Swiss army will get Utexbel uniform (so you won’t confuse soldiers and terrorists)

Textile company Utexbel in Ronse will make camouflage fabrics for the Swiss Army. The company is the only company outside of Switzerland that is allowed to make the army uniforms. The camouflage pattern is unique and protected, and it has to be for safety reasons.

Textile company Utexbel in Ronse will be making camouflage fabrics for the Swiss Army for the next five years. And it’s a lot of dust: a whopping half a million metres.

Utexbel is the only company outside of Switzerland that can help make army uniforms. They do this for safety reasons, says Ivan Heyvaert of Utexbel:

“They choose only one fabric supplier because otherwise there is a risk that the fabric will circulate too much, so that terrorists could get their hands on them.”

Which seems to be a very strange explanation.

Utexbel manufactures camouflage fabrics for different European armies, each with a unique print, just like a fingerprint.

“We had already done the development of this camouflage print for the French army, but it was a bit different. In the end, the fabric served as the basis for the uniforms of the Swiss soldiers,” Heyvaert adds.

The camouflage pattern is also protected, each uniform will have a label with “Armée Suisse” on it, indicating that they are Swiss soldiers.