Philippine Made Gear: Venum Banshee-Style Plate Carrier

Venum Banshee PC

By Diego

The OD Green variant of the vest

Venum specializes in producing plate carriers and chest rigs for the police, military and commerical market, offering 3 different models of vests that all come in different color variations, and a clone of the HSGI Woosatch chest rig.

Philippine gear manufacturers are often local businesses consisting of artisans that create gear, often without product catalogs, a dedicated website, or heavy social media presence. Thus, many gear producers do not designate their products, so Venum generically calls each of their carriers “Back 2 Back” or B2B and their chest rig model simply a “Bandolier”. These small mom-and-pop shops often overlook such formalities.

Thus, this Banshee like carrier is also called “B2B” by Venum and its distributors.

Philippine Navy NAVSOG operators pose for the naval media photographer. Note the SEAL on the far right, with a Venum Banshee style PC in the Nutria Brown/Olive Green Cordura color scheme.

One of Venum’s PC offerings seems to be loosely based off of the US made Shellback Tactical Banshee plate carrier, and is widely popular with Philippine police and military users alike.

Philippine Army infantrymen, Army SOCOM consisting of the Scout Rangers, Special Forces Airborne Regiment, and the elusive yet effective Light Reaction Regiment make liberal use of this vest, usually in OD or Olive Green color variants. Coyote Brown or their SADF Nutria Brown like color scheme is documented as the second most common.

Note that virtually all gear made in the Philippines comes with a set of pouches, so the products featured will always include the pouches shown with the product. Aftermarket pouches are available however rare, so companies and shops will take the initiative and bundle pouches with their products

Philippine National Police officers also use these Venum carriers in either the green or brown color schemes.

PNP RSPB officer after a training exercise

Army Light Reaction Regiment, considered to be the Philippines’ Delta Force equivalent, sporting Venum Banshee style vests in an advertisement photo

Philippine Army SOCOM shown here with two different color variants of the Venum PC, Nutria Brown style and OD.

Probably the most striking feature of this model of Venum vest is the copious amount of colors that it comes in. OD, a ligher Olive Green, Coyote Brown, Nutria Brown, black, are the more traditional colors. Some models will have different color of MOLLE as well. Eccentric color schemes such as PLA Type 07 Arid and the Scout Rangers Black Digital pattern are also offered.

However, for the sake of practicality, police and military servicemembers alike go for more conservative colors like the aforementioned green and brown variants shown in the various photographs.

Overall, it seems as though Venum’s low profile vest will remain to be a popular choice for military and first responders in the Philippines. Its square but slim profile, a feature found on the original Banshee vest, means it is more breathable in the tropical heat and fit better on generally smaller Filipino frames. Its compact size and durability lead to this vest being a premier choice for many needing a good vest.

Venum Banshee in Type 07 arid, one of the more zany color options available for this vest.

Army infantryman with his Venum PC

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