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New service uniform hits stores Sept. 1

Navy officials will make the new E-6 and below service uniform available in Navy Exchange uniform stores beginning Sept. 1.

The news came in a Navy-wide message that also clarified the exchange’s policy on defective or ill-fitting uniform items.

Navy Exchange Command’s proposal to field the uniforms in all regions “was based on the assessment of the inventory on hand and what the manufacturers are able to put out,” said Capt. Vince Drouillard, branch head within the Navy’s personnel, plans and policy division. “Part of the reason we had a two-year rollout plan was to give industry time to produce the correct inventory.”

Officials say it’s not just that large numbers of uniforms need to be available to fill the shelves of Navy Exchanges in the remaining rollout regions. “Based on past experience ... the priority for us was to have sufficient quantities in specific sizes,” said Phil Garcia, spokesman for Navy Exchange Service Command.

The original rollout schedule had the uniform hitting stores through next spring:

• Oct. 1: Southeast region.

• Jan. 1: Northeast region.

• April 1: exchanges in Europe, Japan and Guam.

The timing of the announcement also was critical, Drouillard said. It gives sailors three months to plan for the purchase of the new uniforms before the fall shift from summer to winter uniforms.

“We wanted to put this out early enough so that sailors affected by the fall uniform transition, which typically happens in October, would have enough lead time to purchase this uniform instead of having to purchase the working blue,” he said.

Even though officials are making the service uniform available sooner than originally planned, they will not move up the date on which all sailors must have the uniform in their seabags. It remains July 31, 2010, Drouillard said.

The exchange’s ramped-up production of the service uniform could bode well for an acceleration of the Navy Working Uniform rollout sometime next year.

“As we ... get more of these in the fleet and get more confident industry has the ability to produce the right numbers and quality, we’ll certainly examine possibly accelerating that rollout, too,” he said.

However, “the service uniform rollout is further along than the NWU rollout, as it started six months earlier,” he said.

NWU issues

Unlike the service uniform, the NWU has had some quality control issues during the first six months of that rollout, with buttons falling off some uniforms and sailors saying boots didn’t fit.

“We feel confident now that the industry has corrected [those issues],” Drouillard said.

Unlike the buttons, which was an identified manufacturing defect, Drouillard said, officials discovered that the problem with the boots was not related to quality.

“When we started getting some complaints [and] feedback from the fleet about the boots, we had industry look hard at that,” he said. “What they discovered from visiting the stores was it was more of a fit issue.”

Sailors, he said, often didn’t try on the boots, instead purchasing the size they thought they needed.

“You can’t really do that; you have to try them on,” he said. “Sizing can sometimes vary slightly by manufacturer, and to be absolutely sure you have the right size, you need to put them on your feet.”

He stressed that if any NWU items, including boots, do not fit comfortably, sailors should bring them back to the exchange.

The sales staff “have all been trained in the proper fit of all the NWU items,” he said. “If sailors have a question about that fit, they need to ask for help.”

Stopping boot-swapping

For flight deck and flight line sailors, there’s another boot issue: The NWU boot doesn’t have the steel toes and special sole required for that kind of duty.

Right now, the uniform’s wear rules authorize only two versions, the standard boot and the rough-surface “no shine” version.

Sailors can only wear the safety boot with their NWU if their commander authorizes it, and then only when they’re on the job; to commute or go off base, they are required to change boots.

“We are aware of this issue, and we’re looking into it,” Drouillard said. “Flight deck boots are organizational clothing, but could potentially be adopted as an optional component. It is being considered, but we’re not there yet.”

PT shirt 2.0 on shelves

The second version of the Navy physical training uniform shirt hit exchange shelves Tuesday.

This shirt was developed last fall after sailors complained that the shirts became see-through when wet with sweat and became untucked during exercising.

“We believe this shirt fixes the issues that were identified in the fleet,” Drouillard said.

“The new shirt is 100 percent polyester and is of a heavier weight and thread count,” he said. “Those improvements have solved the opacity issue and along with the added weight, we believe we have addressed the issues brought to us by the fleet.”

These shirts are being sold in the exchanges alongside the first, flawed version of the shirt until supplies of that shirt run out.

Shoppers at the exchange trying to tell the difference between the two otherwise identical shirts may want to grab their size then check the length: The new version of the shirt is slightly longer than the original, to address the problem of keeping it tucked in.

The second version of the PT shirt is different from the optional high-performance T-shirt, made of sweat-wicking fabric, which is expected to go on sale in December or January.

The cost has not been determined.