Hello! I am a designer of tactical/military gear from Splav company. If you have questions about splav's gear and apperel, feel free to ask (exept questions like "how to buy"). I have a polish-russian online translator but it works like crap, so if it is not too hard for you please write in english or russian.

Приветствую! Я работаю дизайнером тактического/военного снаряжения в компании Сплав. Если у вас есть вопросы об экипировке и обмундировании от Сплава, вы можете задавать мне вопросы (кроме вопросов приобретении продукции). У меня есть онлайн-переводчик с польского на русский, но он плохо работает. Если вам не сложно, пожалуйста пишите на английском или русском.

Hello, great to see you here! SPLAV is a well known company in Poland and we do appreciate your contact.

Maybe one day SPLAV will make an option for foreigner clients to buy in your shop by internet. This would help us buying SPLAV products, that have a great reputation among us. That is my small dream. :)

Best regards

Plate carriers are not popular, exept maybe among some elite special forces with big money. Common russian military are poor and wouldnt afford such a gear. For example, SSO is manufacturer focused on common military, so they save money on fabrics and hardware (right now they begin to produce more expensive line of gear, like using Cordura instead of Polyester, Polartec fabrics etc). The most high-tech gear company is Korpus Vizhivanya (Survival Corps), and expensive too. They produce gear for special forces and they have a plate carriers. Also note that it is not only too expensive, but also russians like obsolete gear, webbing is still popular, armor is considered too heavy and hot etc. Splav is different from other companies because it doesnt have any goverment contracts, it is 100% retail. Few years ago Splav was a low budged gear company, but then it began to develop a wider range of gear. Right now we have a low-budget gear like "Bekas" and M21 and some modern things like pouches made of Cordura and Duraflex buckles, BDU and ACU replicas made of NYCO fabric and a lot more. Of course we wish to produce some plate carriers but we have to fill some gaps first, with some simplier gear that we still dont have. For example right now we are finishing a MOLLE chestrig, then we will make a new mesh MOLLE vest, and only then we can think about such an expensive thing as plate carrier.

And by the way "Alpha Spetssnaryazhenye" that is so advertised on this site is extremly cheap piece of crap. They got tender for making pseudo-multicam gear for FSB only because of low price - our goverment always save a lot of money on soldiers. Even SSO stops to make gear of Polyester and russian made plastic harware.

Mail: STEPAN1983@yandex.ru

Были небольшие тендеры (государственные контракты). Но в основном военные закупают вещи в частном порядке. У меня на работе коллеги шутят: "тендер - ругательное слово" :)

Hello.
I have a question about russian modern camos, which are based on western patterns. What is the reason of making such a stuff? I mean mostly things like Skol/Izlom, Smog, US Woodland based camos etc. Does the Russians are making them just because that camoflages are good in their enviornment? Or your spec-ops want to have some similar to the western patterns in case of diversionary tasks on western territories?

Please, do not take my post as an some kind of attack. I dont want to offend you, I am just curious.
Thanks a lot for respond

It's strange. For me russian camos look cool and are very useful, especially in our terrain and nature (Middle and East Europe).

:D By the way guys from SSO say (in russian forums) that this pattern is not effective, and how stupid it was to adopt WW2 era nazi pattern. The story behind this was funny - thy made suits for one WW2 movie and some fabric left, and there was some guy is SSO - a retro collectioner. So they made suits based on SS anoraks with this pattern, and it became popular. Russians are crazy fans of everything german. Even soviet "gorkas" are based on SS mountain anoraks, and "Mabuta" design is inspired by east german airborn suit :)

Flectarn-D, with "n" on the end, not "Flectar"

Thanks for response. I have another question- in fact, it should be adressed to the russian soldiers, but maybe you will know the answer. I've seen a lot of photos of russian modern army, and i've spotted one thing- there is almost no boonie hats. Soldiers are wearing kepi, patrol caps or helmets. Im somekind surprised because in Poland, and in NATO armies as well, boonies are popular when boys are doing "green tactic". Soviets had an Panama hat during fights in Afghanistan and after that I cant see wider use of hats in army. What is a reason of such a state of things?