hey folks ike eastman here from eastman's hunting journal today we're going to do
a gear review on kryptek's new pattern with some of their layers about obscura this is their new
camouflage pattern brandon and i are going to tell you all all the things about their layers plus
their actual pattern and the the science behind it before we get into that make sure you subscribe
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out brandon what's so what's the science or what's the thought behind their camo pattern because i
know kryptek is known for their cool camo it's not you know it's not the uh sticks and leaves
it's cool what's what's the science behind it well obviously the kryptek founders you know are
warriors in the military right they did that for many years of their life and were
super appreciative of their service of course as we are of all veterans they're passionate back
country hunters too and so what they did is they took their knowledge from military concealment
and their passion for the back country and all the hunting they'd done up to that point in their life
and they put their brains together and came up with well their first highly successful pattern
was highlander right right and we all have loved that for a long time it's highly effective in
multiple environments and then now with their obscura line of patterns this is what we're
looking at today and what we're wearing of course is obscura transitional and what they're masters at
is working on patterns that work together the micro pattern and a macro pattern now what that
means to dumb it i'm kind of a camouflage nerd okay i have been this way since i was in high school
do you have to have camo to hunt brandon well no you don't have to have camouflage to hunt but what
it does is it breaks up and destroys your human outline a good camouflage does that up close and
far away a bad camouflage and there's plenty of those out there they blob you out close but
are effective far away or vice versa and when i was oh man i don't know upper teens early 20s
i mean i was so into this that i would go out of open hillsides and country like this and also on
dark timber like what's behind us and i would take color photos sepia photos black and white photos
of various patterns and then i'd also test them bow hunting and ground hunting with a recurve bow
with white-tailed deer so you're really close quarters and you man you could see
what works and what doesn't and so this this topic really interests me so if you notice
with this obscura transitional pattern what krytpek has really done well over the years
is they start with a light color as their base work up from there with the other colors
too many companies start with a dark color as their base and what that's going to do is turn you
into a blob and then instead of blending into your environment even if the colors don't exactly match
you're going to just blob out because they the animals see your outline because you know we know
that big game animals don't see the full color spectrum like we do and lots of lab research
has told us that over the years they don't see black and white though they do see shades of
colors especially blues and greens and i mean the shading of the colors is nice it's helpful
but it really the magic behind it is the pattern the micro and the macro pattern so what we mean by
that is macro means large right micro means small and if you look at the micro pattern
kind of that reptile skin looking netting type pattern that you see right here in your mid
section and kind of behind these bigger blobby patterns the two work together to thoroughly
confuse animals eyes and human eyes i mean there's been times when in fact on our spring bear hunt
this year with the kryptek guys we're in a country that looks a lot like this and you'd lose a person
i mean they're walking slowly stalking on something like where'd he go yeah and they
would disappear i mean it's pretty amazing so you know a lot of deer have been killed in blue jeans
and flannels and my dad used to say you don't have to have camo to hunt but you just have
to break up your outline so go into that a little bit better what's what is breaking up your outline
like right now you guys can see we have an outline against the blue sky and the mountains behind us
it's just breaking that up right right and so what you want to do or what you want a pattern to do
is to break up your outline when you don't have cover to rely on because yeah you can
be wearing bright red rain suit if you're in the heavy timber with limbs and everything in
front of you breaking up your outline but we don't always have that luxury you get caught
out in the open or the best place to sit in an ambush spot is in this one particular spot
through a drainage you know where they're moving through or whatever the case may be or you know
spring bear hunting up in a tree stand you don't always have all that cover in front of you and
so you need your pattern to break up your outline so they don't see that manned silhouette because
if there's one thing that animals recognize is man's silhouette and the game is over we are unique
