State-of-the-art Uniforms Causes Major Headache for Military Surplus Dealer

Morinville, Canada - A Canadian military surplus dealer made an investment in state-of-the-art camouflage clothing. Now, there are questions as to whether the items will land him in jail, or reap significant profits.

Scott Collacutt, owner of Morinville's CEL Army Surplus, purchased the uniforms from Edmonton Garrison as scrap textiles, a practice he routinely performs as a normal part of his business without ever laying eyes on the goods.

In August, the Canadian army apparently stated they would arrest Scott Collacutt if he sold his 3,500 cadpat "Canadian Disruptive Pattern" uniforms.

The uniforms were part of assorted military clothing that Collacutt buys on spec. After buying this particular lot, Collacutt and his employees rummaged through the boxes to find things to sell. Anything they couldn’t see would be thrown away.

The factory-second or damaged uniforms began appearing in his boxes in the summer of 2002, within months of first being supplied to Canadian soldiers, Collacutt said. This was about the time the military declared them "controlled goods" that must be mutilated or burned rather than sold when worn out or damaged.

"I wasn't told about this until I got a phone call on July 27 of this year," said Collacutt, who has already sold some of the uniforms to a movie supply company in Vancouver . Other uniforms have been sold to soldiers whose own needed replacing.

"Ninety per cent of my business is with the regular force or the cadets," he said.

To broaden his market, Collacutt gave 50 uniforms to a colleague who took them to Las Vegas , where he distributed them at a convention of military surplus dealers.

On Sept. 2, 37 days after the military informed him in a letter he would have to return the uniforms or face charges, Collacutt got his first indication he'd hit pay dirt.

"I'm looking for 500 pair of the Canadian camouflage uniforms in assorted sizes as soon as possible," a co-owner of Mad Dog Wholesale in Chico , California , informed him in a fax.

"I will need this amount approximately every 60 days," Dutch Padgett wrote.

American hunters would love to own one of the Canadian uniforms, Padgett told The Journal on Monday.

"Any kind of (camouflage) is good," said Padgett. "Cadpat is special because it's the newest thing out there."

American hunters would pay plenty for the newest thing in camouflage, Collacutt said.

"The uniforms I have could retail (for) $150 and up. I could probably get $90 wholesale."

Researchers first began working on the Canadian design in 1988, looking for a "disruptive" pattern that would trick the human eye.

Eventually, they came up with a computer-generated design of small rectangles, called "pixelation," which had to be reproduced on fabric with exacting accuracy.

At one time the U.S. Marines considered adopting the design for its new pattern but the Canadian government owns the copyright.

To assist the Marines, the Canadians supplied information to help them develop their own computer-generated pixelated uniform.

To date, American military surplus dealers have been unable to get their hands on any new marine uniforms, Padgett said.

"They want to control it."

So does the Canadian army.

"We would prefer if this not be walking out there," said Maj. Scott Lundy, public affairs officer for the Edmonton-based Land Force Western Area.

Collacutt can understand why the Canadian army changed its mind about the uniforms.

Following the destruction of the World Trade Center , militaries everywhere clamped down on sales of equipment, fearing terrorists or others might disguise themselves as bona fide soldiers, he said.

The commanding officer of Edmonton Garrison's 1 General Support Battalion denies there's a security risk. Because of illicit sales, plenty of uniforms have made it on to the civilian market, Lt.-Col. John MacKay said.

Nevertheless, these uniforms shouldn't have been put up for sale.

"It was a bad error," MacKay said. "We have fixed the process."

In exchange for returning 30 large boxes of uniforms, the military is offering 30 boxes of "scrap textile" plus an extra 15 boxes "in compensation for your time and effort," Collacutt said.

When he originally bought the boxes of mixed cast-off clothing, Collacutt paid approximately $2 a pound.

To return the uniforms scavenged from those loads, he now wants $159,000, plus $5,000 in legal fees, $3,600 in lost wages and a one-year extension on his contracts with the military.

If a deal is struck, the military will haul away the uniforms and burn or shred them.