Kamysh or Kamush camo which roughly translates to “reed” or “cane” (as in, the plant) is a family of “urban” blue tiger stripe camo used by Russia’s OMON, OSN Vityaz, and other special police units.
Tiger stripe camos on their own are a pretty effective pattern. "Kamysh" gets its namesake from being naturally good in wetlands, tall grasses, and environments adjacent to water. It's a highly adaptable pattern meaning that in just about any built-up environment with lots of obstacles or flora it’s actually quite effective.
But… Come on, what’s with the bright blue? From the looks of it, this is the opposite of camo, it’s identifiable.
In the 90s, differently colored variants of the Russian VSR camo family were deliberately given to various MVD (Internal Security Forces) units as an identifying camo for their unit. This was also primarily the time that a tiger stripe pattern emerged in use on many of these special units. Presenting itself as an "Urban" version of tiger stripe, blue Kamysh would be a popular spinoff that would be used until MVD Police reorganization in 2016.
The most notable users of blue Kamysh were "OMON", a paramilitary police force operating within the MVD. The MVD are Russia's internal security forces — Think the FBI, DEA, IRS, Homeland Security, and a few other agencies here in the US rolled into one. These forces commonly use commercial camouflages to avoid direct association with Russia's primary military forces for better or for worse.
Involved in counter-terror and riot policing operations the paramilitary force OMON has had its hands in a litany of armed conflicts sporting their Тигр (tiger) stripes. Curiously, they even adopted the Siberian tiger as a primary symbol of their forces for its symbology of strength, agility and ferocity.
Infamously, Ukranian "Berkut" units were also seen wearing a suspiciously similar blue tiger stripe during Ukraine's revolution of dignity.
So maybe, the blue variety was never meant to be a "camo" to begin with?
To their credit, because of its garish aesthetics it’s become recognizable even here in the west, particularly from a photo that has circulated Airsoft forums for nearly a decade. Allegedly taken during a milsim west event it’s gained legendary status for the OMON outfit and Mockba shoes on the wearer who’s doing a flying jump kick door entry.
while we didn’t magically stumble upon a mythical mountain of Russian OMON surplus outfits, we did make something that you might actually wear every day — a killer tracksuit combo in Kamysh camo, made in Uzbekistan.
We consulted our favorite slavs behind the making of our gorka suits and we’ve once again achieved perfection with the all-important stripes included.
Specs
- Made in Uzbekistan for KS Sport
- Includes jacket & pants
- 100% Polyester
- Classic "Slav Tracksuit" Fit & Feel
- Sewn on double-stripes on jacket & pants
- Elastic cuffs & hem
- Elastic waistband with interior drawcord
- Zipped hand & waist pockets
