Where can I buy the stretch material in Crye’s G3 pants?

I’m looking for the fabric used around the knee pads, in the small of the back, and in the crotch.  I know its 4-way stretch fabric.

I’m not interested in generic 4-way stretch fabric, I’m looking for THE material that Crye uses in their G3 pants.

I’ve heard it is Duro’s “Beaver” fabric, but I only see that available in multicam.  I’m trying to find it in Coyote Brown.

Thanks



I’m going with coyote Tweave Durastretch for the stretch panels on the knee/crotch/small-of-the-back.

Here’s the deal; I had a guy I was talking to a couple months ago about sewing me up some custom G3 pants in MARPAT Woodland.  

Long story short, the deal fell through due to personal developments in his life.  With parted on good terms, everyone is happy.

However, I still want to pursue this project.  I have about 5-8 yards of Woodland MARPAT fabric and about 1.5 yards of Coyote Durastretch.  I do not have the velcro, thread, zippers, and other materials needed to complete the project.

Does anyone here have, or know someone who has the expertise to complete this project?

Obviously I know this is going to cost me, but I’d hope it’s nothing too crazy since I’m supplying around 80% of the materials.





ETA:

I got 'em.



I managed to find a friend of a friend who did me a solid and built a pattern for a custom set.  He has done the work before and knew exactly what I was after.  The pair I have fit exactly like my G3s from Crye.

I think it might be Tweave dura stretch material. Beaver is probably just the name Duro uses.

See, that’s what I thought.

But I bought some Tweave Durastretch in Coyote and compared it to the stretch panels on my Khaki G3s, and the materials are definitely different.

The material on the G3 pants is stretchier than the tweave.

You know what I'm willing to bet that they source the fabric from schoeller.

Crye's soft shell jacket, I believe, is made out of beaver and it has a nanosphere coating over it which is a product of schoeller. I doubt Crye would go through the trouble of applying it to the fabric or jacket before or after its made so chances are that its pre coated from the supplier.

Also a quick look shows they have a material that specifies either a 2 way or 4 way stretch, exactly like the beaver fabric on the Duro sight.

Screw it, I’m gonna go with the tweave.  Topic change time.

Here’s the deal; I had a guy I was talking to a couple months ago about sewing me up some custom G3 pants in MARPAT Woodland.  

Long story short, the deal fell through due to personal developments in his life.  With parted on good terms, everyone is happy.

However, I still want to pursue this project.  I have about 5-8 yards of Woodland MARPAT fabric and about 1.5 yards of Coyote Durastretch.  I do not have the velcro, thread, zippers, and other materials needed to complete the project.

Does anyone here have, or know someone who has the expertise to complete this project?

Obviously I know this is going to cost me, but I’d hope it’s nothing too crazy since I’m supplying around 80% of the materials.

While 80% of the material may be supplied, material constitutes a relatively small cost compared to skilled labor.

Why not design your own pants?  Woodland G3 pants are available to purchase.  While they command a premium price, it's still much more cost effective than trying to get a proper single pair of pants made.

Labor's expensive even when lines are set up in an intelligent manner with some automation and a reasonable amount of throughput is achieved.  One offs are expensive.

Properly making apparel requires a pattern.  Getting a pattern made requires a patternmaker.  For the sake of this post, a pattern is not a rigid template to trace on fabric.  A pattern, CAD, is made using industry standard software like Accumark or Optitex along with a TDP to assemble to garment.  After a pattern is made, a sample must be cut and sewn to verify specs.  To get a sample made requires a sample maker.  If the sample maker doesn't have automated cutting equipment, it's probably best to move on.

Sample, one off pants with multiple pockets, belt loops, pad pockets, etc, could be developed for around $2000-3000 after pattern and sample(s).  Not including the pattern, just sewing a single sample would probably run $400-600.  Grading wouldn't be necessary as you're only after your size.  If you decide to grade and make 28"-44" waists, that will be additional.  If the garment were designed using characteristics optimized for more generic machinery and cost effective manufacturing, costs all around could be greatly reduced.  If you decide to go this route, you'd have an industry standard package to take anywhere for manufacturing.  

