The brown, green, and khaki shapes began to take shape with this 1st pattern. Perhaps of most importance to this pattern's development, the distinctive khaki "lightening bolt" first appears over the brown blob. However, the colors were extremely saturated and produced somewhat of a red hue. Against the lighter backdrop of the Rhodesian Bush, the aggressive colours needed to be significantly subdued. What resulted next was an experimental pattern known popularly by collectors as Arid Rhodesian Brushstroke. The extremely rare pattern featured the lighter shade of brown and lime green over a sharp khaki base. A small number were trialed by members of the newly formed Rhodesia Army during the period of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence. Again, the pattern was founded lacking, and additional tweaks were needed.

This tweaking resulted in the development of the legendary 2nd Pattern, Rhodesian Brushstroke. Featuring distinctive green slivers overtop of brown islands on a khaki base, is remains in our opinion, the best camouflage pattern in existence. It was used extensively by the Rhodesian Security Forces from 1970 onwards as the Bush War intensified, with the early British styled trousers finding their way to front line troops. By 1976 during the height of the Bush War, the pattern almost completely superseded the originally issued olive drabs in the battlespace. Many uniform variations, including British style three-tooth pocket uniforms, flap pocket field shirts, trousers, jumpsuits and a wide array of hats. 

Beginning with the issue of distinctively British garments styled off of older "Khaki Drill" and "Battle Dress" uniforms, Rhodesian Army issue garments evolved to become simpler to produce and more utilitarian. As the Rhodesian Bush War ramped up through the 1970s, the garments and accompanying equipment were outsourced by a wide variety of home grown Rhodesian companies including City Clothing Factory, Ferera, John Rowett & Sons, Statesman, Paramount, Trako, and many others. The garments featured John Whitehead produced fabrics, or in-house produced fabrics featuring the exact same shapes of the original 2nd pattern prints with slight changes to individual colors. This was also accompanied by the production of various "knock-off" aftermarket patterns by companies such as Monogram, or Lord Kitchener, that individual servicemen could purchase to supplement their supply of official army issue Rhodesian Brushstroke.  Tens of thousands of "2nd Pattern, Rhodesian Brushstroke" garments were produced during the course of the Rhodesian Bush War and into the early 1980s, and were reissued out to the Zimbabwean National Army. Individual ex-Rhodesians also exported or otherwise smuggled out a large number of Rhodesian Brushstroke garments that saw continued military service or were otherwise repurposed as recreational garments. A small number of original and defective prints survive the end of the Bush War, where many were exported to neighboring South Africa and possibly even as far as Spain, where most were used as the basis for relatively shoddy Adro-Adler or Sacan reproduction patterns. These reproductions have mixed into the availability of Rhodesian Brushstroke into the 21st century, along with the ever fewer numbers of prized original examples.

After the Rhodesian Bush War, many of the original bolts of Rhodesian Brushstroke fabric and supporting production documentation were lost to former employees of David Whitehead Textiles and members of the Rhodesian Security Forces fleeing the country. In addition to the surviving original bolts were some of the aftermarket copycat fabrics (most notably from Spain), and some production seconds from David Whitehead Textiles which entered the South African market. Most prominent were those distributed abroad via individuals such as Johan Niemoller, or resold by Soldier of Fortune Magazine. Copycat fabrics featured either the distinctive red hues of the 1st Pattern Rhodesian Brushstroke with a very poor quality fabric printing process, or Adler-Sacan/Adro which featured fantasy tags and thicker Brushstrokes while retaining the correct colors. 

The new Zimbabwe National Army sought to immediately distance themselves from the former forces of Rhodesia, and quickly adopted a drab olive uniform, in addition to a distinctive Zimbabwean Lizard Pattern. By the 1990s, the Zimbabweans would slowly re-adopt a copy of the former Rhodesian Brushstroke with the added twist of superimposing their browns over many of the green shades. This new Zimbabwean Brushstroke Pattern effectively created a fourth dark brown-green colour over many of the former slim green brushstroke features. While completely illegal to export out of Zimbabwe as this pattern is now the active 

Over the past few decades, various companies have attempted to market an approximation of the most prominently used 2nd Pattern, Rhodesian Brushstroke. In reality, they were either selling the blatant copycat post-war patterns, or some variation of the Zimbabwean pattern. It was only through the contacts we've made over the years with former members of the the Rhodesian Army/SADF and former David Whitehead Textiles Ltd. staff that we've discovered the truth about this pattern.

We know what the "real deal" looks like

We have in our collection examples of the 2nd Pattern Rhodesian Brushstroke, Zimbabwe National Army Brushstroke, Adler-Sacan/Adro Brushstroke, Niemoller "Red' Brushstroke and several other unique original examples. Each one of these patterns are beautiful in their own way, but nothing beats the glorious 2nd Pattern Rhodesian Brushstroke. It was this pattern during camouflage tests conducted by the United States Marine Corps in 2000 that topped the charts alongside the likes of CADPAT and Tiger Stripe. It was also Rhodesian Brushstroke that inspired the khaki elements of the eventually developed woodland MARPAT pattern, which remains in issue today. 

It is based off of careful research and digital color tests that we have deduced the differences between the many copycat patterns, including some that have popped up as of late from Chinese fabric mills. We have often been accused by less than savory characters as being distributing one of the many post-war copycat patterns, or even worse, Zimbabwean Brushstroke. To put that rumour mill the rest, we took some solid photos back in the summer of 2019 comparing our pattern with a mint condition David Whitehead Textiles Ltd. fabric bolt. 

All photos were shot with a Canon EOS Rebel T3i with a SIGMA DC 18-250mm lense. They were photographed under identical overhead soft white light conditions on a 24 by 24 inch portable table. They were all taken on the same day, by the same photographer. No filters, edits have been made with exception to the cropping of the photos to fit a 2000x2000 canvas on photoshop. No black magic, no makeup, no color changes, this is what Rhodesian Brushstroke really looks like. 

Disclaimer: These photos are for demonstration purposes only under specific lighting conditions, in case that isn't self evident. The vast majority of our product photos showcased on our website are also taken with a Canon EOS Rebel T3i with a SIGMA DC 18-250 lense, but often under slightly different lighting conditions and saturation levels. General product photos are taken with a quad-system of hard white light at a distance of approximately 1-2 feet away. As such, there may be discrepancies in the visual appearance between various products as displayed on product photos, how they appear in person under white/soft light, and natural lighting. There may be additional discrepancies based on the composition of the fabric, as there are visual differences in polycotton ripstop fabric due to the raised ripstop grid squares.