Halfway through the year 2013, FirstSpear, an American manufacturer of military-tactical apparel and gear, introduced around 16 new items in their fresh summer catalogue. The new plate carrier named First On was demonstrated among the others. For that time this vest model was the lightest in weight and the most compact in size in the collection of protective platform equipment and was marketed as an emergency vest, created specially for the staff memebers of law enforcement and security establishments.
The manufacturing company set themselves a task of designing a compact, plus as much modest in weight as possible and as simple in employment as possible equipment that would require consumer's minimal efforts to make use of it. On the other hand, the garment had also to come out multipurpose, suitable for applications with different types of armament, compatible with the basic Kevlar vests, and profiled low enough to wear the vest unidentified, when needed.
As of today, two modifications of First On plate carrier are currently under fabrication, and the difference between them involves nothing but the configuration of the front cartridge pouches and the width of Velcro panels on the carriers. In general, the vest construction is very simple; the initial version, which is the basic one as well, and which is under review in the present article, is distinguished by availability of two open-top pouches for rifle magazines and one multipurpose pouch that may be utilized either for an additional magazine or for a radio communications set. The second version of the vest got different due to replacement of the radio set pouch with a utility pouch that is suitable for individual first-aid kits.
First On vest is manufactured almost completely of Cordura nylon material with the specified overall density of 500 deniers. The approximate total weight of an unequipped piece makes about 340 grams. The manufacturing quality of the item is just ideal: it’s really impossible to find any drawbacks with it. For instance, even the Tubes – original polymeric fastening system that is used to fix the waist straps – may boast of a high manufacturing quality and excellent operability. The fasteners are minimalistic in weight, low-profiled and occupy little space in the construction. They are fastened and released only in one direction, and one-hand strike is enough to get them unclasped.
The plate carrier is secured on the human corpus with the help of two flat shoulder straps, which are attached and adjusted with the use of Velcro fasteners, and a couple of waist straps with plastic buckles; the waist straps are adjusted more traditionally in a way, by the aid of a plastic clamping bracer. The adjustment margin is more than sufficient; the only drawback is that First On vest is manufactured just with the sole option of carrier dimensions – the carriers for steel and ceramic plates do not exceed 260 mm broadwise and 330 mm heightwise. The plates themselves are not anyhow retained inside; the carriers are fastened with nothing else but Velcro-closures.
And here is a brief description of the plate carrier pouches. The vest pouches are exclusively of an open-type; they are provided with elastic cords to perform the function of retainers; the dimensions of the rifle pouches are quite sufficient to allocate both – the magazines for 5.56 × 45 mm NATO rounds and the magazines for 5.45 × 39 mm rounds. The one and the other pouches are accomplished with drainage grummets at the bottom part. The same feature refers to the radio set pouch, which is distinguished by a specific cutout line, adjustment retainer and availability of wiring clamp (for the common hand mikes attachment there are special ropes provided on the shoulder harness).
For the present day FirstSpear First On plate carrier is available to the customer not only in two versions, but in two different types of monochrome coloring as well – the black and the grey-green ("Ranger Green") ones. For the purpose of the present review the plate carrier has been purchased from a specialized online retailer - Special Force Gear. The purchase procedure has made up approximately 160 US dollars.