Feed off the arm, hemmers, waistbanders, overlock, belt loopers, tackers, pocket creasers, pocket setters, etc, etc are relatively specialized machines usually set up for specific apparel.  All of these machines require talented operators to produce a quality garment.

There are very few operations domestically who have the talent and machinery necessary to make pants like this in sample and short run quantities.  If you track down a shop with the talent and equipment, they will charge accordingly and that's if they have any slots open.  Once good sources are discovered, their customers rarely let them go and a year's schedule fills up very quickly.

ETA:  misunderstood woodland MARPAT vs woodland M81(:

Damn...

Thanks for the info, that was a very in-depth view into how the textile industry works... but, unfortunately,  unless I can find someone who could do the job for <$300, the cost will out weigh the benefit on this project.

If you are looking for just a couple of pair for your self.  This is what you do.  You will need  a pair of pants for your pattern.  You then will need to take all the stiching out of the pants, poickets, belt loops, inner pocket, outer pockets, pant legs front & back.  You also will need to buy a zipper for the fly, or buttons.   This will be your pattern  Find a local sewer that does contract work at home.  Take your fabric, plus your pattern.  Have them cut out and sew.  You could also cut out your pieces on your own.  Or if your wife/GF is good at sewing, maybe your mom, or MIL, or Grandmother.  Maybe you have a good freind that sews at home.

This will be your least expensive route.  I would test out your cut pattern on inexpensive matterial just to test your pattern.  Then make adjustments to your next cuts for fit.

That is going to be your lease expensive way to do this.  Other wise its like the poster above stated you will have to do a CAD pattern.

The cheapest way would be to borrow a sewing machine and learn to sew and do the work yourself.

I say this as the main cost will be your labor. A pair of Crye style tactical pants are going to take a lot of work to recreate, paying someone to reverse engineer them and get close to all of the proper measurements, hidden draw strings, double stitching you name it, in the end its a lot of work. Thats a lot of work for one pair of pants, if you did a batch of them you might be able to get the cost down but you could easily be in for many hundreds of dollars of labor for a pair of pants.

I personally am pretty good at sewing, but turn down requests to make gear all the time just because my time is too valuable and im not going to spend several hours sewing a custom mag pouch and then have to explain to someone it really did take several hours to make it, that i expect more than minimum wage and a custom project will always cost more than a mass produced product, even if they are made from the exact same quantity and type of material.

There was this guy that ran a blog that offered exactly the service you're looking for..... can't remember his name or site.

One thing you can also do is get one of those airsoft replica crye pants, tear it down and make a template for each piece of the pant, cut your MARPATmaterials in the same pattern, sew.

Or you could just buy these, and maybe modify them by adding the stretch fabric where needed at the knees, crotch, and small of the back. Probably a lot easier and cost effective:

http://www.ur-tactical.com/index.php/component/virtuemart/view/productdetails/virtuemart_product_id/596/virtuemart_category_id/117

That was going to be my recommendation.  I have had my Mom (who can sew amazing stuff) do work on my pants.  She was cussing at the end.  

Take a pair or pants that you like, and see if you can find someone to modify them where you want.  Be prepared to do a lot of the work yourself (seam ripping, etc), and be patient as they probably will not have the experience to knock it out the first time.

Looks like I might have a line on a guy to do them for me.

He took my measurements and has so far sent me a pattern to critique.  We'll see what happens.

Have you tried Beyond? They do custom pieces

I haven't,  but I don't think they would clone another manufacturer's piece.

I got 'em.



I managed to find a friend of a friend who did me a solid and built a pattern for a custom set.  He has done the work before and knew exactly what I was after.  The pair I have fit exactly like my G3s from Crye.

How much did it end up costing you?

$300

Considering that included materials, patterning, labor, and shipping, I don't think it was that bad....

But at that price I don't see myself buying more anytime soon lol

Please keep us updated on durability!

I'll second that, and if your friend is up to do any more, let us know.

This

I will, I should have an update for everyone next week with better pics.





I'll see what he says, but I'll tell ya up front, he doesn't do this sort of thing all the time.  It's sort of something he does at his leisure, so it took me a few months to get everything done and I paid him up front.  I understand not everyone would be comfortable with that proposition.

Fair enough. I would have expected it to be more expensive than that.