The cost.

[John Fenna]

I dread to think how much I send on gear...
Even though I make a lot of my own kit it still adds up - especially as I have dropped 3 clothing sizes in 12months and had to buy replacement clothing as I dropped down the sizes!
I have also been buying the odd new tarp etc and although my "best" outdoor jackets and trousers are DIY the fabric alone is about £35/m...so over the past year I have certainly spent out at least a grand on clothing and kit.
Charity shops have little to fit the new me but I have picked up the odd shirt and trousers ... if it were not for good friends gifting me some excellent fabrics, the fact that I do not wear much in the way of clothing that is not suitable for bushcraft and my haunting the Charity Shops the cost would be even higher!
Mind you - I have recovered a bit of the cost of all my new clothing by selling on a lot of my old gear...which might have kept the cost of kit down for some other folk as well

 

[Wildgoose]

I guess it’s like any hobby, there will always be a market for those who want “the best” kit.

I work with a couple of cyclists, one lad who rides a Halfords £200 bike and the other who’s bike cost more than my car. Both are happy with what they have.

I have a mixed bag of outdoor kit, my favourite trousers being German army mole skins in the winter and British lightweights in the summer, both £5-£10, but then I spent out on a tarp hat and I’m waiting for my bison guide shirt to arrive both of which could have probably be replaced for cheaper options.

 

[Duggie Bravo]

When I talk to the Scouts about expedition/activity clothing, I will normally have the discussion around price, value and usefulness.

One of the big things can be the technical t-shirts that wick moisture away.
We look at what they might already have. Football and rugby shirts are most common and do the same job.
Tracksuit trousers, tend to be quick drying.
With cubs, they all have a sweatshirt jumper as part of the uniform, so why get another just for camping?


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[GuestD]

These guys managed.

 

[Woody girl]

"Bushcraft clothing" has almost become a uniform. ie Fjallraven trousers swandri shirts and one thing that amuses me when I go to wilderness gathering is the ubiquitous leather hat.
There is no denying that the gear is good and practical but the cost of it is ridiculous
. The other option is ex military gear. Again practical hardwiring and cheap.
As a youngster I wore what I had jeans or shorts and a t shirt with a sweatshirt and possibly a plastic mac if it was wet. I walked coast paths and wild camped with no specialist gear and loved it. Had no problems whatsoever.
Camping walking and bushcraft is no longer the cheap hobby it once was. It's the blooming marketing hype that makes you think that you need the latest bit of kit and prices have rocketed. Cheap and cheerful for me ta very much!

 

[Janne]

People today like to buy into an image.
Other hobbies are the same as bushcrafting. Sailors, skiers, you name it.

 

[santaman2000]

"Bushcraft clothing" has almost become a uniform. ie Fjallraven trousers swandri shirts and one thing that amuses me when I go to wilderness gathering is the ubiquitous leather hat.
There is no denying that the gear is good and practical but the cost of it is ridiculous
. The other option is ex military gear. Again practical hardwiring and cheap.
As a youngster I wore what I had jeans or shorts and a t shirt with a sweatshirt and possibly a plastic mac if it was wet. I walked coast paths and wild camped with no specialist gear and loved it. Had no problems whatsoever.
Camping walking and bushcraft is no longer the cheap hobby it once was. It's the blooming marketing hype that makes you think that you need the latest bit of kit and prices have rocketed. Cheap and cheerful for me ta very much!

Jeans are still my go-to for pretty much everything. A Dickies work shirt has replaced the t-shirt only nowadays though.

 

[GuestD]

swandri shirts

I have a good friend who I was at college with in the 1970's. His family used to supply the wool to Swanndri, long before they become di-regeur. First time I saw Ray Mears on the telly, I though, he's wearing my shirt, now Brad Pitt wears my boots. Jeremy Clarkson put me off tweed jackets.

 

[John Fenna]

My first serious hikes were undertaken in a supermarket T shirt and old rugby shorts....

 

[Herman30]

The other option is ex military gear.

This is the line I run. Much of my clothing is surplus.

 

[Lou]

The Eiger, Everest, South Pole - all conquered in plus-fours and hunting tweeds from what I can gather? But I suppose that type of clothing was the Swanndri and Fjallraven of its day. All very Elite gentleman's club-y I guess.Women used to go up Mont Blanc in Crinolines.

 

[Wildgoose]

My early outdoor gear was my old clothing that My mum was happy to trash. Foul weather clothing consisted of a plastic Mac from milletts and hand me down hiking boots that I think cost £10 new.
It didn’t always make for the best experience and I was often cold and wet (and miserable) as were the identically dressed group I was with.

