I have a long standing interest in old outdoor gear, these pages are full of it going back nearly 20 years now. I also have an interest in new gear, both as a curious enthusiast in these pages and as a job starting back in Trail Magazine in the 2000’s and up to today in TGO.
These two things are what give me reviewer’s perspective, a knowledge database and the most vital tool of all: experience.
There are many things that go through my mind while I work on this stuff, and my thoughts are increasingly environmental. I see burnt out and abandoned tents more than I see discreetly pitched ones, I see legions of folk on the local paths in the brands you can easily find in shopping centres (obviously it’s Nu-Karrimor and TNF) and it feels like the outdoors are an island with a waves of consumerism rising higher up the beach with every tide, or should I say with every seasonal update.
When I first changed from army surplus to proper kit through the early 90s the gear was from small specialist shops and they stocked mostly UK made gear, back then even TNF was made just across the river from me in Port Glasgow. Now of course growth is everything and design often suffers for it as the casual cash has to be be persuaded from folk who never cross the 300m contour.
This is a generalism of course, the best specialist gear can still be had, but I wistfully look back at a time before lifestyle happened and when the familiar outdoor logos were exclusively on the best specialist gear and I used to marvel at during lunch times in Glasgow while hoping the size medium would still be there when I got paid.
If I bemoan the current state of things then why do I review new gear that adds to the pool? The TGO review team is neck deep in knowledge and experience, there just isn’t anywhere better. I enjoy being part of that very much and communicating what I learn when I use gear is to help an informed decision to be made in a shop somewhere. Spending a lot of money on something that’s right and will last is surely the best way to go forward?
That’s how I approach it anyway, it’s not just about getting the gear and playing with it at all. Gear testing really isn’t the holy grail of the outdoors, the learning aspect of using something new, seeing if the designers got it right is brilliant, but it’s also spending endless hours in unfamiliar gear and sub optimal load-outs to see if something works and then passing that on. The real joy other than just being out there is the occasional surprise of something that joins my personal favourites once the write up is done.
So these various thoughts coalesce into a general ethos which is to get good gear and look after it so it lasts. But there’s always been good gear, gear made with the best materials and methods of the day and a lot of it is still around in cupboards and lofts, unloved, unused and unrecycled.
eBay has always helped redistribute some of that buried treasure and now Vinted has the population ransacking their pasts and selling it off cheap. I cast an eye over both of these places regularly and have turned up many gems over the years but in the last 18 months or so I realised that I could kit myself out really well for the hills for not a lot of cash.
By “really well” I mean top-end kit, just maybe a few years and maybe a few decades old. So I have been collecting a few things and with the prices being sometimes silly low it looked like I could get a full kit for under a hundred pounds.
It’s now become a mission as I’m pretty close to a full kit list now. I’ve been using bits and pieces for ages but when I get the full list I’ll go out in it like I dropped through a time warp from 1995.
One important aspect is the willingness to do care and repair. I love that stuff, I have a lifetime of making and fixing things and one thing in particular took a good bit of refurbishment which I enjoyed greatly.
The list is/will be:
Waterproofs, jacket and overtrousers
Baselayer top and bottoms
Midlayer
Insulation/extra layer
Socks
Hat and gloves
Boots
Rucksack
If I can do it within budget I will:
Bottle, flask, buff, torch, maybe gaiters
Things that have to be new:
Medical kit
Food!
I’m also checking out charity shops and TK Maxx if I’m passing one, I think the socks will end up being from there. Hills for Hundred, Fun for a Ton? I think it’ doable, I’m nearly there already.
One of the last pieces just came in. Below is a mid 90s Karrimor ABL Turtle Neck L/S. It’s clean, in great condition and the fit is excellent – better than most current base layers I’ve used.
£2 plus postage.
There’ll be more coming up. The colours too, wait ’til you see the colours.
