“Professional Storm Weather Protector”
With the P1G-Tac PSWP Suit I got to test a quite unusual piece of clothing. Unusual, because in our region you’ve probably never heard of the company, the camo or the concept of the suit.
Looking for the German version of this review? Click here.
In the deep dark vastnesses of the Internet I hear someone typing into his keyboard: “Aaah, that’s just another clone!” I hear ya, but what at first sight looks like a clone from Köhler and other known companies is actually a quite unique product. P1G-Tac did take the concept of the classic “Smock” and enhanced it further.
The PSWP suit is a mixture of a combat uniform and weather protection clothing (also known as “Third Layer”). They took the concept of the Russian Gorka suit and mixed it with modern materials. The idea behind the suit may have been to create a durable combat uniform mixed with water repellent and windproof properties without having to wear both a second and third layer.
As far as I could read in the article description, the PSWP suit is intended to be worn in transitional seasons where unstable weather conditions are likely to be present. To be clear, the PSWP suit is not meant to be a waterproof rain suit.
So let’s star with a short introduction on the manufacturer, the company “P1G-Tac”:
If you’re looking for an English description, you wont find any on the company’s website. So we have to use our good old friend: Google Translate
“The new Ukrainian brand P1G-TAC® field gear is for members of special units and the military, as well as the range of Outdoor Clothing for sportsmen, fishermen and hunters. The motto of the brand – “And one soldier in the field …”, says that everyone who uses products from P1G-TAC® can challenge even the most difficult environmental conditions and to emerge victorious.” 1
The Camo
You may ask yourself what camo that is. The first time we saw the camo was when we came across a post on Facebook where a tv station had filmed some Ukrainian special forces. After asking our fans on Facebook we were able to track down the camo:
Jaba Camo, a camo pattern the company P1G-Tac developed in 2012. The name “Jaba” means “toad”. The autumn variation of the camo is called “Jaba Prairie” and this is the camo our PSWP Suit is made of.
Watch an introduction to the Jaba camo on Youtube:
You’ll find a more detailed comparison with other camos here.
The Suit
The suit is packed in a bag made out of polyester netting like many of the russion SPOSN suits. Nothing special, nice to have because you can use it to store other things in it.
The PSWP suit is made out of 65% cotton and 35% polyester and is coated with a water repelling treatment. The lable says “IR non-reflective” but we can’t test this as we don’t have NVGs or IR filter available at the moment.
The black canvas on th inside is a “waterproof and breathable” liner from Reissa, a Korean company. The company and the membrane is widely unknown and I could only find a few bike jackets and pants on Ebay that use these liners inside.
I was quite skeptical and my initial thougt was: “If I can’t find any info on the internet, how is this thing even supposed to work?”
Simply looking at it won’t make my any smarter – so I decided to go straitly into my shower to see how the Reissa membrane is going to deal with this extreme situation.
The result was quite surprising. After 10 minutes of heavy, constant rain I felt like a Persian carpet, because the heavy NyCo fabrics absorbs a huge amount of water. Nevertheless, the membrane managed to keep me completely dry in most places.
A few areas where I got some wet spots on my pants and shirt due to the fact that things like the YKK zippers aren’t waterproof.
Sadly, the shower test did show a few weak spots in the design itself. Although the Reissa membrane keeps the water out, the heavy NyCo fabric doesn’t want the let it go back either and it keeps floating around inside your pants between the membrane and the NyCo fabric. The result: a hydration bladder inside your pants.
The Jacket
The jacket / the Smock features 8 pockets in total on the front. 4 large outer pockets with Canadian style slotted buttons with overlapping flaps to prevent items from falling out. The Reissa membrane is sewn to the inside of those pockets to keep your stuff dry. In addition to the 4 outer pockets there are also 4 internal pockets which can be accessed via YKK zippers. Those pockets are right between the 2 upper outer pockets and on either the left or the right side of the lower outer pockets (check the detailed photos).
Further details are the 2 patch areas for name tags on the chest, 2 patch areas for unit- or morale patches on the upper arm, which can be protected with Velcro covers. Underneath those patch areas are two internal pockets, which can be accessed via small YKK zippers.
