STYLE OR SUBSTANCE?
Gucci kit won’t make you a better player – so is it worth paying
through the nose for it? Mike Buttrick looks at both sides of the spectrum
T
he term ‘Guccisoft’ has been
used increasingly over the last
year, but what does it mean?
For the uninitiated, Guccisoft
relates to expensive airsoft kit
or aftermarket upgrade parts. There are many
reasons people buy expensive kit or parts, but
there’s always some important questions to
ask: is it worth the expense? Does it make the
airsoft experience any better?
Some skirmishers will buy specific combat
fatigues in an attempt to replicate their
teammates or a character from their favourite
game or movie. A player who regularly attends
games at my local club has modelled his
look on Captain Price from the Call of Duty:
Modern Warfare series. While this can be
a very striking look, and rather distinctive,
unless other players take up the same idea it
is expensive as the uniform worn by Price is
reasonably modern and expensive.
Another down side to modelling your look
on a character is that the uniform may not be
well suited to the environment that you play
in. If you model your clothing on a character
from a desert-based action game then the
camouflage will not fit in well in a European
woodland setting, so you stand out against the
local flora. Ultimately this makes you more of
a target than other players who have chosen
more suitable camouflage.
I chose to wear Flektarn from my very
first airsoft game because that was the
camouflage worn by my team. At the time
there were very few people wearing Flektarn
as most wore DPM, so this gave me the
advantage of standing out from the crowd
while wearing one of the cheapest forms of
camouflage on the market. I quickly learned
the benefits of wearing Flektarn when I spent
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March 2012