Kit Spotlight: Tribe Tactical H Back and Butterfly Back Chest Rigs

By Diego

As with a lot of modern Filipino gear companies, Tribe entered the scene in the early-mid 2010s and make plate carriers, RRV clones, and other equipment usually based on US designs. While faint RRV and HSGI architecture exists with these two Tribe vests, these particular vests stray away from foreign designs, and is a chest rig with a platebag front for the provision of a 10x12 SAPI plate. The admin pouch is integrated, and these come with either five, 1 cell magazine pouches or the HSGI Weesatch style 5 cell pouches. 2 GP pouches on the flanks are also included. As the colloquial names suggest, it comes with either an H Harness or X harness, locally called “H Back” or “Butterfly Back” respectively.

The “H Back” model comes with the Weesatch style 5 cell magazine pouch and the two general purpose pouches on either side, all are MOLLE webbing attached and removable. The shoulder straps are flush with the rest of the vest and feature green D Rings towards the bottom. Finally, the admin pouch is a square shaped pouch in the center chest area. Its front has female hook and loop for patches and MOLLE for additional provisions. Inside are two elastic pockets for notebooks or phones, and a laminated cover for a map. Because of its profile and H Harness design, it’s more likely made for wider framed individuals, as the combination of the H Harness and wider profile overall is more conducive to built individuals.

The X Harness variant is more akin to a plate carrier aesthetics wise, as it features shoulder padded straps with a SAPI cut platebag front. Much like its H back counterpart, it features five one cell pouches, which are akin to Eagle Industries M4 pouches with both hook and loop and a buckle closure. Its side GP pouches and magazine pouches are all MOLLE compatible and removable. Its admin pouch is contoured to the chest area itself, but seems comparable in size to the H Back version’s. A slight variation between the admin pouches is that the inside of the X Harness’ admin pouch has a mesh map pocket as opposed to a laminated one.

One key feature is its X Harness back, the design of which is called a “butterfly back” in the Philippines. A stiff Cordura reinforcement is tied to the cross section connecting the X harness, and has female hook and loop provision for patches. Due to its slimmer profile and the X Harness, this is likely made for more smaller individuals.

Overall, this company has decent designs and build quality. The usual Filipino 330D Cordura seems mixed in with 500D Cordura for this rig, and the inside has a breathable nylon lining. YKK brand zippers and buckles are also utilized. Definitely up there in terms of build quality, with Venum/Venum-X and Gearmax.

Of note is that Filipino gear is often made thinner than its western counterparts. Having sampled dozens of different brands and products made locally, this seems deliberate as a weight and comfort measure. Durability is sacrificed for breathability and lighter weight, important to have in tropical environments.

While outside the scope of FET’s kit purview, Colombian kits convergently evolve and are built practically the same: Thinner Cordura fabric and a greater emphasis on chest rig designs.