Outside Magazine: Hunting's Big Comeback

[TAFKAP]

"Hunting is making a comeback by tapping a new crowd of athletic locavores, and that means big business for performance-minded gear companies"


IE: nouveaux "Redneck" gearheads. Put some CAMO ON IT!

I suspect what this new movement will create is hunting "fashion" in the same sense that the North Face created outdoor "fashion". And the douchieness is showing.

"�Right now a lot of young outdoor people are going bow hunting. It�s a different crowd than the guys shooting deer out of the back of a pickup,� says Jack Gilbert, 69, who founded Mountain Hardwear and advised Hart and Hairston. �When you see how hard these guys work and the conditions they hunt in�12,000 feet in Wyoming or Montana�I mean, this is serious activity.�"

So here's the total gist of the article:

�This is a different type of hunter,� says Seacat. �This is a guy who is running, adventuring on the weekend and doing eco-challenges, and, �Oh yes, I also hunt.��

Basically, they're douching-down the hunting products industry to make a killing selling $1,000 camo jackets. They'll sponsor Duck Dynasty in the near future, and poor rednecks everywhere will spend money they don't have to dress like Uncle Sid.

 

[bowriter]

Basically, they're douching-down the hunting products industry to make a killing selling $1,000 camo jackets. They'll sponsor Duck Dynasty in the near future, and poor rednecks everywhere will spend money they don't have to dress like Uncle Sid. _________________________

Nothing further needs to be said. That is it exactly.

 

[Pic IN the Casa]

Oh well, capitalism at work. No different than NFL marketing dozens of different styles of jerseys, hats, etc... Not the sellers fault someone buys a camo jacket instead of paying the rent.

Oh and it's Si.

 

[TAFKAP]

Is that the same one Krakauer writes for?

 

[Buzzard Breath]

Oh and, really, the main reason I posted this link was because magazines such as Outside seldom, if ever, run stories on hunting.

I like seeing more hunting articles in magazines such as Outside and and Backpacker. They'd be suprised to know the number of western hunters that have subscriptions to both magazines.

I also think we'll start seeing more of the high-end hunting products in outdoor stores than we have in the past. I always try to support my local outdoor store, Little River Trade and Exchange, when I'm supplying for my backcountry hunting trips. When I was in there this fall, I bought 10 Mountain House meals and the girl behind the counter happily asked me where I was headed. When I told her I was getting ready to go on a 10 elk hunt into the Holy Cross Wilderness, her disposition changed rapidly. She turned sour. Well, the owner had overheard me and came over to talk. He said that he was once packing in the same wilderness and was driven down from the top by bad weather. He just happened into an elk camp that had just killed and elk and had it packed back to camp. They fed him fresh elk meat and filled him with beer for 2 days. His whole opinion of elk hunters had changed rapidly. We now talk hunting every time I'm in there.

For those who haven't seen it, "Searching for West" is worth the 25 minutes it takes to watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6ceUKhkgt8

 

[WMAn]

"Hunting is making a comeback by tapping a new crowd of athletic locavores, and that means big business for performance-minded gear companies"


IE: nouveaux "Redneck" gearheads. Put some CAMO ON IT!

I suspect what this new movement will create is hunting "fashion" in the same sense that the North Face created outdoor "fashion". And the douchieness is showing.

"�Right now a lot of young outdoor people are going bow hunting. It�s a different crowd than the guys shooting deer out of the back of a pickup,� says Jack Gilbert, 69, who founded Mountain Hardwear and advised Hart and Hairston. �When you see how hard these guys work and the conditions they hunt in�12,000 feet in Wyoming or Montana�I mean, this is serious activity.�"

So here's the total gist of the article:

�This is a different type of hunter,� says Seacat. �This is a guy who is running, adventuring on the weekend and doing eco-challenges, and, �Oh yes, I also hunt.��

Basically, they're douching-down the hunting products industry to make a killing selling $1,000 camo jackets. They'll sponsor Duck Dynasty in the near future, and poor rednecks everywhere will spend money they don't have to dress like Uncle Sid.

TAFKAP, do you see this as further evidence of a growing hippy conspiracy?

 

[TAFKAP]

TAFKAP, do you see this as further evidence of a growing hippy conspiracy?

No conspiracy at all...they're more than open about it. They're realizing that this communism crap isn't all its cracked up to be. Have you seen the price of organic veggies lately? Suburban white kids have been wearing "North Face" clothing for a couple decades now. It got so bad, I made sure I nearly yelled "I'd like the Scout discount, please", just so EVERYONE in Outdoors Inc. knew I was actually using the stuff for what it was intended. I'm the same way when I buy tofu for Chinese hot & sour soup. I try to make sure everyone within earshot knows I'm not some hippie douche trying to substitute tofu for meat.

