The ALICE system was used for YEARS for a reason. It works, period. All of this High Speed Low Drag MOLLE stuff just came about to be away to modify what and how you carry.
If I had say, 100 dollars right now for gear and I knew that was all I was going to have I could easily get geared up. And I'm talking boots, rigs and pack. At the local SURPLUS store you can get a good large ALICE w/frame for about $35. That leaves us $65. A new rifleman rig in woodland will cost you $25. That leaves us $40 Spend about $20, probably less on a surplus belt and suspenders which leaves us $20. A 2 Liter canteen and cover are about $9 (if I remember right, maybe less), a couple of AR mag pouches at $3 a piece and a small pouch for a BOK should round out the $100 total. Of course there are taxes and you can do things to save money like skipping on a couple pouches or getting a used rifleman rig for $10 bucks less.
The old stuff works and is cheap enough to put a couple back as buddy/family rigs and it wont hurt too bad.
That said there are also other ways to get a great setup for cheap. This of course requires some ingenuity and skill but can be done. Here is how my most basic setup come to life.
Eagle Industries Generic chest rig without MOLLE ON SALE for
$40 (saved about $40!)Purchased some Mil shock cord, which I still have plenty of so I used about
$4 worth
Used an old MOLLE panel I had laying around -
FREE!!!Needle
S and thread I already had -
AGAIN FREE!!!A little... OK A LOT of time, patience and quite a few bent sewing needles later (mind you I was sewing EVERYTHING by hand) I ended up with something even better than this...
http://www.skdtac.com/Eagle-Chest-Rig-Universal-SKD-p/eag.567.htmAnd mind you, these things were about $90-100 back when I bought mine which had two pouches where the MOLLE is on that version. So, I was able to come up with a $100+ rig for about $44 bucks!
Bandoleers are also an inexpensive and effective way to carry around more mags/ammo.
