Claw Gear Combat Shirt In Coyote Brown

Operator7

30 May 2012

A Coyote Brown combat shirt is perhaps the most neutral shirt you’ll ever have. It provides some degree of concealment and at the same time will work great with most patterns and camos, allowing you to use it with various types of loadouts. I’ve seen people wearing tan shirts with Multicam loadouts and it works great.

At first I was a bit skeptical if this shirt would work with the A-TACS camo, but after I tested it with my A-TACS loadout I really think it combines quite well with this tactical camouflage too.

When Connor from Crypsis, one of our partners based in Canada sent me this shirt for review I must admit I didn’t have any products from Claw Gear before and the brand was pretty much unfamiliar to me. They produce tactical apparel, from trousers, jackets and shirts to patches.

So it seemed quite interesting to see how this shirt would perform on the field.

DESIGN AND MATERIALS

This shirt has some very interesting features that I quite liked to use:

It has integrated elbow pads that are made of foam and a very flexible plastic compound. These are inserted on the sleeve from the outside, and are secured by a couple of velcros. These can also be replaced quite easily once worn out.

The materials employed in the shirt are mainly 100% polyester Lycra, except on the sleeves.

The latter feature a 65/35 polycotton ripstop that is noticeably resistant and thick, and are reinforced in the elbow area.

I also liked the large Velcro panels and the panel covers they included. But I mostly appreciated the sleeve pockets which instead of being accessed from the top, have vertical YKK zippers on the sides.

At the armpits you’ll find a mesh material that is fundamental in the design to allow for normal ventilation of the upper torso.

One interesting detail was the two holes on the sleeves covered with a patch of ripstop material and secured with Velcro. These could be useful in case you want to run some communications wiring through there.

Further down, the cuffs have an interesting shape, since these are not your traditional cuffs. These have an extra bit of fabric that can be fixed by a small Velcro patch. They also have the normal Velcro that helps tighten the cuffs around the wrists.

COMFORT

Although the CoolMax Lycra is quite cool, it doesn’t have flame retardant properties, which generally shouldn’t make you worry, unless you plan to use this shirt near pyros or in real combat situations. So for Airsoft it’s quite ok. However, according to Claw Gear, they are designing new models with new patterns that use flame resistant material in case you need it.

I found that the CoolMax Lycra to be quite comfortable and cool, and it is able to wick most of the moisture away quite well, rather than absorbing it.

However, don’t expect this system to keep you totally dry, especially if you do sweat a lot like I do. It did help me a lot to eliminate most of the moisture and dry up quite fast once I remove my plate carrier.

The mesh panels on the armpits do their job as I could feel the ventilation they provided me during the game helping me to stay cool even though it has been very hot.

As for the vertical access pockets, I really enjoyed these because they are simple and fast to access and more silent than the Velcro ones. For me it’s great to quickly store my smartphone and access it whenever I need with just one hand.

Moving on to the elbow pads, these are very comfortable and indeed represent a welcome addition to this shirt since they provide added comfort, support and protection. But they can make more difficult rolling up the sleeves due to the added fabric material that holds the elbow pads in place.

The collar once fully closed helps in protecting your neck from BBs fired at you, and it’s also nice to have the zipper that allows lowering the collar which is a feature I tend to use a lot on hot days.

DURABILITY

The shirt copes well with the roughness of an airsoft game. The only thing I can point is that the rubbing of my plate carrier against the shirt does tend to wear the Lycra a little more than you would see on a cotton shirt.

This is however not a big deal and it doesn’t mean it’s going to rip away since it’sgot remarkably flexible fibers. But it’s something I noticed after a few days of use and it has to do with the Lycra material that is used on the shirt.

The rest of the shirt is pretty much flawless, the stiches are solid, and the ripstop material is of very good quality as well as the Velcros and the YKK zippers.

CONCLUSION

Taking into account all of the nice features it has and the overall quality of this shirt I must say that 39$ (around 31€) at Crypsis is a bargain for a shirt this cool and well-made. It’s also perfect for summer since it helps you to keep cool and dry. So if you’re looking for a neutral shirt that will look good with most camos out there, this one is a great solution.

Claw Gear is now on my list of tactical apparel brands and I sure hope they continue to innovate and bring out new and improved products that will surely receive attention by airsoft players.

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