US Military surplus BDUs
UnderArmor wick-away T-shirt
Marker Setup:
Tippman A-5
-Dye ExCel barrel
-coiled remote
Strengths:
Lightweight, breathes well
Weaknesses:
Camo colors are off slightly, and a bit too "intense"
Review:
When it gets to be June, July and August in Sacramento, the temperature climbs to 105 and up out at the field, and my buddies and I look for anything- ANYTHING- to reduce the slogging, painful delirium of the heat. We play woodsball, and so need something that won't snag on brush or let said brush poke us in soft spots (and since we're all over 30 and not consistently all that active, most of our bodies are "soft spots").
My buddy bought this jersey as a test case. I was dubious. The colors are mostly accurate to US Army digital, but they're move vibrant than the real thing, and even after a couple of washes, his jersey hadn't faded out at all, which was a downside.
He wore it on a group trip to the field, and raved about it. He totally forgot about the color issue, and couldn't say enough good things about the jersey. Interestingly, the mesh actually encourages more aggressive play, because when you're moving, air flow through the material increases. He's usually a devious, not to say vicious, defense player, so seeing him playing mobile offense was a clear indication something was up. He loved the jersey and kept telling the rest of us (in our BDUs) that we were fools. We nodded at him like he was crazy ('cause usually he is), gulped our Gatorade, and thought nothing more of it.
I headed out to the field last weekend with another buddy, and borrowed the magic jersey. I played the first couple of games in my old BDUs and an UnderArmor T-shirt. When it got up to over 100, I decided the heavy cotton was getting old, and put on the SpecOps jersey.
The difference was immediately obvious. Even though the jersey was about 2 sizes too big for me (I'm 5'6" and my buddy is 6'1"), every time I moved I could feel air across my body. I played three more games that afternoon, and played them aggressively, and loved the fact that I didn't feel about to stifle in my own heat cloud. I'm buying one of these bad boys out of my next paycheck (in a size closer to my own, naturally).
Conclusion:
Ten of ten. This jersey manages to breathe without sacrificing durability or creating a risk of snags.
