and you can find a cheaper multicam set elsewhere, though you will sacrifice a little quality. However, if you absolutely MUST have a set from crye, I reccommend buying the combat shirt over the field shirt, as it exceeds its field cousin in just about every way. Besides, any shirt that was built for soldiers whose lives depend on their gear easily stands up to any rigor that paintball can throw at it.
You can get cheaper multicam, and cheaper elbow pads, but as an all inclusive package, this beats out any combination of items you can buy.
A really good buy, though it would have been too expensive for me in another case.
This post has been edited by Mace203: 18 July 2007 - 11:46 PM
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