Most players, especially those participating in MilSims, wear military clothing consisting of various forms of camouflage. Some players will go as far as to use a ghillie suit, which breaks up the human outline by having sticks, leaves, and similar items in the fabric/netting, as well as its own camouflage leafing material all over it. Aside from the advantage of camouflage, some participants aim to faithfully replicate a specific combat unit such as the SAS, Spetsnaz, or police, particularly in games such as MilSim.

In some countries, such as the Philippines, airsofters are not legally able to wear official uniforms. In Sweden, for example, it is illegal to wear both rank insignia and Swedish flags on civilian uniforms at the same time. It has become popular among civilians and airsoft players to wear only the upper garment or the pants, but not both.

When not wearing full paintball-type face masks, many players wear neck armor such as a balaclava, scarves and Shemaghs, and military-style helmets. Players generally wear combat or hiking boots (not just ordinary athletic shoes) for safety in harsh terrain. They also wear padded gloves, elbow pads, knee pads (not to protect the body from pain of getting hit by pellets, but to prevent pain and injury from performing physical actions, such as crawling and kneeling) and protective vests for additional protection, realism, and for conventional reasons such as holding magazines of ammo.

In some cases, rules are adopted that allow only casual clothes in an effort to encourage realism because players will more actively avoid being hit.