game is over we are unique in the woods two two-legged you look funny yeah and so not only do they have
the cool camouflage patterns like again this is a pretty new pattern from them obscura transitional
so transitional so obscura is the macro micro pattern transitionals is the is the base color and
the colors on top of it so they have this one and then they have a darker color which is obscura
knox knox which is you know used if it was really dark timber or something like that
yeah and it is kind of a lifestyle brand too it's or a pattern it's pretty cool looking yeah
it's my it's my favorite going to going to church or dinner coat so what other what other on the
obscura line do they have they just launched uh july of of 2022 they just launched their obscura
skyfall pattern which is really hyper focused on the whitetail hunter and being up in a tree stand
so an animal looking up with that light background of the sky and limbs behind you or not and helping
break up that pattern but they're very the patterns are basically the same the colors are
different so the transitional it literally helps you transition from wide open sagebrush country
to high mountain timber like we're here now and then also open hillsides and so you essentially
blend in and one thing i like to do i also like to be a fly on the wall when it's a
high pressure hunting area i don't like people to know where i'm at and i've there's been so
many times where i just kind of blend into the environment and i've had tons of hunters just walk
right by me or they're glassing and they don't even see me and i just let them do their thing
and get out of the area and then i can continue hunting tell me about the naming i struggle with
their naming sequence it's all military where did it come from the vision for kryptek came from them
being in battle in the middle east being passionate back country hunters consuming
from you know from what they've told us eastman's videos and eastman's magazines and all that and
and they have this vision of as butch always says a lifestyle by design when they got out
butch whiting is the ceo and one of the the co-founders of of kryptek with josh clayhorn
all the names of the pieces or are most of them they've got so many now they're branching out in
other areas but they stem from mythological or medieval battlefield terms and when you start
digging into the history behind each name and some of them now some other pieces are named
after places that they served in afghanistan for me anyway it gave me a whole new appreciation
of you know i got myself educated as as butch would say and and i learned what each single piece
where the name comes from and then it also kind of tells you a little bit about where you should
use it and what style of hunt so valhalla is the heavenly pant yeah yeah exactly the pant for warriors
yeah the valhalla i mean let's just get into it so we've got as you can see here we've got tons
of layers laid out it's not all of their layers we're pretty darn close we're not going to focus
a bunch on the late season puffy layers in this review we're going to get to that later here in a couple months
but they have a ton of different purpose built (yeah because you look at that and go) puffy layers
why i mean how many puffy layers do you need but there is a purpose on every one of them to every
single one of them and i've used every one of them in different circumstances in fact one of them
is our gift subscription program gift so we're giving away a kryptek puffy layer
as a gift if you sign up you and two of your buddies for a subscription to eastman's hunting
journal or bow hunting journal and you could get a puffy layer free what we really want to focus
on today partially because of the timing is some of our favorite early season layers so what i'm
wearing today and i did this intentionally i'm wearing a layering system that they came out
with last year called the sonora and as the name implies it's intentional it tells you when and
where you should be using this so this sonora you think a desert right so it's hot weather
gear and this one has a hood and i love wearing this for early season bow hunting even some of
the high country early season rifle units and it provides a lot of shade and a lot of concealment
and the pants are the same now what this is it doesn't look like it until you get up close
but it's highly breathable because it's a super fine mesh in fact that's why i have the solid
color of the sonora pants with is because you can really see in this how not see-through but kind of
oh it's like wearing i'm wearing the same pants it's like wearing pajamas
yeah it's unbelievable the wind just blows right through them so it's perfect for early season
my my personal favorite and a lot of our office's favorite all-around go to pant especially for early
season and then moving up in a mid to late season if you layer underneath it with their base layers
is the valhalla the valhalla pant i've been wearing and testing those valhalla pants for
many years i've got a a gray solid color pair that just a lifestyle pair that's good to wear around
wear fishing and stuff too and i have worn them on a ton of hunts and so before they before kryptek
