Introduction
Shaw Concepts gear is now available at Tactical Kit and they kindly sent over the 5.56 Elastic Placard and also The RAID Pouch.
The latter is shown in some of the pics below, but discussed at great length in a separate article.
This is a much shorter review.
As I said in the earlier article, both items have been distilled from the experience of Shaw’s owner – and with a flair for design.
After some years spent in the Marine Reconnaissance Community and frustration with the gear found on the market, Shaw Concepts was formed. What started as just a Marine with a sewing machine in the barracks has flourished into a custom gear shop that serves to design gear that Marines and other service members require that isn’t currently offered on the market.
Thinking about how to tackle this review, I was simultaneously browsing through Shaw Concepts’ IG stories. On that particular day the instalments amounted to a fascinating document, showcasing some of the development stages the company’s products have gone through – the 5.56 Elastic Placard amongst them.
5.56 Elastic Placard
The placard consists of three elastic pouches sized for 556 mags (plus some interesting extras) on one side, and hook velcro on the reverse.
The latter mates with loop velcro on an appropriate PC’s placard area, together with the Fastex clips at the top of the placard.
Mag Pouches
The elastic mag pouches are structured so as to avoid the birthing effect seen with some implementations (e.g. Ten Speed pouches), where the elastic base of the pouch can push against the contents under certain circumstances.
Shaw’s solution is an open base pouch (which also allows water and crud to egress) with a webbing stirrup. The stirrup limits the mag’s travel into the pouch, and it’s also tougher than elastic – evidently.
Shock Cord Facility
The stirrup continues up the face of the pouch and ends in a loop, corresponding to another webbing loop at the mouth of the pouch. Here, a shock cord and index tab can be attached for additional mag retention.
Tourniquet Garage
Underneath the mag pouches, an elastic TQ garage is slung. This is sized well and the TQ feels secure, but retrievable.
Pen Holders
At the placard’s flanks are elastic pen holders.
Peel Tabs
Lastly (and conveniently) the placard exhibits tabs at its bottom corners, so that the item can easily be peeled away from the PC when donning and doffing the cummerbund.
Compatibility
The placard is built to what has become the industry standard spec, which I understand was originally pioneered by Mayflower/Velocity Systems.
However, this isn’t something my Crye AVS (AVS Base Configuration reviewed here) will accept without intervention – one of the AVS’ drawbacks.
So, I’ve used the excellent AXL Adaptive Vest Placard adaptor to connect the Shaw item to my AVS, but it’ll go straight onto a lot of modern PCs like the Crye JPC 2.0 (reviewed here) and Crye SPC (reviewed here).
Concluding Notes
Shaw’s vision has been brought to life by manufacturing partner Raine Inc., and it’s the first time I’ve seen any of their work. The placard works as expected, is competently put together and uses decent materials.
Shaw’s product description implies tolerances may differ between placards, but I’ve had no difficulty inserting or retrieving mags from the item.
On the contrary – for me, the tension is perfect and the open base design allows mags to be confidently driven to a stop when inserted, with no push back like closed base elastic designs.
The Shaw Concepts 5.56 Elastic Pouch is available from Tactical Kit
The AXL Adaptive Vest Placard adaptor is also available from Tactical Kit
The Reptile House 
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