Advanced Protective Gear and Armor

Report Highlights

The US market for advanced protective gear and armor was worth $4 billion in 2010 and the figure is expected to reach $5.2 billion in 2015 for a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.1%, between 2010 and 2015.

Report Scope

The protective clothing, gear, and armor markets are a fragmented industry. There are significant and specific segments of protective clothing, gear, and armor industry.  Within each of these segments are a variety of players, including government organizations that create, develop, and enforce regulations and standards, raw material suppliers, fiber and fabric manufacturers, mills and fabric producers, finished goods manufacturers, and suppliers and distributors. The supply chain may be complex and at times difficult to understand. Our focus is on the major material types and the designers of the products rather than on the distributors of the products.  To emphasize the complexity, it may be that one large corporation through many of its parts can be involved in all the sectors of the supply chain.  This study of the advanced protective gear and armor markets focuses on the following major sectors in the U.S. market:

• Heat- and flame resistant clothing, including firefighters’ turnout gear for structural, proximity, and wildlands fire service, as well as industrial fire resistant garments for use in electric and gas utilities or in industrial applications in which electric arc and flash fire are hazards.
• Chemical protective garments and equipment, including chemical-resistant clothing, chemical or biological warfare and protective suits, and gloves used in industrial applications.  Much of this same gear can be used for biological protection.
• Respirators and ancillary components for fire and chemical/biological situations.
• Body and vehicular armor, including bullet and fragmentation-resistant garments used in law enforcement and military applications.
• Body armor, including bullet-resistant garments used in law enforcement and military applications. The retrofitting of vehicles using the same types of materials and some of the newer engineered in-place vehicle armor.

Each of these areas of the personal protective clothing/equipment industry is discussed.  Within each segment—chemical/biological, fire, and projectiles/ explosives—the regulations, raw materials, technologies, market size, and anticipated growth are covered.  Manufacturers are evaluated and listed at the conclusion of each of the appropriate sections.

Although there are frequent mentions in military documents and in the popular press concerning nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC or NBCR) equipment, this is excluded from our discussion.  There is no truly protective clothing for severe nuclear threats such as battlefield nuclear explosions or a Chernobyl-level nuclear accident.  When gamma rays are present in force and quantity, the effective absorbers might be lead or the misnomer "depleted" uranium.  Respirators and clothing do help, but the best solution is situational awareness.  The NBC misnomer continues; details of implied NBC are not included in this report.

The geographic scope of this report is the U.S. market.

Analyst Credentials

Anna Welch Crull, a chemist and experienced private consultant, is qualified in electrochemistry, polymers, membrane materials, and advanced materials.  Ms. Crull has worked with BCC, Inc. (now BCC Research) for 30 years and has authored more than 112 technical/marketing reports, helped establish 10 technical newsletters, and assisted in numerous special consulting studies and conferences for more than 35 corporations and intelligence for U.S. government entities.  She has worked for the U.S. Army Materials Command on rocket technology, propellants, and explosives. Ms. Crull is a graduate of the School of Engineering, University of Mississippi and holds a Masters Degree in Chemistry from the University of Missouri.