Tropical Y straps

[Mikkel]

I'm thinking about selling my SMW ones and get one from ATF instead Mismatch webbing was very common. And they have gone trough the "small" trouble to make woven holes in the back strap, wich was far more common than sewn, like on the ones from SMW. Wich i my opinion is a bigger issue than the number of holes. The ones 1944 carries are from SMW by the way.

I've seen quite a few original tropical y-straps over the years, and matching webbing have been by far the most common.
One strategy ATF has, is to make a product that stands out from anything any competitor makes (and if others got a perfect reproduction, they make a variation), and then tries to storytell their customers into believing that their product is the one and only product that anyone would really want. It's a bit like Coca-Cola. They don't necessarily make the best cola, but they sure do the best job at storytelling, making their customers believe they got the best product.

[Peiper]

I'm thinking about selling my SMW ones and get one from ATF instead Mismatch webbing was very common. And they have gone trough the "small" trouble to make woven holes in the back strap, wich was far more common than sewn, like on the ones from SMW. Wich i my opinion is a bigger issue than the number of holes. The ones 1944 carries are from SMW by the way.

I've seen quite a few original tropical y-straps over the years, and matching webbing have been by far the most common.
One strategy ATF has, is to make a product that stands out from anything any competitor makes (and if others got a perfect reproduction, they make a variation), and then tries to storytell their customers into believing that their product is the one and only product that anyone would really want. It's a bit like Coca-Cola. They don't necessarily make the best cola, but they sure do the best job at storytelling, making their customers believe they got the best product.

That seems to be the case with most the stuff ATF sells as far as i can tell, they try to make people believe that their stuff is the
most authentic and the stuff other people sell is a load of old crap basically, they have a story to tell about most of the gear they
sell, but i suppose thats their idea of selling and making people buy their stuff lol , trouble is most of their information is sometimes
incorrect and made up just so they can sell their stuff which in my opinion is wrong as it is giving people incorrect historic facts (if you
dont know what i mean look at their site and you will see).

Continuing on the topic of web y straps, please forgive me if some of this information is not the same as other ref material as it has
been sourced from various ref books at my disposal and added together for the benefit of passing on some information, as people know
information in ref books vary but this is the "general idea" anyway !!

Apparantly originally the web gear was made with the intention of issuing it to tropical based personel then when Hitlers campaign in
Africa had ended (around 1943) the extra webbing that was originally intended for this campaign was continued to be issued to troops
serving on the ETO, although some troops serving in hot climes had priority and were still issued it (eg Greece Italy etc), this early
webbing was all one colour with no seperate bits added in different shades, the webbing was continued to be manufactured after 43 but
obviously quality suffered, offcuts of canvas in different shades were used, the quality in the leather and metal attatchments were made
inferior too, this happened in the manufacture of other equipment for example breadbags, the late War examples were often found
made with different shades of canvas being used.

Although saying that these early manufactured y straps were still being used until late war unless being damaged and no longer repairable
and are the type often seen in original photographs, as the number of early issued webbing being used was far more than the late war
types as these were often repaired as i said and reissued most of the time thats why when you come across original late war webbing
for sale it is usually in an "unissued" condition or in a very good state whereas genuine early war webbing you see on sale is usually in a
shit state and you easily see it has been well used, just some thoughts on the subject i thought are relevent and worth while taking note
of as i said above most of this info has been taken from various ref books mentioning the subject.
Regards Pipes

[fieldgrey]

id certainly be in a better position to consider atf web ys if i could see a good source-varied range of pics and definate period evidence of a heer produced backstrap of the type atf have decided to make.
i am happy to go with s&m's web ys because theirs is colour consistant-and customers deserve that level of accuracy-a superb colour, well stitched, including seem tucked in corners on the wide web fronts ( go check)-id just replace their back adjustment stud with an orig gas can strap 'generic' stud and jobs your bobby, perfect repro web ys.
i wont buy a colour mismatched set with 'unverified on a wide scale' back strap variant, and, given the opportunity-i wouldnt produce such a product, unless it was the basic bog standard model seen in most museums and at most militaria fairs and stores. luckily there are firms that produce such sets.
i prefer my kit to hardily resemble the original item i am familiar with, as invented on planet earth, than to own something that may in my opinion seem to have 'something of the twilight zone' about it.
just my personal taste.