Poor Quality Uniform

[silverspring]

Just how cheap can RM be?

I knew there was something up with the quality of recent garment... they get dirty very quickly and fade, so just put a polo shirt in the bath with some lukewarm water and can't believe that the water has turned red! It seems the polo shirts are dyed. I was expecting the water to turn brown! A washing machine will be even harsher on them. And the pants rip at the knee area very quickly. Have RM clothing always been this poor quality or has the quality suddenly turned for the worse? This clothing is from a recent order.

[enzio1272]

The old blue uniform was excellent but that was years ago

[clockshopman]

All of the current uniform seems to come out of the same sweat shop that make the primark garments, really cheap looking/feeling, and fall apart after a handful of washes. Great durability factor for these trendy new 15 mile days they’ve got people doing!

[ted_e_bear]

Yes it's shite, what particularly annoys me is how strict it is regards to shoes/trainers, surely these cost them a maximum of £20 or so, if not they seriously need to up their game when it comes to sourcing footwear.

[Mr Rush]

Whilst I've never liked the 2010's red uniform and I absolutely despise the current one, even before Dimensions took over in 2008 some of the blue uniform was known to be poor - I'm mainly thinking of the 2005(?) fleece which had issues and the trousers which infamously turned purple after the first wash.

And now that I have an excuse, let me info dump some research. Skip to the end for me to get to the point.

The 1985 uniform is still available today because it was sourced from the same companies that manufactured the RAF's new 1985 uniform, slightly altered with red piping.

• Ben Sherman makes the shirts and Henry Bannerman is/was a secondary supplier. The original variant of the shirts with the epaulettes betray this origin more clearly than the later revision. Based on some early depictions of the uniform I believe the intention was to have rank slips replace the old PHG crown badges worn on the lapel (see here, second from right in 1975 photo), which themselves were very close to the badges warrant officers wear in the army.
• The v-neck woolly pullovers are basic NATO pattern made by Remploy, primarily, and TW Kempton. Previously the RAF used a crew-neck jumper. Original versions of these also featured epaulettes.
• Raencrest made the trousers.

You can find mention of the above companies on militaria forums, and if you search for military surplus you'll find lots of Ben Sherman shirts and Remploy jumpers. I suspect but have not confirmed yet that the thermal jacket was sourced from an existing field jacket in use with the army. The protoype Harrington from 1995 is not too far removed from an RAF blouson of the era. The sleveeless pullover introduced in 1991 seems to have a more civil origin - I've seen the exact same used by BT and British Airways from the same time period. Isle of Man Post Office were still rocking those jumpers as late as 2018.

If you go back to the 70s and earlier it was almost all made by James Smith & Co (Derby), as was almost every uniform for every profession in the country until they went out of business in 1986 (I theorise that the straight up cribbing of the RAF uniform was due to them going under right as RM wanted to replace the 1970 grey suits). Eventually all the other domestic textile manufacturers met the same fate by the mid 2000s. Of the peaked cap manufacturers (J. Compton Sons & Webb, Try & Lilly (Liverpool), Tower Uniform Head Dress, Grantham), those that still exist survive solely on military contracts.

tldr; we could have the 90s blues back with adjustments like combat trousers. The current crap is by choice.