It is expensive, but I shelled out the money for some Crye Precision gear and it is worth it. I have the Cage Plate Carrier and it is the most comfortable body armor I've ever worn. When you're doing 72-hr ops dropped in some Afghan valley and you've got to walk everywhere, your shoulders get destroyed from carrying all that kit. Last year I used the army issued plate carrier and I wouldn't be surprised if I have nerve damage from wearing that bloody thing.
Now, after about 12 hours it'll suck anyway, but it's still much more comfortable than the issued stuff.
Last year I didn't spend much money at all. That changed this year... I decided to hell with it, I'm gonna rock some good gear. Some brands I like:
Crye Precision
Mountain Hardwear
Magpul
Ops-Core
Fenix
Under Armour
Triple Aught Design
Oakley
I use a lot of Crye's stuff; they have many products that are designed intelligently. (I only wish their customer service was as good as their gear) Mountain Hardwear makes great baselayer clothing and it's easy to get a military discount and save ~50% on their stuff. They make a lightweight beanie that you can wear under your helmet. Very nice. I use Ops-Core's H-harness chinstrap, best chinstrap I've ever used. Solid and doesn't come undone, unlike the issued chinstrap. For mags I prefer magpul's; they're tough, lightweight, reliable. They're a little larger than the issued mags but I'm fine with that. I also use their "badlever" which allows you to lock and release the bolt on your M4 with your firing hand. Takes a few tries to get used to, but once you do you won't ever have to switch hands to lock/release your bolt.
Under Armour's stuff I wear for working out; it's very comfortable. Oakleys go without saying, but I'll say it anyway - best eyepro in the business. Fenix makes pretty damned good flashlights, but since they're LED no IR solution yet. I talked to one of their reps over email and they're working on something IR for the military. As it is I use their HL21 headlamp, it has 3 different brightness settings, up to 90lumens. For a handheld light I use something similar to their PD20 model; mine is a few years older but does the same. 3 brightness settings and it can run a long time on one 123 battery.
Triple Aught Design makes some nice stuff. They are, however, very expensive. I bought their litespeed backpack and used it on a couple missions running slick on the back of my armor and it rode very well.
Few pointers for new gear guys....don't ever pay retail. You're military. E-mail the company you're interested in buying from, tell them you're military and ask if they have a military discount. Most do. Sometimes it's only 10%, but in some cases like Mountain Hardwear they have a prodeal program.
www.promotive.com ,
www.backcountryoutlet.com ,
www.steepandcheap.com , are all great places to look for gear deals.
Recreation-wise I use an Amazon Kindle for reading, and even though I missed paper books at first I don't now. It's so much easier to carry your library with you. You can't get every book on it, but you can get most of them. For a little over 100 books for the device, a battery that lasts a couple weeks with steady reading... no better solution out there to save weight and space if you travel.
Also I have to say that since I switched from pc to mac, my life has been much easier. Few things are as frustrating as having your pc shit itself on deployment and you spend hours trying to fix it before giving up. Never had a problem with my macbook pro.
As far as exercise gear... A friend and I buy from elitefts.com . We use the sled and the prowler
http://www.flexcart.com/members/elit...?m=PD&pid=1006 and some of the stretch bands for a few workouts and also for warming up. For explosive athletic strength, which is what we need for our job, the sled and prowler are great tools. Easy to throw on a pallet, too.