In reply to OwenF:
tell me about it. this has been studied at great lengths by companies.
occasionally other colours pop up in powershield but they never last. even hardshells in other-than-black make up a small portion even in years when its in fashion.
sort of in between is neoshell which is about in non-black, but it simply doesnt sell.
about the only consistant option is grey (light black?).
some of the reason is that trousers have less turn over than shell jackets, so are made in smaller numbers, which means less risk taken with the yardage purchased (minimum yardage per colour can often 20,000m, ie about 10,000 garments...). so although these fabrics can be made in any colour in the pantone binder, when it boils down to it its hard to justify the costs - and then do you make just one colour variant, or more...?
this is compounded as its often a different fabric used for trousers as for jackets which limits the doubling up, and softshell is more prone to this than hardshell (not a lot of powershield or schoeller jackets out there, tho funnily the reverse with windstopper).
then theres the market; climbers are pretty conservative and across the board are more likely to re-buy an old favourite than risk several hundred bucks on a new idea. not everyone of course, but not enough to churn out several thousand pairs. companies sometimes want to bring out coloured trousers in order to be more efficient with fabric stocks, but the risk usually deters them (colour fashions in climbing-wear are just as oscillating as any other fashion)
also theres fashion. lots of jackets come in orange, blue and green and consumers seem unwilling to have matching top and bottom - unless its in black. as fashionistas have known for decades - anything goes with black. by bringing out a less-turned-over garment like trousers in, say, orange messes with the higher-turned-over garments like jackets. in this case it backfires as the consumer then doesnt buy more of both - they switch brands back to - you guessed it - black, done by someone else.
im with you - black is boring. the only way is to voice consumer demand, which is not always easy.
lets start here; what colour would you want given the choice?
