UKC

Toby Archer tests a selection of pieces from Wild Country's 2015 clothing range.

All designed for climbing and with some items that straddle the border between "cragging clothing" made of natural fibres and fast drying, wind-resistant "mountain" clothing, generally made of synthetic fabrics.

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In reply to UKC Gear:

I know it's a minor issue, but what is it with those colour names?! Fudge? How on earth is that either useful, appealing, or descriptive?

Can someone in marketing or sales explain why companies choose these ridiculous names?

In reply to JayPee630:

Well, in year one you call your colours red, blue and green.

In year two you change your colours a bit and don't want to cause confusion with the colours from the previous year so you call them Red-ish, blue-ish and green-ish.

In year three you change the colours again but since stock from the previous two years is still knocking about you call them rust, aqua and leaf.

In year four you get a bit stuck and think f*ck it let's go for Tudor Rose, Cadaver and Snot.

In year five you no longer care.

In reply to Lemony:
Haha! I get the ones that are vaguely descriptive as in they fit what most people would recognize as colours (rust/claret/mustard/etc. etc..) and it's partly done to be a bit different to other companies and also to seem a bit more interesting (and macho... FORGED grey! Hear me roar!), but... fungi... fudge? And fudge is f*cking brown, not red!

It's just stupid, and makes them seen a bit like they have meetings that would belong in an episode of The Office to come up with these names.

I did wonder if there's some commercial deal where if they use fabrics from certain manufacturers they also have to use their colour names maybe?

In reply to UKC Gear:

Good words from Toby, but can we have unobstructed pictures of the whole item that is being reviewed please? This is a comment for all recent reviews BTW. Action shots and video are good, but not being able to see all the detail in one go is as annoying as footwear reviews without shots of the sole...

In reply to JayPee630:
I struggle with Rab's Beluga

My thought was Beluga Whale so off-white, but apparently it's actually Beluga Caviar and therefore a dark grey.

In reply to More-On:


I owe UKC towers a footwear review so will make sure I include a photo of the sole! The other comments on photos are well taken; my climbing partners, increasingly my kids and even a few passing random strangers have been asked if they would take photos of me doing something as "I need it for a review"! I try to strike a balance between pics where you can see the bit of gear closely and those where you can see the kit 'in action'. I feel the latter is sort of the guarantee to readers that gear has been tested in conditions it was designed for. But of course its hard to get the perfect balance, particularly when it's various items of clothing like here.

In reply to JayPee630:

I love eating fudge - those squares are all I buy from the pick'n'mix - but it ain't the colour of my trousers!

In reply to UKC Gear:

Glad to hear that Wild Country are doing their best to be consistent on sizing next year, and the new version of the Dynamic jacket sounds like a total winner! I wrote this review some time ago now, and have used all the gear a lot more in the intervening weeks. The jacket still looks like new despite being worn up many more routes (mainly grit cracks). I've got a few little holes in the Balance pant, although they weren't cut when I tripped over in Horseshoe and cut my knee quite deeply - only realised I had cut the flesh when the blood started seeping through the double knee material - the trousers themselves were undamaged (the blood all washed out!). Looking in my logbook I guess I've done about 100 routes in the Balance Pant now, and they're not looking bad for that amount of usage.

In reply to TobyA:


Good man!

Your aim of showing 'proper' test conditions is also much appreciated. As is the difficulty in striking a balance, especially with multiple items, but adding a couple of photos of the items laid out/workbook images would do the job. I assume in this digital age that a few more photos isn't such an issue?

In reply to UKC Gear:

Would be nice to have belt loops on every pair to be honest.

its a pet hate of mine. I have a long leg and somehow always managed to lever drawcord trousers off my arse mid-route. :/

In reply to UKC Gear:


"cragging clothing" and "mountain clothing"

I've been doing it wrong all these years.

In reply to ablackett:

At least they get credit for not calling it "apparel", though.

In reply to Ramblin dave:

I think on WC's own website they call it apparel. It doesn't bother me that much as an americanism, but I guess "clothes" does the same job perfectly well!

In reply to Steve nevers:

I also tend to prefer belts to drawstrings, I have big thighs and a bum so 34 is actually a bit too big for my waist but I invariably need to go to that size so that trousers aren't too tight over my thighs, and in which case then a belt seem to more comfortably hold them around my waist than a drawcord. But I'm sure WC could fairly say that they offer different styles to different people. The torque pants do have belt loops, and enough of them to work. Outdoor trousers that don't have enough belt loops are a bugbear of mine!

In reply to ablackett:


I'm sure you haven't, but I simply mean mountain clothing is stuff I'd go UK winter or Nordic ice climbing in, and cragging clothing is stuff I wouldn't. For many a year my summer cragging clothing has been any old t-shirt and any old pair of jeans or cords (or shorts) as I'm sure it is for most people. I don't think I've ever bought a pair of specific climbing trousers made of cotton - just made do. But the stretchiness of the Balance pant (or I'm sure similar offerings from other brands) makes them well worth considering.

In reply to UKC Gear:
They seems to have taken it from bloody car companies, I bought a car that was Midnight BLUE (yes BLUE). When it arrive it was grey!

My fave random colour is Egg Shell Blue...WTF!

In reply to Santoka:

Well it seems I'm not the only one slightly annoyed by such imaginative colour names that you have no idea what they mean! Then again, I have found myself referring to one of my half ropes as "coral". "Slack on coral please!", "You what!?!" tends to be how those climbing conversations have gone...

In reply to TobyA:

Don't be ashamed, Toby. Real men are hard wired with the inability to say "pink".

In reply to JayPee630:

I remember back in the day before I left cotswolds, when I were a Lad...

The Rab training rep was explaining to us that the colours of sleeping bags now lined up with the ROYGBIV colours of the rainbow, along the lines of how warm they were, i.e. red=hot.

I asked him what the 'R' stood for.

Pimento.

Makes it significantly harder to sing a rainbow.

In reply to TobyA:

I'm big of arse, thick of thigh and short of leg - are these cut quite long? I bought some Prana pants which, features-wise, were perfect, but they were clearly cut for Mr Spaghetti Legs.

In reply to MonkeyPuzzle:


Average maybe? But I think I have slightly longer legs than average for my height. But the fit is wildly different between the two models - the mediums in the Torque being significantly looser than the large in the Balance! I'd be a bit reticent to buy online for that reason, unless it's a company with no quibbles and economic size swap policies.