 

[Hangnail]

Outside Magazine has always been a hippie/yuppie magazine as far as I know. I read it for a couple of years back in the early 1980's when some of the adventures were fairly new. It's funny that most of the good outdoor clothing makers start out with quality first, get a taste of success, downgrade quality and then increase prices. Works that way for some hunting companies too. It chaps my arse to see hunting clothing marketed as quiet sound like a zipper being opened when it's brushed by a limb in the woods or a finger in the store. If it isn't quiet hanging on a hanger in the store, it isn't going to "find" quiet in the woods.

 

[Orion6]

Most hunter don't need a lot of the type of gear they sell. We drive an hour to the woods and walk to a treestand. I'm all for them selling it, but they seem to look down at "non-athletic" hunters.

If you read the article, it even badmouths kill shots and seeing dead animals. Isn't the end result of a successful hunt a dead animal?

 

[Hunter 257W]

I don't want any of them "locavores" hunting around my land. I take my young daughter with me some time and don't want her hanging around with that type people!! :grin:

 

[TAFKAP]

Most hunter don't need a lot of the type of gear they sell. We drive an hour to the woods and walk to a treestand. I'm all for them selling it, but they seem to look down at "non-athletic" hunters.

If you read the article, it even badmouths kill shots and seeing dead animals. Isn't the end result of a successful hunt a dead animal?

Exactly....."hunting" doesn't seem to be driving the latest and greatest in clothing technology. They see a new market, yet look down on those on whose backs they profit. These are the same folks that scoff at the notion that hunting and conservation efforts couldn't survive without each other.

 

[Twinshooter]

The buyers are the same sissys that drink $12 special brewed beer!
Just yanking the chain...
Where is my ULTRA?

 

[TAFKAP]

The buyers are the same sissys that drink $12 special brewed beer!
Just yanking the chain...
Where is my ULTRA?

If it were up your arse kicking field goals, you'd know exactly where it was

 

[TAFKAP]

My problem isn't with the "Brand" or the mentality of the folks making it....it's the marketing geeks and the writer of the article that have a disdain for all things hunting. But as soon as you've established yourself as an "organic" meat eater, then they can tolerate it. But you're still an ignorant redneck.

 

[WMAn]

My problem isn't with the "Brand" or the mentality of the folks making it....it's the marketing geeks and the writer of the article that have a disdain for all things hunting. But as soon as you've established yourself as an "organic" meat eater, then they can tolerate it. But you're still an ignorant redneck.

Don't strain at gnats! What hunting needs is hunters. Last time I checked ignorant rednecks, like you and I, have not been recruiting enough new hunters just like us to stem the tide of declining hunter numbers.

TAFKAP, I agree with all your criticisms, but I still think new hunters whatever their reasons are a good thing.

A good book to read on the subject is Call of the Mild by Lily McCaulou. Also, look at Poser. He made the transition from mountain climber to hunter, and he's not all that bad.

 

[WMAn]

... than what the more traditional companies have taken which has been "wear our brand of cheaply made camo and kill bigger animals."

Wait! Does this mean Bone Collector is not a quality brand?

 

[TAFKAP]

Also, look at Poser. He made the transition from mountain climber to hunter, and he's not all that bad.

Although he was far more experienced than I, we both have a similar history. I earned my Eagle Scout rank a week after I turned 18 years old, and have logged many miles backpacking and doing some light climbing. I wasn't brought up in a hunting household, and I've been trying to fight my way into it for 13 years. Every day I hit the woods is a new learning experience, and I'm trying to play catch-up so that TAFKAP Jr. and Lil' P-nut (Due in Oct.) understand the outdoors as early as possible.

So you may call me an outsider, perhaps, but the hunting community doesn't need $1000 camo or snooty Food Network "localvores" to recruit new blood. I'd argue quite the opposite. That crowd is the type that will spend $2,000, get cold one day, and hang it up in favor of the next fad down the line.

 

[BamaProud]

Basically, they're douching-down the hunting products industry to make a killing selling $1,000 camo jackets. They'll sponsor Duck Dynasty in the near future, and poor rednecks everywhere will spend money they don't have to dress like Uncle Sid.

That happened about 2 decades ago. It started about the time realtree camo came out. The hunting community is full of product junkies. Most of which you don't need to sit in a fully enclosed box on the edge of a greenfield.

 

[102]

T-bone is SCREWED!

Tiffany will be reduced to a middle aged cheerleader.

Hunting as we know it may not recover.