Well I'm an armourer and a camo collector, I occasionally skirmish as an aside but the collecting is my 'thing'. £30 worth of ex surplus uniform is mooore than sufficient to play airsoft comfortably in most conditions, been saying that to folks for many years. However I got in to this lark in 2003 and it started as just playing the game, but I found (after a while) that what I personally enjoyed much more than the game was collecting and subsequent photography, writing, reviewing and reading/learning about how different kinds of gear are made; then how they might apply to the military and to all sorts of outdoorsy type hobbies. I think airsoft is a great lark as a game and a social, but I don't buy gear 'for' the game anymore, haven't for a long time.
I don't wanna go in to my life or my finances because that'd be weird, but I've got a fair few years service done, lived in the barrack block the whole time in a teeny room eating the mess food. I've been to a couple of places to accrue a few bonuses as well, then just done a lot of saving my whole career, never owned a flash car etc. That's my approach to stuff, and I like it, I'm making roads towards maybe working for a company who makes good kit for the forces one day once I'm out, so I can put what I know in to something that could hopefully benefit folks who really put their necks out in bad places. That's a little way off still, for now I just love collecting what more can I say.