By Jordan Haworth, FSWEP Student – The Guard

The 2018 Canada Army Run shirts had a unique Canadian Disruptive Pattern (CADPAT) camouflage design for the first time in the event’s history, as well as short-sleeve versions.

The annual sporting event is a fundraiser to help support veterans as well as ill and injured Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members, and has raised over $2.6 million since 2008.

Corporal Andrew Wesley, an Image Technician for Combat Camera, was the lead on the design of the new shirts. The shirts, which include both short and long sleeve variations, have CADPAT split into two colours. The colours are red, with either white for the 5KM run, black for the 10KM run, grey for the half marathon (21KM), or green for the Command Challenge (26.1KM).

“It’s straightforward and simple. I’ve always found that simple works best,” said Cpl Wesley in regards to the design. The red used is darker than the one used for the Canadian flag, but still bares some resemblance to the flag.

“The red tie-in is mostly because of the Canadian flag and its very prominent red element. The red that we used in the CADPAT for the design is darker than the Canadian flag, and there are two reasons for that: one being that the Canadian flag is on the sleeve…it can’t blend into that so it has to be darker…and two, because I think that the darker elements almost hearken to a remembrance theme. It’s something very vivid and strong, but also reminds us of the sacrifices that have come before,” said Cpl Wesley.

Although patterns similar to CADPAT had been used previously, this is the first time the design uses the original pattern.

“This is the first year we’ve used the same CADPAT pattern as CAF uniforms. We used a recreation of the CADPAT pattern previously, but it was not the exact CADPAT pattern,” said Michael Timmermans, the Communications Manager for the Army Run.

Despite CADPAT being regularly used in the CAF, creating the design was not easy, according to Cpl Wesley, who said “I drew out colours from the CADPAT itself and took imagery from my military gear.”

Cpl Wesley had to draw the design and use imagery with a measurement to scale of each individual component of the CADPAT design. The design is “proudly Canadian…I was bothered that military members would know that it’s not real CADPAT they were wearing,” said Cpl Wesley, who has previously served in the 3^rd Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment in the Infantry.

The 2018 Canada Army Run was held on September 23. For more information, please visit the Canada Army Run website.