came out with the sonora layer they had the valhalla pants which again on the surface from
a distance on the camera oh they just look like the same pair of camouflage pants major purpose
driven design in this in fact josh clayhorn one of the founders this this is his brain right here
this is kind of one of their sacred cows yeah they you don't touch the valhalla pants the pockets are in
the right spot the the the cut so here's one of the things that frustrated me a lot about clothing
i'm i'm a six foot 220 pounds i'm pretty much the average american right the cut on most pants
drives me nuts because they're either too small they don't they're too small in the crotch size
or they're they're you know skinny jeans around around the ankles and you can't get them over
your big hiking boots but these kryptek's cut fit they fit they fit lengthwise they fit the waist is
true the arms are true the shoulders are true i mean it actually fits like somebody built me a
custom pair of clothing yeah every every i've i have yet to find a piece that go that's cut a
little funny well for people watching they might be thinking well that's great i'm not built like
you well our crew we've got guys from six five all the way down to five foot eight yep and
everybody in their size says that exact same thing it's like it's like they tailor fit it to my body
yep and the first time i ever remember thinking that was when years ago you know i think it was
an uh one of our journal articles i tested the valhalla pants and i was blown away at how they
how they fit and so they've been perfecting that fit for many years and in it's just yeah they've
got it dialed so in that valhalla line too you've got a few different styles of shirts you have a
long sleeve tee you have a quarter zip collared shirts this is a short sleeve tee
and here's the collar collared and and that's just in one line so they got the
valhalla they got the new for this year also they came out with the delos series they have
short and long sleeve versions of this and it's basically like a what they call a rugby shirt
so there's no buttons no zippers super lightweight it's a synthetic material
like most of their items are except for the merino wool base layer which i'll show in just a second
and it's just an another piece to having another tool in your tool box i mean so if you have these
layers and and here's the other thing you know we're fortunate we get to get all this stuff
in and test it all and right it's not coming out of our our checkbook directly necessarily
but to sportsmen that are out there going i can't afford all you know to get 2500 of the gear or
whatever it is in one fell swoop get a piece or two a year and kryptek runs really good sales
on their website well and if you give three gift subscriptions to the eastman's hunting journal or
bow hunting journal we'll start you off with the puffy layer and then next year we have a five-year
plan to do the same thing with various layers so if you did that for five years you would have a
very great assortment of kryptek gear yep exactly so there's there's more than one way to skin a cat
and in kryptek and in our relationship with them it definitely helps you do that and so let's move
from i'm not going to pick apart every single one of these layers but we got the chronos over there
what the chronos is is kind of that mid layer you can wear it next to skin it's best
i like having the merino wool underneath that for later season hunts and there's a hoodie and
there's also just a quarter zip and so it really ups that r value as we move through the hunting
season it's got a micro grid fleece pattern on the inside and i wore that a lot last year
that is one of my favorite layers yep it'll take you through i mean this with either the sonora
hoodie or their theos merino wool and the dalibor soft shell vest that will take you through like
99 of the circumstances exactly if it really gets nasty you start adding the puffy layers
in in the rain gear and this keeps the wind off you that insulates you the merino wool keeps the
the scent as well as wool is a great fluctuator of temperature it it draws in temperature when
it's moist and it draws it away from your body when you sweat and then it gives it back to you
when you start to cool off so that's why that's why everybody wears it as a base layer yep
here's the top but speaking of the merino wool here's the top base layer it's called the theos
and it has buttons not zippers so you don't have to worry about pressure points
yep exactly it's really great gear in that dallabor we touched on a little bit with a vest
they have pants and a jacket in fact that's the job that's what i'm wearing right now and when
you think when you hear dallabor which you should think is soft shell and windproof between that and
a base layer especially if you're kind of day hunting from a base camp or truck hunting or
whatever antelope season especially during rifle season for antelope it'll take you through 99 of
what you're going to go through and so my personal go-to layers for what i'm doing uh early season
