Fakes and Reproductions

This section of Camopedia will be dedicated to exposing fakes and commercial reproduction uniforms so that the collecting community is better aware of such items. As years progress, many reproduction items lose (or have removed) the markings that identified them as such, and many are later passed on as originals, much to the dismay of the collecting community. Some dishonest dealers and collectors may even attempt to pass on these forgeries to unknowing individuals. It is our sincere hope that by offering documentation of such items here, we can assist those historians and hobbyists out there to avoid such attempts at deception and keep the collecting pastime pure.

Western Survival Research Ltd

This company was active in the 1980s to late 1990s in the state of Indiana and offered a wide selection of unusual camouflage patterns from around the world, nearly all of which were reproductions made in India, Pakistan or other parts of Asia. Virtually all of the uniforms sold by this company were fakes or (at best) commercial products marketed to "large sized" customers who wished to wear their uniforms. In their pristine condition, these uniforms were almost always easily identified by the English language tags identifying their place of manufacture (i.e. "Made in Pakistan," or "Made in India") as well as the fibre content of the fabric. However, the tags were easy to remove and quite often are missing from uniforms that have been passed around for years. For this reason, many collectors have a difficult time ascertaining the authenticity of these uniforms if they do not know what to look for. We have documented a number of faked uniforms that came from this company, including the following: Chilean "spotty mountain" (rana) pattern camouflage jackets, shirts, trousers and floppy bush hats (see photo below), Cuban grey lizard pattern combat jackets, trousers and field shirts, Soviet/Russian KLMK "stair step" pattern combat jackets, trousers and field shirts, Pakistan Bhutto regime "brushstroke" pattern combat jackets, combat shirts and trousers, Chinese-made "barbed wire" pattern camouflage in green and tan colorways (similar to Kuwait patterns), several odd patterns from Indonesia, the so-called Spanish "Sahara" desert pattern (completely fake - see below), and a copy of the Kuwaiti National Guard camouflage pattern.