By: Blonde Two
I am a bad Blonde.
Well I am a very good Blonde but I am also a bit of a mucky one. Look at my new jacket, lovingly crafted (in a most appropriately womanly size) by Craghoppers, given to me by Ordnance Survey in recognition of my Champion status and taken on its first Dartmoor wild camp last week.
And I have already spilt drinking chocolate all down it!
Which makes it a very good jacket. After all, even the most waterproof, expensive and brand labelled of jackets is no good at all if it spends its lonely life in the cupboard.
Jackets are made to be released into the wild, to experience the rain on their faces (and other bits), to feel the slime of mud on their hood and absorb the aromas of exercise as they accompany their wearer in marches up the hills. It is cruel, in fact to keep a jacket inside, to deprive it of its most basic needs and to deny it its true purpose.
A jacket is for life, not just for the cupboard. So my plea to you today is to take your jackets outside and let them get windy, wet and just that little bit wild.
You won’t regret it… I promise!!
Maybe you will make a fortune by finding that drinking chocolate is the best breathable, durable, waterproofer ever?
Good idea but then I maybe wouldn’t get to drink any of it at all.
I think you are a very good Blonde. The only thing is, will you still be a very good Blonde when your hair turns brindle, grey or white? My lovely old green YHA Goretex jacket is still completely waterproof 30 or so years on, but I have grown out of it! My navy blue one – a mere youngster at 4 years – is also still completely waterproof – but I have had to replace 4 of its 5 zips and the 5th and biggest one has just broken. Sob sob. What has happened to zips that lasted 25 years + ?
I will look forward to a review of the jacket after a good rainy day.
Well it came out for a couple of very wet and windy Dartmoor hours today and did a pretty good job. The thing with kit is that it needs to be available and affordable for people with all types of budgets and all levels of experience. There’s no point telling a DofE newbie to buy a really expensive jacket because they may never use it again. Gear that does the job well enough for safety but doesn’t cost the earth will always be necessary, and hopefully available.
I couldn’t agree more. I once heard a well known outdoor retailer telling staff to push Arc’teryx at a d of e meeting.
I tend to treat new gear, particularly the more expensive items, with probably a bit too much respect for the first couple of outings. It never lasts, though, and I’m soon throwing things down, sitting on them, all sorts*. Thing is though, decent gear is designed to take a bashing anyway; I have an old Sprayway Commanche jacket which has suffered all manner of indignities and still comes up clean at 30º with liquid soap flakes (I’ve come over all new man).
* Except for my binoculars, which are cosseted and showered with TLC.
Hi Dave. I agree, new gear really should be able to take a bit of rough and tumble. The old favourites are usually the best but it is great fun trying new kit out. I have a Paramo jacket which I nearly framed when I bought it because it was such a treat, these days it is my ‘workhorse’ jacket purely because it does what I need it to do. Having said that, I don’t always need that much ‘doing’ and my new Craghopper one does a good job for those days.