[DanUCSB]

I have to say that this all sounds a bit unfortunate. What BDUs need are a few small, incremental changes, rather than all this 'the 88Ms want zippers and velcro!' shit. (No offense to 88Ms.) There are many problems with this idea, IMO.

The first is that the BDU as it is is a fine combat uniform, with a few modifications. Arm pockets and a wider/stronger (authorized) belt are what immediately pop to mind. Maybe extra/wider belt loops on the trousers. The lower blouse pockets are pretty useless, sure, but I've never seen them actually get in the way, so it's a non-issue. Maybe a better camouflage pattern (although, an argument could well be made that it's irrelevant if we're sending men to the desert with desert camouflage and woodland accoutrements). All in all, little modifications that many (most?) effective units already make.

But the rest is silly. Knee and elbow pouches so that you can stick padding in? (Nowhere near as effective as real knee/elbow pads.) A zippered top so you can get into suntan-mode faster? (Zipper break/catch/unzip... can you fix a broken zip as quickly as you can sew on a new button?) Shorter shirt-tails? (When the current ones come untucked too easily as-is?) Velcro for patches/rank (Isn't this what pin-on was supposed to be for?) and as fasteners (Which takes all of one brush against a tree branch/rear-view mirror/whatever to undo, versus an infinitely-more-sturdy button?)

In all, terrible idea. Just implement the BDU changes that soldiers have been asking for for years, and quit trying to change shit for the sake of change.