Keeping Hidden and Your Paintball Equipment

Some paintball equipment is made for those that prefer the most realism in their games. Of course, this means a lot of camo. There are several different types of camouflage that you can add to your paintball equipment to make it less visible when you're playing. Here are some guidelines.

Digital Camouflage

This is the camouflage that consists of digital patterns. It is currently used by all of the branches of the US military and by several militaries worldwide. For paintball equipment, it's hard to beat. The broken, pixilated pattern is very tough on the eyes and makes it hard to pick out an outline. If you don't believe it, just stand back from it for a while. Those artificial looking squares become a real mess for your eyes with a bit of distance and make it very hard to determine where the person wearing it starts and ends.

Traditional Patterns

The older patterns of camo still make great choices for paintball equipment. The difference between them and the newer patterns, however, is that they tend to be less flexible. Forest patterns, for instance, are very visible in urban situations and urban patterns are very visible in a forest. The new uniforms used by the military can blend in most anywhere, regardless of the predominant colors, as they adhere to a different concept of how to break up a pattern and have many years of research behind them compared to the older patterns.

Black and Blue

No, it's not a reference to your skin. Good paintball equipment should keep you from getting too black and blue during your game. Black and blue, however, are both popular colors for blending into certain environments. The actual best colors may surprise you, however.

If you've ever wondered why SWAT teams wear dark blue instead of black, it's because dark blue blends better at night. Black actually sticks out because there are few instances in nature where a pure black color is seen. In cases where something is purely black, the conditions are likely so low light that you wouldn’t' be able to see anything that was even brighter in color. Black will also stand out against the night sky, which is actually a dark blue, so you'll want to consider this if you're playing games at night.

Your hard armor can easily be pattered with different types of camo to make it less visible. You can also wear it under camo clothes for greater effect.