5.11 TDU Pants In Multicam

Operator7

20 Aug 2012

The TDU, or Tactical Dress Uniform (TDU) pants from 5.11 are the new standard and the replacement for the old BDU's (Battle Dress Uniforms). This consists of a series of improvements made with direct feedback from law enforcement and special operations teams in the field, who made design change suggestions and wear testing. The result is so good that when questioned some of these professionals refused to go back using the classic BDUs.

With the addition of the 5.11 TDU Pants in Multicam, I now have my Multicam loadout almost complete and I can tell you that the choice of the 5.11 brand for the pants wasn’t random.

I had already reviewed their Combat Shirt and liked it with the verdict that was so good it made me want to have the whole set from the same brand. And believe me, I wasn’t disappointed by my choice as you’ll see in this review.

I would like to thank Military1st for setting me up with these pants for the review.

CONCEALMENT

Proven to be one of the best multi-environmental concealment camo pattern, the multicam camo agrees with most of the terrains I’ve been on. According to the brand, this pattern also helps hide the user in various seasons of the year, elevations and light conditions. So I believe it’s safe to assume that this is one of the most universal camos that will work well across most continents on earth.

When buying any product from 5.11’s Multicam range, you are getting true Crye Precision Multicam pattern.

So, when you mix it with different products also in Crye Precision Multicam, such as the ArcTeryx Riggers belt or the Pantac radio pouch you see on my loadout, not only you’ll get a perfect match as you’ll also get a more effective concealment.

Of course, if you, like me, have the Multicam fever you’ll also want to get it because it’s one of the coolest camos out there!

QUALITY, FEATURES AND COMFORT

I’ve been wearing these pants for a while now and they’ve had to cope with me going out to the field almost every Sunday in the past two months and being washed at least twice.

So I now have a pretty much educated opinion about these pants that I want to share with you:

First things first, putting them on is the first you do, so I have to say that I just love the Prym® snap and YKK® zipper. They really allow me to dress up real fast, and are faster to operate when nature calls!

When putting them on I noticed that the waist adapted itself to my size which is unique and awesome. This happens because of the self-adjusting waist which is great to have since it will provide you best fit possible of the pants on your waist and I also noticed that as I moved along and changed positions it would adapt to my body movements.

Now this makes wearing these pants a very comfortable experience, since instead of having like with other pants, a strap that is inflexible once it is in tension and that has a smaller contact area, that if too tight can be very uncomfortable, you have a wide elastic band, and extra fabric that stretches so that pants will adapt to your waist!

This is by far my favorite feature on these pants, on a pair with the Multicam pattern of course! It seems almost like science fiction, and is quite illustrative of how 5.11 is in front of the pack when it comes to innovation.

Another cool feature is the Teflon coating, which not only helps the fabric to better resist stains and soil. During my initial research about these pants I took a look at the video from 5.11 where they poured water unto the pants and the water isn’t absorbed. So I wanted to see if I could get the same effect and as you can see from the video I made the water is repelled by the molecular barriers that are the fibers. The result is what you see: liquids just roll on the fabric and are easily wicked away.

This not only offers greater durability for the fabric and colors, but it also helps water from getting inside forming a barrier and thus maintaining the operator dry and comfortable.

On the field, the pants feel very comfortable providing me with the free play needed to adopt the positions I want such as prone, running or even jumping obstacles. It didn’t prevent my legs from moving freely and offered me protection from thorns, rocks and others elements.

As for quality, these pants are also filled with great features:

Starting with the side pockets and the belt loops, they have all been reinforced with bartacks on the stress points to cope with carrying extra load such as belts with holsters, flashlights, radios, etc.

The side pockets come with a main compartment, and two extra compartments inside, especially designed to take 30 round AR mags.

Now one of the things I liked about how these pockets close is that 5.11 didn’t choose to use a large Velcro hook and loop band on each pocket, instead they placed two small patches of Velcro on each side, making it easier to open and close, and much more silent.

In terms of compartments, there are also two hook and loop closure pockets on the back, and seat area and knee are both reinforced with an extra layer of fabric.

In the knees there is also a pocket for inserting neoprene kneepad s just like these 5.11 Kneepads.

The 5.11 TDU pants also come with removable blousing straps, so you can blouse your pants over your boots if you want to.

As for the fabric, it’s made out of cotton and polyester and it’s by far one of the best I have come across with, perhaps even better than the one on the Rapid Assault Shirt since it has 7-oz ripstop.

This fabric isn’t much heavier than other similar fabrics, and it seems very tough, but malleable and quite resistant to abrasion and cuts. I can tell you they already withstood quite some abuse in the field and are still looking just as good as new, even after a few washes.

CONCLUSION

I couldn’t be more satisfied with the overall performance of these pants. I can honestly say that these are the most comfortable military pants I have ever used, and at the same time one of the toughest too.

I had already reviewed their Combat Shirt and liked it with the verdict being so good it made me want to have the whole set from the same brand. And believe me I wasn’t disappointed by my choice as you’ll see in this review.

So, when you mix it with different products also in Crye Precision Multicam, such as the ArcTeryx Riggers Belt or the Pantac radio pouch you see on my loadout, not only you’ll get a perfect match as you’ll also get a more effective concealment

If you need a good solid and trustworthy pair of pants to take to the field or go hiking or on some outdoor activity, I highly recommend the 5.11 TDU pants in Multicam or in any of the other six colors available from 5.11.

Pros