I originally had posted this in the Armory, but now that I know bout the Industry section it seemed only proper for a review of SKD's gear to be posted under their respective section.

To preface this, it's my first real gear review and I am not an "operator" or any other such term synonymous with professional badass. I buy this stuff for SHTF preparation, training, and frankly because it's cool stuff. So while I will do my best to be fair and honest, I come from a background with no real-world experience or hard use, and I won't pretend like I know what it's like to get shot at or blown up in this gear.

I'm comparing my new PIG Bridandine plate carrier against my old Diamondback Tactical (or Battlelab, I suppose) Fast Attack Plate Carrier, first-gen model. Both are size large claim to be sized appropriately for SAPI-cut plates, and both are in Multicam (because all the cool kids wear it). I've had the FAPC for about two years now, and I've always liked it for having a really low "nylon-to-armor" ratio, as I call it. It holds plates, and doesn't have a lot of excess shit getting in the way like some carriers or vests do. Back when I made the purchase, I had an OTV carrier, Condor plate carrier, and a vest from Beez Combat to compare to, and the FAPC won out for being light and holding the plates comfortably and snugly.

So to start, here's me playing dress-up with the new carrier. It fits VERY nicely, hugs the torso like your life depends on it (which for many people it does). I have greater freedom of movement around the shoulders, where the FAPC has padded straps the Brig only has nylon webbing and doesn't encroach on the shoulder rotation nearly as much. The plates have absolutely NO play in them, as will be discussed further down, and the cummerbund holds it all very securely while still allowing enough stretch for comfortable, un-labored breathing. IF you look closely, you can see three slots on each side, where presumably one can attach a chest rig when they begin production at a later date. When I ordered the carrier, I also got a "Load Integration Kit", to attach a small chest rig that I had on the FAPC, but that didn't work out so well. This is my only complaint about the Brig - these slots have almost no impact on the carrier design that I can see, so I think having more than three to allow for more options would be a good idea. In my case, the LIK holds my plate carrier about halfway off the bottom of the carrier, as shown in the fourth and fifth images below.







Here is the Brig with my chest panel, I had it made by the good folks at Tactical Tailor for my FAPC. The idea was that I could mount pouches to it, and it would attach to the carrier with the front velcro and a pair of fastex buckles, so I could ditch the load and keep the armor. Worked well on the FAPC, not so much on the Brig. If there were more attachment points higher up on the front plate, it looks like it would have been feasible, albeit with a long attachment strap on each side.





Here are the two carriers side-by-side. The FAPC has a Camelbak on it, which isn't going on the Brig for two reasons - lack of attachment method, and a desire to keep it as slim as possible. I hope SKD comes out with a slim hydration option designed specifically for the Brig carrier at some point. Also, it would seem that DBT saw fit to not use MC webbing and velcro (or maybe it just wasn't available two years ago), instead going for the tan.



Here is a closeup showing the shoulder strap difference. The FAPC has padded "wings" on the shoulder strap, which do make it a little more comfy for standing still, but also add bulk. I like the Brig's plain webbing approach, leaving the style of shoulder strap up to the user through the attachment of separate pads or ballistic shoulders. Also, notice that the Brig shoulder straps are positioned slightly more inward on the plate - I'm torn on this one; On the one hand, I do have much greater freedom of rotation in the shoulder, but it does seem to dig into the neck a bit. This is probably not an issue if you're wearing one of those combat shirts with the mandarin collar.



Here I've put the front plate pocket of the Brig on top of the one for the FAPC, to show the difference in sizing (you can alo see the shoulder differences pretty clearly). The FAPC extend almost a full inch below the bottom of the Brig, which caused my plates to sag as shown below. My solution was to cut a foam spacer and put it in after the plate, to push it to the top of the pocket. No need with the Brig, it is sized EXACTLY for the plates and fits like a glove with no sagging or shifting.









And as a completely irrelevant fun point, I can store the Brig very compactly and without disassembling anything by twisting the front plate around and nestling it inside the back one, and using the cummerbund to hold it all together in a package the size of a large laptop. Kind of nice.

PIG BRIG Shoulder pads & AFC Pontoon Set are now out!!

SOS