UKC

For no reason other than being bored during a Teams meeting today, I looked up the old TNF factory in Port Glasgow on Google streetview to see if it was still there.

Amazingly the old logo still appears on the front of the building.

And who remembers patiently waiting at the bottom of the stairs in photo 2, ready for the door to be opened to allow the next group of customers in.

I doubt these sales would work nowadays - people would queue up overnight to then get the kit on eBay straight afterwards to make a profit.

Those were the days…

I’ve still got a lot of gear I got at those sales. I never camped out for it. Part of the fun was guessing how late you could leave it and still be near the front of the queue.  A couple of hours before doors open was usually fine.

For a more uplifting experience, I passed by the old Playtex factory in Port Glasgow recently. Always interesting researching just where I had been after a trip on the bike.

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/7884826

Given how often a random Geograph photo turns out to have been taken by Richard Webb, I do wonder whether there's actually anywhere in the UK he's not been to!

One thing I did discover from Geograph was that the old TNF building had initially been the Blacks of Greenock factory, then Vango.

Although I thought the old Vango factory was down on the main road next to Greenock Morton’s ground…

Still regularly using a sleeping bag I got from one of those sales.

Being from Greenock, I had a few friends working for TNF back in the day who used to get a good staff discount and 1st dibs on the sale stuff. Needless to say, I was like a walking advert for TNF outdoor clothes at one point (still have a pair of bomb-proof winter climbing GT salopettes in the cupboard that still do a job after 25-odd years)     

Me too! 

Went twice to TNF outlet sales but never had any money to buy anything. Somehow always resented them for it. Only own one TNF item which is a short sleeved base layer which has done over a thousand days on the hill and shows no sign of wear. It’s just hanging on to spite me.

I was there back in t'day on a few occasions. Bought jaikets, fleeces, undergarments and tents from there. Incredible bargains. My favourite purchase was a red 3 layer Karakoram jaiket that was bombproof, especially compared to the expensive bin bags sold as outer layers these days. 

Me too! Though I was young and stupid and bought things that didn’t fit (xxl instead of l…) so they’ve been long since sold on. 

Only ever went once. Bought my wife a down jacket, which our daughter still wears. And a ski jacket which has never been worn. Both great quality kit.

Somehow I knew that. My dad still has in his attic I guess, a Blacks of Greenock bag from the 60s I think - I used it when I first started backpacking in the 80s. I worked at the Glasgow Scout Shop in the 90s and because the Glasgow Scouts wouldn't let the shop change it's name, everyone presumed we were part of the Scout Shop chain, which we weren't! But as a result TNF wouldn't let us stock their kit, despite their rep saying we were exactly the small specialist type of shop they wanted to be in! 😆 But it might have been the rep who told me about the history of their factory (warehouse? did they make stuff there?). 

TNF did let us order stuff in specially though, I still have (well, my son now has) my original TNF Nuptse duvet and although I didn't go down for the factory sales I remember people getting excited about them, just like "Club Night" was a big event at the shop. Bargain hunters and skint student climbers of Glasgow area would descend to hunt for end of line stuff etc at half price. 

I once went into The Scout Shop on a lunch break as I often did in the 90's and tried my luck gaining employment. I was in there a lot and Nevisport.

The manageress asked, "why do you want to work here?"

My answer, "The money" counts as one of my least good answers to any question I have ever been asked. 

Haha! It's the truth for everyone though isn't with a job? I get asked by kids now why I became a teacher and I tell them honestly I needed a job.

That must have been Sarah - she was a decent boss, she had a pretty deadpan sense of humour so probably appreciated your answer even if there weren't spaces at the time! I guided her and Gordon, one of the other staff, up Tower Ridge in pretty good order. I originally got told I got the job as they liked having an English Saturday boy to take the piss out of! It was a Geordie called Simon who I took over from, so perhaps you were too much of a local lad to have an accent that amused them!

Most of the flatter bits.  (Except the Somerset Moors of course).

My first backpacking tent was Blacks. A great piece of gear although of course totally unsuited for EUMC winter meets and the inevitable happened. Then came that strange period when lightweight gear got hard to find.

I’m now getting Deja vu that the Glasgow Scout Shop used to take out a huge advertisement in each edition of the Scouts magazine back in the day. Probably mid 90s? Proper gear porn for under 18s in the days before the internet (if you liked Trangias and Vango tents).

Shopping for outdoor kit in the Glasgow area growing up used to be a round robin of Tiso Buchanan Street, Nevisport on Sauchiehall Street, the Scout Shop on Elmbank street, Highrange on GWR, Summits in Paisley, then the twice yearly TNF sale in Port Glasgow for cut price Goretex jackets and rucksacks.

I think at one stage our entire Scout troop was kitted out in bargain basement Mountain jackets and Nuptse down vests.