The 2-way main zipper, covered by a ledge for some level of wind and water protection, is quite solid and should last with no worries at all. A flap to mount your rank insignias can be found on on top of that ledge too.
The lower arm portion of the jacket has slide-in pockets for your elbow pads. In the hip area and on the lower end of the jacket are pull cords, which loose ends are quite long and if you don’t want to knot them together, they’ll just hang down the jacket.
The fact that these loose ends are just hanging down is annoying – an elegant solution to this problem wouldn’t have been that hard to find I think. The best solution would have been to route the pull cords on th inside of the jacket in my opinion.
The hood is quite big and has a Velcro based adjustment system on the backside to narrow it down. The hood is probably designed to fit over a helmet, wether it’s a ballistic helmet or a bump helmet. For a regular head it would be way too big. The inside of the hood is completely covered with the Reissa membrane.
The collar of the PSWP Smock reaches all the way up to your mouth and feels quite tight, which can cause a restrictive feeling sometimes. That’s why I had it closed just about two thirds most of the time.
The hood features a metal wire on the brim which helps you shape the hood/brim to fit your needs. The wire is on the weaker side and looses its shape over time.
The backside of the jacket is clean, has no pockets at all which is quite unusual for a jacket of this type.
The Pant
Let’s take a look at the pants. At first sight they look quite familiar – big pockets on the tights which can be strapped down with bands is a common design feature with this type of suit.
The tight pockets feature an elastic band to tighten down the opening of the pocket as it has no overlapping flap like the chest pockets have.
The butt area is reinforced with additional layers of cloth, the knee area features a slide-in pocket for your knee pads. The inside of the pant is also covered with the Reissa liner.
What I’m missing here are some sort of gaiters to keep mud, dirt or snow out of the pants and shoes. That would have made sense considering the pant is meant to be a third layer / weather protection.
The belt loops are about 6cm wide and fit most tactical belts. My custom built belt from GSK Tactical fits nicely.
The Suit in Use
Considering I’m just 175cm tall, I usually have problems finding pants that aren’t too long. The P1G-Tac PSWP suit in size M fits astonishing well. The jacket is a little bit on the wider side, although can be widely adjusted by using the pull cords on the hip and on the lower end if you are wearing not that much underneath.
The NyCo fabric is a little bit stiff and can sometimes create a “immobile” feeling. After getting used to it the suit feels quite comfortable. I was mostly hiking in the snowy, mountainous areas of the Tyrolean Lowlands.
When using proper first layers (compression shirt and pants), a fleece shirt and a thin softshell pant the PSWP suit keeps you warm even in light minus temperatures (Celsius). Actually a little bit too warm.
The Reissa membrane should actually be breathable but it seems that the combination the the membrane and the thick NyCo fabric doesn’t really work that well. The moisture goes through the membrane but doesn’t make it trough the outer fabric and gets stuck on the inside.
Ok, considering the price point of just about 130€ you can easily turn an eye to the breathability of the membrane. If the outer layer was thinner it probably would work.
What I would like to mention is, that the P1G-Tac suit can get very heavy when wet. The thick fabric absorbs a huge amount of water. When wet, the suit need its time to dry completely depending on the temperature. That can be annoying when you’re using the PSWP suit in a Milsim game and the suit won’t dry until the next day.
Final Thoughts
P1G-Tac delivers a well made and well conceived combat suit for nearly all seasons. The concept works although has its issues.
The breathability is nearly not present and the heat piles up on the inside. In transitional seasons like autumn and spring that’s not really a bad thing.
In the winter times the suit keeps you quite warm when wearing the right base layers, even in low temperatures.
For approximately 130€, the P1G-Tac PSWP is a second/third layer where the value-for-money ratio is pretty good. For those of you that want to get an all waterproof suit, better keep an eye on those Gore-Tex (or similar textiles) suits.
Giveaway
P1G-Tac was kind enough to ship a Boonie hat and a few patches with the suit which we are giving away now. Follow this link to the giveaway!
Connect with P1G-Tac
You can buy the PSWP Suit at Prof1 Group.
