We got a note from Crye Precision clarifying the controversy over the uniform sizing snafus for the Australian SAS that we wrote about last week.
According to a senior company official, Crye had nothing to do with the purchase of the uniforms for the SAS that were mis-sized. This was apparently done by the third party and Crye simply provided the uniforms they'd been asked for.
But our source also gave us some good gouge on how things are going with the much larger order of about 5,000 MultiCam combat uniforms -- we're told they are the brand new G3 model and that they were fully delivered to the Australian MOD by the end of February (sorry US customers)...Our source tells us:
In my experience, they have taken a great deal of care in every aspect of the procurement process. They have been extremely thorough and when it comes to sizing, they have ordered a far wider variety than most customers…14 sizes of shirt (out of our stock 28 size options) and 24 sizes of pants (out of our stock 40 size options). Many customers will only choose a fraction of that but the MOD has taken time to be more selective and, in turn, will most likely benefit from our more tailored sizing offerings.
Crye has also left open the door for small runs of custom sizes for those odd shaped blokes and Sheilas. But suffice to say, the company itself claims they didn't cause the "cock up."
Hope this helps clear things up with those who're wondering whether the MOD screwed up and also why the supply chain for G3 uniforms might have been jammed up.
