The second question is how long did it last? As re-enactors, we wear our kit normally for part of a weekend at most, then take it home,  dry it out and store it until the next event. A period soldier would probably normally never take his kit off from one end of the week to the next. If it got wet it stayed wet until it dried out naturally: in bad weather it may have stayed wet for weeks. From this it follows that a year of re-enactment use may cause less wear and tear than a week or so during the real war. Period dyes were significantly less colour fast than most modern dyes, and so fading would also have been a significant factor: two soldiers starting with coats of an identical cloth would probably have looked very different after a week or so if one was in a dry billet and the other sleeping rough in the rain. A soldier with an unserviceable item would have sought to obtain a replacement without concerning themselves with its uniformity - this continued to be the case even with modern industrial supply, with soldiers using what came to hand or seemed desirable, even to the extent of deliberately using enemy equipment in preference to their own issue kit.

When Prince Maurice Regiment re-equipped with red soldiers coats in the early 1990's it was decided to reduce the level of uniformity that was very much the norm of the time. Two batches of coats were bought from two different suppliers, so to start with there was variation in cut, colour and material. One batch was lined with grey wool, the other with a mixture of grey and unbleached linen, and this batch also had some variation in details such as buttons, wings etc. Since then individuals have bought or made their own coats, and the regiment has bought new and second hand red coats from a variety of sources, so that there is considerable variation.

Breeches are non uniform, as are hats and so on. In general we try for a sort of batch uniformity with weapons and associated equipment, so that there are a number of similar items of each type but variation between the batches. In this way we try to replicate the effect of re-supply at different times and from different sources