5.11 Sidewinder Shirt

The warm and comfortable, tough and durable, polyester flannel of the new 5.11 ‘Sidewinder’, makes it a practical shirt, or overshirt for cooler weather; while its casual good looks made it as suitable to wear around town, as during outdoor activities in the country.

The fabric is hard-wearing and the yoke area reinforced, and is easy to wash, quick to dry, fade resistant, shrink resistant and shrugs off light showers, while needing little or no ironing to stay looking smart. The collar is in the contrast fabric and the shirt has a full-front opening, two-position buttoned cuffs, with buttoned cuff plackets to make it easy to roll up the sleeves, and the two front patch pockets have pen slots in the top of their angled pocket flaps. The ‘buttons’ on the front and pockets are, in fact, press-studs for quick access to inner layers.

Naturally, the shirt features 5.11’s characteristic ‘hidden document pockets’, their vertical openings almost invisible in the plaid pattern, and the mesh-backed pockets themselves covering the whole of the chest area and capable of swallowing vast amounts of kit. The shirt’s shaped hem has side inserts for a good fit and makes the shirt look good worn tucked in, or outside of your trousers. Compared to most 5.11 shirts, the Sidewinder seems to have a slimmer fit with slightly longer sleeves and while this may suit many, it is not so good for those sharing my ‘chunky’ build…

Although I tend to prefer natural fibre fabrics, I have found the 5.11 Sidewinder Flannel Shirt a good choice for cooler weather (as long as I avoid standing by any sparky fires) and in more ‘civilised’ surroundings, its casual good looks have been admired.

Conclusion

Practical, warm, comfortable, tough, functional, yet smart, the 5.11 Sidewinder Flannel Shirt is a good addition to the 5.11 shirt collection.