backcountry hunt is i'm going to wear the sonora hoodie i'm going to wear the valhalla pants i'm
going to have my merino wool base layers with just in case the temperature is a little chilly or this
is what i'll sleep in and layer up from there if i need to that dalibor soft shell vest and then
i'll have my rain gear which we're going to touch on here in a second and then my puffy jacket and
there are not too many scenarios that you will not be super comfortable and you're talking about six
six pieces yeah two bottoms four tops and and as you know i geek out on ounce counting and so even
even if i had to pack all that stuff in my limit per piece of gear really is if it's over a pound i
won't take it so it's got to be a pound or less so six pieces of gear six pounds most of them
would be wearing anyways right not even packing it with so it's in a lot of it's even half that
weight it's not even a full pound right sonora layer is crazy so lastly i just want to touch on
the rain gear so what i have here is this is a jupiter ultralight rain gear and then this
is their newest generation of their first rain gear that they ever came out with called the coldo
it used to be called the coldo blockade but it's just called the coldo now and it's fully
featured fully functional rain gear it's it's pretty heavy duty if you like if you're going
up to alaska or something like if you're getting rained on constantly that's what you want to wear
if you're in the high country during september and in rain squalls come through take the lightweight
stuff exactly because you're almost never going to need it but when you need it you need it and it
works for a serious windbreaker and also one thing i forgot to mention looking at the accessories
laying on the ground they have of course gloves and face masks and knee pads all of us are on the
same page with this until we use knee pads in our hunting pants for the ones that have the sleeves
for it we thought what in the world would you need that for until you use them then you almost
can't go back when you have knee pads you you rarely look down at what you're going to kneel in
without knee pads you are constantly going okay do i put my knee here there because everybody's got
that sharp rock underneath their kneecap and that way laid them in the back country for two days
face masks hooders they got soft gloves they've got these are kind of cool they've
got a texture on the bottom so you can grip all kinds of cool accessories knee pads wow some of
the pants don't have um knee pad sleeves like their two ultra ultra lightweight ones don't
because they do add a lot of heat they do you know you got to get used to that but if you're going up
to i didn't mention one of their original pairs of pants too they're called the alios pants that's a
tough one to pronounce especially if you look at the spelling but again cool story behind it
but they have knee pad sleeves the dalabor has knee pad sleeves and some of the other ones just
the sonora doesn't the sonora and the valhalla don't right right one of the reasons why we've done a
lot with kryptek is they're patriots they're you know flag stand for the flag um they're warriors
the other thing is they're hunters they're big time hunters and so they're not building gear you
know the guys that are designing this stuff aren't designing it and never using it they're designing
it using it coming back i mean how many times have they gone through some of these pieces like you
mentioned the rain the rain clothes they've gone through that three or four generations
just small tweaks you know a pocket change here a zipper there a pit vent whatever to make it better
and they're constantly evolving because they're using it they're making gear for for hunters
for themselves and now they've grown so much as a company that they have a whole crew that's
supporting them that i mean they're second to none they're they're passionate about the brand they're
passionate about backcountry hunting one of the big points here if you if you go oh my gosh now
i'm just drowning in a ton of information check out kryptek.com/eastmans and while
on there we have each of our gear lists what we wear for specific hunting like i have my elk list
on there i'll have my deer list on there my early season my late season the stuff that i'm taking
the stuff that you're taking because you what you went through here with your layering system
slightly different than mine which is fine because everybody's a little bit different heck my brother
and i are different he's a lot more cold-blooded so he wears way more clothes than i do it's just
different but if you find one of us that you're like yeah that's that's kind of what i wear
then you'll understand which one of these pieces because there's a lot you would get for yourself
so check it out eastman's or kryptek.com/eastmans well i appreciate you guys'
time i hope you got some information out of what kryptek is about and their pieces and especially
their camouflage the obscura line is amazing i can't wait to get into it more this fall
make sure you hit that notification as well as that subscribe button for eastman's hunting
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