KIT & GEAR FIRST TACTICAL DEFENDER
BILL HAS BEEN WORKING CLOSELY WITH US BRAND FIRST TACTICAL (FT) SINCE THEY LAUNCHED IN EUROPE AS WELL AS IN AMERICA AND NOW BOYCIE HAS JOINED HIM AS A BIG FAN OF THE BRAND. SINCE FT APPEARED THEY’VE GONE FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH AND THE ADOPTION OF THEIR DEFENDER SERIES SHIRT AND PANT BY A NUMBER OF UK POLICE FIREARM UNITS TAKES WHAT THEY OFFER TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL!
B
ill: It’s really edifying when you support a brand that enters the market and within just a couple of years you see them gaining great plaudits from reviewers and users alike, including professionals who use the gear “at work”. I’ve been very fortunate to have met the First Tactical Team in person a good few times now and they are super people that are intent on delivering the very best tactical kit and clothing that they possibly can. Having now worn their excellent Defender clothing for some time, it’s also great to see others in the AA team discovering it, so I’ll hand over to Boycie for his “take” on their Defender clothing! Boycie: One of the things I find in airsoft, especially online, is the snobbery around “replica” and “real deal” clothing and equipment. But is there really a need for “real deal” in airsoft? We all have different budgets available to use for the kit we need for skirmishing and MilSims. At the end of the day we are all slinging BBs at each other and numerous times I’ve seen “rentals” out playing on site when they take out a group of “elite” players. What really is nice to see is when those “elite” players in their thousands of pounds of kit, approach the “rental” and say “well done mate!” There are a large number of players who spend a lot of time researching a specific “loadout” that they have seen in photos of Military and Police operations.
Accuracy, for them, is very important and it’s this that can lead them to spend hundreds of pounds on just one part of the gear, for example, combat trousers that can cost £400-£500 a pair! While there are a lot of manufacturers in the Far East who make some great replicas, which are more suited to the lower budgets of some players, there are pros and cons to each side. Through “Lockdown” I’ve been looking more at the kit I have and thinking “Do I really need all this really expensive kit?” I’ve decided that I’m not worried about building a specific multicam “loadout”, so I’m going down the more generic “look”. The main thing that I am not changing is my C2R Lite body armour but the “uniform” is going to change. Out with the old… My “old” kit is Crye G3 trousers and a Massif UBAC shirt. Whilst comfortable, for a lot of players they can’t help having in their mind that if kit gets damaged it will cost a small fortune to replace. For some players with a large budget, this will not be as much of a problem. In with the new… I’ve been using First Tactical Defender clothing, in black, as a “work” and company uniform for two years now and find it really comfortable and functional; not only that but it is very cost effective when you compare it to things like Crye™. This is the same type of clothing that 27 of the 43
“THE FINISHING IS OF THE VERY HIGHEST STANDARD AND IS ABSOLUTELY IMPECCABLE! NOT ONLY ARE THE FABRICS THEMSELVES DESIGNED FOR EXTENDED DURABILITY BUT THE WAY IN WHICH THEY ARE PUT TOGETHER AND COMBINED HAS SHOWN ME THAT THIS IS GEAR THAT WILL TAKE ALL YOU CAN THROW AT IT AND COME BACK LAUGHING!”
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JULY 2021
