With historical roots based in the “Lizard” camouflage patterns worn by French colonial troops in Indochina in the years following the Second World War, “Tiger Stripe” has become an icon of the Vietnam War. Most commonly associated today with US Special Forces advisors, Tiger Stripe camouflage saw surprisingly wide usage across an array of forces in South Vietnam – with South Vietnamese Special Forces (LLDB), South Vietnamese Marines (VNMC), South Vietnamese Rangers, Civilian Irregular Defense Groups (CIDG), Mike Force, MACV-SOG, and more. The reputation of Tiger Stripe is such that even the most disinterested person today instinctively associates the camouflage with Special Forces. Tiger Stripe: The Vietnam Camouflage Story is the most visually comprehensive book to ever dive specifically into this topic, covering its development and usage leading up to and during the Vietnam War.
Authored by film producer and long-time camouflage collector and dealer, Owen Thornton, Tiger Stripe: The Vietnam Camouflage Story will transport you back to the early days of the conflict in Southeast Asia to tell a story through an almost unimaginably diverse gathering of authentic vintage uniforms, original never-before-seen photographs, government documents, and historically significant (but largely forgotten) magazine articles. All told, this book contains in excess of 1,250 images.
Tiger Stripe covers the following topics as it works its way through the history of this camouflage pattern: · Windproof Pattern · Lizard Pattern · Sea Wave Tiger · Bulletproof Pattern · Fat Tiger · Silver Tiger · Okinawa Tiger · ARVN Tiger · Gold Tiger · 1969 Pattern Tiger · Other Miscellaneous Patterns and Variants · Hollywood Usage · Women and Kids Clothing · Reproduction Clothing · Modern Tiger Usage
Photographed by celebrated photographer James Rupley, Tiger Stripe: The Vietnam Camouflage Story presents this highly curated collection of camouflage and relevant accessories in never-before-seen detail on large format, full-color prints in a premium hardback form. Tiger Stripe is the next best thing to having these exceptional collector’s grade items in your own personal collection.
Hey guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com. I'm Ian McCollum,
and I'm very excited today to announce the newest book from Headstamp Publishing, entitled
Tiger Stripe, the Vietnam Camouflage Story. Tiger Stripe, of course, is one of the most iconic
camouflage patterns out there. It is hugely embedded in Special Forces history and the
Vietnam War, and just has a really fantastic, interesting background. And that is what we
are delving into in this new book. It is going to be, without a doubt, the biggest and most
comprehensive book on the subject ever published. I don't have a final page count yet. We do have
some stretch goals that are still up in the air, but it's going to be at or a little over 800 pages
long. It is going to have more than 1250 images in it. Most of them, well all of them, either taken
by our fantastic Headstamp photographer, James Rupley, or actually period original Vietnam vintage
photographs of stuff in the field, which is really cool. So, specifically, let's take a look at what's
actually in the book. We are covering the entire gamut of Tiger Stripe camo in this book, which
means we actually have to start before the first real Tiger Stripe emerges. And it was influenced
heavily by things like British windproof camo and French lizard camo. So both of those are covered
in the book. Specifically all of the various iterations of French lizard, and there are a
bunch of them, and they're rather confusing. So this will be a fantastic reference on those. Then we get
into the actual Vietnamese Tiger Stripe authentic, like the real thing, Tiger Stripe patterns. And we
cover all of the different variations. So these are typically known in the collector community by
a number of interesting, entertaining, and somewhat descriptive names like Sea Wave Tiger, and Fat
Tiger, and Gold Tiger. We have Black Tiger Stripe in there. We have the Arvin Tiger Stripes in there.
We have Okinawa Tiger in there. You name it, they're all in there. And then the book extends
beyond just the actual military fatigue utility clothing made in Tiger Stripe. It includes things
like Hollywood's usage of Tiger Stripe, and specific patterns that were made for Hollywood
productions. It has a section on clothing and apparel for women and children made out of Tiger
Stripe, because there is more of that than you might naturally suspect. Sections on reproduction
Tiger Stripe, aside from the specific Hollywood usages, and of course all the way down to current
modern iterations, modern developments of Tiger Stripe camo. It really, like, there's too much
to get into, which is why it ended up being an 800 page book. This book was written by a gentleman
named Owen Thornton. He goes by the Handle Camo Man online, and he is one of the premier collectors
and experts in Tiger Stripe camouflage in the United States, if not in the world today. He's
been collecting this stuff for about 45 years now, and has an amazing collection of original pieces.
