Former Special Ops Officer Discusses the Benefits of PrimaLoft®

Blog »
Former Special Ops Officer Discusses the Benefits of PrimaLoft®

With a long, storied history in the United States military, Rick Elder has the background and expertise required to know the ins-and-outs of effective cold-weather apparel. As the person responsible for bringing PrimaLoft into U.S. Special Operations Forces’ cold-climate uniforms, he has close knowledge of how PrimaLoft tested in the field. Over one million sets of PrimaLoft® insulated jackets and trousers have been issued to U.S. troops by the Department of Defense over the last several years and it is the premier insulation to all branches of the U.S. Military.

Rick also shared that knowledge at the upcoming SHOT Show (Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show) in Las Vegas, Nevada( January 17 – 20) at a hunting-focused luncheon on the 17th.

PrimaLoft® caught up with Rick to learn more about his background, and why PrimaLoft® is the insulation of choice for our men and women in (cold weather) uniform.

Tell us a little about your military background/career.

I joined the military out of college as a private, made it to rank of sergeant, went to officer candidate school and then spent time with infantry as a chemical officer. I ended my career with the 1st Battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment with Special Operations Command. I then transitioned from the Rangers as a captain up to a civilian program – I spent 10 years developing equipment for all of the Special Operations Forces from the different services.

So I have a total of 18 years of federal experience there, then I transitioned to take over the protective eyewear division for Smith Sport Optics; I’m the executive director of Smith Optics Elite Division https://elite.smithoptics.com/ and help that team provide protective eyewear to all of those same Special Operations and other recreational folks.

What is your experience using PrimaLoft in the military?

“P/L” was developed by the Department of Defense many years before I ever served, then it kind of sat on a shelf. As P/L opened up as a commercial company, it didn’t have leverage into the service, then when I had the honor of leading the team that developed the protective combat uniform, or PCU – the Special Operations cold-weather clothing system – P/L showed itself as being the very best insulation out there for this purpose.

I have the honor of being the person to put P/L into U.S. Special Operations Forces and then to have that trickle down into U.S. Conventional Forces into what is called the Extreme Cold Weather Clothing System, Generation 3. Although I did not get direct experience with it while in the service, I am the guy who brought it into the military across the Army and the joint Special Operations community. All coats, pants given for extreme cold weather operations right now are PrimaLoft®-insulated – for numerous reasons.

What are those reasons?

Its warmth factor, but as importantly, its warmth factor while wet – which is key. We used a philosophy that outlined that loft, for whatever reason, would get wet, whether we’re sweating in it, or if you’re a Navy Seal doing a transition over the beach or through water and need to warm yourself, you can throw on your insulated coat to keep you warm – all of that moisture your body is pumping out is caught in that loft matrix. We found that a lot of insulations while wet or damp performed very poorly, but PrimaLoft® performed well among what the commercial industry had to offer.

The other area it really held up was compressibility: the ability to pack it and throw it in a backpack and have it take up less space and then recover was incredible – it won hands-down there.

The final thing was its performance over a life cycle. It could be washed and dried numerous times and tested for its warmth again. A lot of filament lofts didn’t maintain the level of performance that P/L did. All insulations degrade over a life cycle, but PrimaLoft by far held its performance better than anyone else, which is very important to us because we wanted this garment to perform well in extremes at the end of its life cycle just as it does in the beginning.

This was all hard data and field performance that made PrimaLoft® win its place, and it earned it quite well.