As someone who has spent a lifetime in the backcountry and the last 10 years building a technical hunting gear company from the ground up, I’ve seen something happening in our industry that is a bit frustrating as a consumer.
In the early days of technical hunting clothing, most of the big names in technical hunting apparel were built by hunters — for hunters. They were focused, scrappy, and obsessed with the details: fabric performance, minimalist weight, and true mountain-tested functionality. And, they cared deeply about you and I, the consumer.
Today, things feel different.
All of the big technical hunting apparel brands have grown and sold to private equity or large corporations. That alone isn’t a crime or necessarily bad. And in some ways, you could argue that would be a benefit to us as consumers because of the resources it brings to R&D, scales of economy, etc. But what comes next, unfortunately, has been predictable: growth for growth’s sake. SKU expansion just to make things to sell. New customer segments. New product categories. Lifestyle apparel. Fishing. Turkey vests. Waterfowl. Whitetail. Products that are good enough but not great. And, endless camo patterns instead of focusing on arguably the most important items for clothing: fabric, fit, and function. You can't make the BEST western big game clothing if you're distracted and constantly chasing new markets.
A big part of this trend is the influx of private equity money into the hunting space, and the corporatization of brands that used to be in touch with the consumer, which seems to have impacted all of the major clothing companies and their priorities. Taking on funding isn’t a crime, nor does it have to result in poor outcomes, but the results in the hunting clothing space seem clear. The motivation isn’t long-term customer value and innovative products for the western market, but short-term profit maximization. Instead of focusing on making innovative western hunting products, the focus is on what will sell the most. And that key difference takes away the focus on where these brands all started: western backcountry hunting.
At some point, it becomes impossible to make the best gear for western, whitetail, waterfowl, upland and everything in between, while also making street clothes. If you take a look at the new products being released, the vast majority are focused on non-western hunting markets.
All of the current big brands were founded and run by real hunters, but that’s not the case anymore as they have been sold (and sometimes sold again), and the people who started them and knew their core consumer are no longer in charge. I don’t mean that as an insult, but it’s true.
So, I come back to this: loss of focus on western hunting, the symptom that the big clothing brands are all suffering from. As a founder, I don’t fault anyone for building something and cashing out. But I believe something has been lost, and I want to build a clothing line that brings it back and gets back to what matters to me: the core western hunting market. And I want to do it with your input and feedback.
I’m genuinely interested in the priorities you think are important for a western clothing line. How important is being quiet, fit, function, price? How important are feature sets? I’m listening to what you have to say.
In the early days of technical hunting clothing, most of the big names in technical hunting apparel were built by hunters — for hunters. They were focused, scrappy, and obsessed with the details: fabric performance, minimalist weight, and true mountain-tested functionality. And, they cared deeply about you and I, the consumer.
Today, things feel different.
All of the big technical hunting apparel brands have grown and sold to private equity or large corporations. That alone isn’t a crime or necessarily bad. And in some ways, you could argue that would be a benefit to us as consumers because of the resources it brings to R&D, scales of economy, etc. But what comes next, unfortunately, has been predictable: growth for growth’s sake. SKU expansion just to make things to sell. New customer segments. New product categories. Lifestyle apparel. Fishing. Turkey vests. Waterfowl. Whitetail. Products that are good enough but not great. And, endless camo patterns instead of focusing on arguably the most important items for clothing: fabric, fit, and function. You can't make the BEST western big game clothing if you're distracted and constantly chasing new markets.
A big part of this trend is the influx of private equity money into the hunting space, and the corporatization of brands that used to be in touch with the consumer, which seems to have impacted all of the major clothing companies and their priorities. Taking on funding isn’t a crime, nor does it have to result in poor outcomes, but the results in the hunting clothing space seem clear. The motivation isn’t long-term customer value and innovative products for the western market, but short-term profit maximization. Instead of focusing on making innovative western hunting products, the focus is on what will sell the most. And that key difference takes away the focus on where these brands all started: western backcountry hunting.
At some point, it becomes impossible to make the best gear for western, whitetail, waterfowl, upland and everything in between, while also making street clothes. If you take a look at the new products being released, the vast majority are focused on non-western hunting markets.
All of the current big brands were founded and run by real hunters, but that’s not the case anymore as they have been sold (and sometimes sold again), and the people who started them and knew their core consumer are no longer in charge. I don’t mean that as an insult, but it’s true.
So, I come back to this: loss of focus on western hunting, the symptom that the big clothing brands are all suffering from. As a founder, I don’t fault anyone for building something and cashing out. But I believe something has been lost, and I want to build a clothing line that brings it back and gets back to what matters to me: the core western hunting market. And I want to do it with your input and feedback.
I’m genuinely interested in the priorities you think are important for a western clothing line. How important is being quiet, fit, function, price? How important are feature sets? I’m listening to what you have to say.
