REVIEW: Helikon-Tex Covert Tactical Pants

There he is, the Gray Man - HERE at SPARTANAT everything about the "Gray Man Theory" -, in the midst of the urban art jungle, and he is a gray man not only because of the color of his pants. Helikon-Tex offers a very interesting alternative to cargo pants with their new Covert Tactical Pant, which are always somewhat conspicuously civilian.

The man in the main picture has two pistol and two rifle magazines in addition to his wallet and house keys. All of course without any ammunition, in our case. The Covert Tactical Pant provides you with six external trouser pockets, three on each side, which you can see in the picture.

Two classic front pockets, two back pockets, and two hip side pockets. All of these pockets are very deep, so an AK47 magazine or PMag almost completely disappears inside.

The front pockets and side pockets are reinforced so that knife clips do not cause too much wear. Very practical. The belt loops are also very spacious at 50mm.

The back pockets in all their glory. As already mentioned, a magazine fits in here without any problem. The Covert Tactical Pant is made of "Versastretch," a nylon-spandex blend. As a result, the pants are extremely elastic - more on that later - but all inserted items also show through.

The pants are closed with velcro. It holds well and does not bulge. The fly closure is classical with a zipper.

Now on to the inner values. In the picture, the pants turned inside out. There are four additional pockets inside. Two small ones slightly slanted at the front, and two larger ones on the side.

These pockets are primarily designed to discreetly store items. In the picture, a pistol magazine in the small pocket and a training pistol in the large pocket, used as an improvised holster. A magazine fits easily into the large pocket again. In comparison to the outer pockets, very little to nothing shows through here.

Here photographed with the same contents, only the T-shirt hangs loosely down. And you can't see anything. Neither the contents of the inner pockets nor the outer pockets are visible. Now we also know why the pants prominently carry the attribute "Covert."

What we particularly like about the side pockets is that sitting with them fully loaded is not a problem. It's also very comfortable to sit in a car with them.

The only somewhat disadvantageous thing we noticed about the pants is the Versastretch material. In the summer, heat builds up strongly under the pants and somehow it feels like wearing a plastic bag. In autumn and winter, however, the pants should be super comfortable. Another drawback of the Versatretch material is its high sensitivity to heat and/or fire. In the picture, you can see the result of a hot exhaust pipe. Yes, we accidentally touched it and the pants got slightly scorched.

But the Versastretch fabric also has its advantages, as with wide lunges …

… or really deep squats are no problem. Following the motto: "Ass to the grass."

CONCLUSION: A trouser with an extremely well-thought-out and practical pocket arrangement. The chosen Versastretch material is more suitable for cooler seasons, as sweating intensifies at hot summer temperatures. Nevertheless, we were very impressed by the Covert Tactical Pant, as it presents a pleasantly simple appearance and can still accommodate a huge amount of stuff. This is not only pleasing to gray men.

Available directly from Helikon-Tex for €73.90 excluding shipping in many colors and at all dealers that carry Helikon-Tex such as Camostore or <