That is the primary source of photography for the book. James Rupley and I spent some time
photographing a, well, his extensive collection of Tiger Stripe for this book, and the photographs
that we have are paired with period photographs that he and some other collectors have assembled
from the Vietnam War. Pictures that show all sorts of different patterns, these different patterns of
Tiger Stripe actually in use in the field, including some incredibly rare material, a lot of photos that
have never been seen before, everything from the tailor shops in Saigon that were making Tiger
Stripe, all sorts of any custom Tiger Stripe apparel you wanted as a U.S. advisor or U.S. soldier,
you name it. The vintage photos in this by themselves are a fantastic reference and resource,
and of course we've coupled that with more than 1,250 original photos of the actual garments
themselves. Now the book is being launched on Kickstarter, and we have three basic pledge
levels. The first one is just the standard book, the second one is the signed version of the book
that's signed by Owen Thornton, the author, and then we also have a collector's edition, which I'm
particularly excited about this time around. We've always done collector editions of our books on
Kickstarter, but this time we've stepped it up an extra level and we're including a bunch of really
cool accessories. So you get the book signed, of course, in a fantastic clamshell case, but in
addition in that case we have a number of extra accessories for you. One is we have a color board
showing specific patterns of each of the different Tiger Stripe variations, much like you would see a
selection of paint swatches. So you have a handy reference to all of the different patterns on hand,
one next to the other, for easy comparison and easy identification of Tiger Stripe garments that
you may come across. We are also including a magnifier card so you can get a better view of
the photographs in the book, as well as for use on actual Tiger Stripe garments you come across,
and we have reproduced 10 original Vietnam unit and other patches that are part of the collections
that make up this book, and are just really cool pieces of vintage Vietnam War militaria.
James and Owen and I went through a huge number of patches to pick out the ones that we thought
were absolutely the coolest, the best, the most interesting, and we have a set of 10 of those
that are available as extras, which I'll get to in a moment, but are all included with the
collector's edition of the book, as well as an 11th patch, which is our Kickstarter campaign
participation patch. We've done one of those for all of our previous books, and this will be no
exception. So that collector's edition is going to be amazing. I can't wait to get my hands on
my copy of it, and I know you guys are really going to enjoy it as well. We also have some
pledge packages that are bundles of multiple books. One of those is From Hartford to Vietnam.
This is a book, a photograph book of, well, photographs of AR-15, M-16 development, testing,
and fielding in the 1960s and 1970s. There are photographs put together from a number of estates
of guys who were engineers and ... salesmen at Colt during this developmental period,
and during the Vietnam War. It's a fantastic book. We are actually launching it at the same
time here, although it doesn't have its own Kickstarter campaign. If you're interested in
it by itself, it's available on our website, but we thought you might be interested in bundling it
with Tiger Stripe. So that's available, From Hartford to Vietnam. We also have, from Vickers Guide,
AR-15 Volume 1. Hey, look at that. It's a Tiger Stripe cover. This is a book on the early AR-15
and M-16. It is amazing. This is from James Rupley and Larry Vickers. Fantastic piece. It is also
available as part of some bundle pledges. And we have one of our other recent books, Buckshot to
Beehive, a book on 40mm grenade munitions. Again, highly relevant to Vietnam. So there
are a couple bundles that include these standard versions of these books, or collector versions of
these books. Two of them, all four of them. You can take a look at the Kickstarter page to see
all the details. We have a ton of stretch goals lined up for this book. They're also really
exciting because there are a lot of little small side tangents that are part of the Tiger Stripe
story, but really kind of a small part. But they are interesting, and if there's enough interest
in the book in general, they're things that we can add into the overall manuscript. So some of
these are unique pieces of custom Tiger Stripe apparel. Some of them are really unusual, specific
Tiger Stripe patterns. You'll have to watch the Kickstarter page to see what those stretch goals
are, which are coming up next. But there are a couple up there already listed for us to start
off with, and they're pretty exciting. All right, so how do you get it? Well, you head on over to
Kickstarter. We have a link in the description text below. Pick out what pledge level you're
interested in, whether you want just the standard version of Tiger Stripe, the Vietnam camouflage
story, or whether you'd like the fantastic collector's edition, or an entire bundle of perhaps
everything that we have available related to the Vietnam War. All sorts of options over there for
you, as well as extras like those reproduction patches. You can get one. You can get a bundle of
all 10. Lots of cool stuff to take a look at. And, of course, the ongoing set of stretch goals that I
think you'll also be pretty excited about. So, if this is the sort of thing that sounds interesting,
hit us up over on Kickstarter. We are very excited to be running this campaign,
and we're looking forward to putting the book in your hands. Thanks for watching!