Now I can choose my own kit and buy better quality I can honestly say I haven’t been cold in years.

whatever works for you.

 

[MikeLA]

It all about image
Clever marketing and a very self important materialistic world we now live in.

 

[Robson Valley]

Those people are everywhere = all hat and no cattle.

This is Greggo. He's a genuine bush master. I have posted pictures of his home district.
His pants are some sort of quite stiff canvas-like fabric. Heavy duty gray insulating undershirt.
Jeremy Fokkens portrait.

 

[GuestD]

The Eiger, Everest, South Pole - all conquered in plus-fours and hunting tweeds from what I can gather? But I suppose that type of clothing was the Swanndri and Fjallraven of its day. All very Elite gentleman's club-y I guess.Women used to go up Mont Blanc in Crinolines.

A lot of these clothes were non expensive, and mainly bought and worn by folks who worked in the outdoors. I got my first heavy Swanndri before most had heard of them in this country, and quality wise it is vastly superior to their current stuff. Driza-Bone apparently started off making waterproofs out of old worn sailcloth. My relations, who were North sea trawlermen, made oil skin capes by the same merhod. Something along these lines.

Not trendy, but functional.

 

[sunndog]

I've spent my working life in the outdoors, a lot of it in the Scottish Highlands, and learned to wear what is practical for the job. The old thick wool donkey jacket in the cold, covered with an unlined oilskin in the wet, worked remarkably well, and still does. I see a lot of outdoor gear seems to have "dry clean only" on the tags. Thats handy. The old denim work jackets I used to buy, £20 for a pack of five, There's a shop in Aberdeen selling a superbly denim weave Japanese one for over £400. I was in Armstrong's in Edinburgh's Grass Market recently, excellent second hand clothes shop, good for a rummage. I've had a load of really good stuff out of there over the years, including a mint Driza-Bone poncho, and an immaculate Akubra. No luck this time, there was a Camel Wool foreman jacket for £30, but a bit on the tight side for me.

Ah theres the difference you see. When a person works outdoors every day they seem to require less gucci kit than a hobbyist.
I cant justify fjallraven fashion prices for my best clothes never mind to work in so i wear the cheapest possible stuff that gets the job done and i'm as comfortable in that as i am in fancy gear

 

[santaman2000]

Those people are everywhere = all hat and no cattle.

This is Greggo. He's a genuine bush master. I have posted pictures of his home district.
His pants are some sort of quite stiff canvas-like fabric. Heavy duty gray insulating undershirt.
Jeremy Fokkens portrait.
View attachment 53821

Levi’s Strauss used sailcloth to make his first pair of jeans for the miners.

A lot of these clothes were non expensive, and mainly bought and worn by folks who worked in the outdoors........ Driza-Bone apparently started off making waterproofs out of old worn sailcloth. My relations, who were North sea trawlermen, made oil skin capes by the same merhod. .......Not trendy, but functional.

See my reply to RV just above this about Levi Strauss (although I believe he used new sailcloth) Even today the tarp hats are still being made cheaply from recycled canvas truck tarpaulins in Brazil. They used to go for less than $2 each down there and they might still for all I know. That said, both Levi’s and the tarp hats have become expensive badges of coolness here now.

Edited for typo/spelling.

 

[Keith_Beef]

This is Greggo. He's a genuine bush master. I have posted pictures of his home district.
His pants are some sort of quite stiff canvas-like fabric.

Sounds like what I have heard described as "tin pants" in the US. Wranglerstar talks about them in one of his videos.

 

[petrochemicals]

Jeans are still my go-to for pretty much everything. A Dickies work shirt has replaced the t-shirt only nowadays though.

If you say jeans you are usually barraged with the comments such as 'heavy' 'rash when wet' 'don't let your legs breath' etc. There will be people join just to enlighten you upon the doctorine.
https://backpackerverse.com/hiking-in-jeans/

I've never had a problem, plus the advantage in jean is that they protect from stinging pointy plants. And I've not died from hypothermia anymore than if I got wet in the winter wearing anything else.

 

[GuestD]

Stihl make trousers for people who work in the Forrest all day. They are most definitely fit for purpose, and stand up to all the rigours of hard sustained work. The only other trousers I wore that came close were Italian army surplus.

The Italian trousers are trendy now, and the repo ones aren't good. The Stihl trousers can be had for £60, although my Lidl specials @£9 are excellent.