Talkback: Are Brit' Brands Behind On Colours - Video

> If colour-happy Scandinavians Norrona can do the acid-coloured thing, then why can't our own home-brewed brands?

Because, unlike their Scandiwegian counterparts, they're not actually taking acid...?

Thank heavens for some colour sanity.   Whoever came up with acid-colour-contrast zips should be taken out and shot.

Well some of its down to it being from their skiing stuff. The hunting stuff is a uniform dull green and the climbing stuff seems rather saner.

Cf stockists I've seen their purple/lime green contrast zip colour schemes in EB and its certainly eye searing. Wonder if it did sell at all? They do seem to feel that purple and lime green go together, and I'm not sure why

I find this one an amusing example of gender equality - its a mens jacket.

Nice, I like purple!

A huge quantity of walking clothes seem to be BLACK! What do they think we are, Johnny Cash or something?

I like colours but I can't find them when I want them...

Still not sure about purple and lime green I'd be happier monotone, or different contrast. Like the women get from them, or even this:

(mine is black instead. Like the stuff I had Cioch make me. Shameful My fleeces are colourful though.).

The thing I really do like is some of the fleece colour schemes that Haglofs/Norrona etc get up to at times. A lot of that is going to get worn everyday too of course.

Nothing insane and certainly no eye searing contrast zips. Just solid blocked bright colours with sometimes a bit of contrast on the shoulders etc. But very colourful colours. 

Actually ME seem to be trying some stuff this time round, some nice, although I'm not totally sure about this one (maybe seems to work better on the hoodless stuff.).

Martin, that is a nice coloured Norrona jacket

Yellow used to be really in some years ago, but rare these days... I like yellow and orange

> This lack of colour thing has been a grouse of mine for years but I don't expect anything will change anytime soon.

Funny that you should use the word 'grouse'.  I think much of the British thing about colour is that we like colours that reflect the colours found in British nature; Tweed, for example is an almost perfect blend of colours from a heather hillside.  Yes, there are bright colours in the British flora, but they mostly say 'danger'...

I want to have a low impact (inculding visual) on the environment when I 'm walking, so I don't want to be dressed up like a bloody parrakeet...

paramo stuff is colourful. in a post mortem colour chart kind of way.

i don't mind more "exciting" colours but i do draw the line at bloody awful "look what i found in the zip bag mummy" designs. colour or pattern accents a la ted baker stylee or a nutter let loose with a big crayon.

   Norrona is a great company with some really stunning designs (they are one of the few european companies I pay attention to), but their stand at the recent Friedrichshafen reflected this current marketing drive

   At ISPO (the winter sports trade show) they had been selected as one of the few Gore Active Shell partners, plus they were showing off waterproof zips in a league above the majority

   Six months later it seems the only thing that they can boast about is a great colour scheme. The work that I do in other industries has a general rule: when they start to play around with the colour & it becomes the focus of their marketing drive - it is because there is nothing else interesting in the product

   Colour is very subjective. Black is the big seller (especially for men). No matter how well the garment performs, if it does not have coat-hanger appeal, it will not be bought. You can have the best performing & most practical design, but if the purchaser thinks that it will make them look like a geek - it will not get bought. Black is a safe option that the people who bring the ranges into the shop default to (unfortunately)

   As to the accusation that the British brands are afraid of colour - I would refute that. At the Outdoor trade show in Germany I was able to catch the fashion show. There were 9 brands on show, 7 of which were clothing. 4 of those were British (Dare2Be/ Regatta, Gelert, Berghaus & Trespass). There ranges on show were (IMHO) brilliant for the european enlightened colour palate. Haglofs were another brand in the parade & the British offerings were at least as colourful

I think the accusation was perhaps that our shops are scared of colour? Presumably reflecting us of course.

I think this marketing is especially colour focused because well, its ski clothing. That really is disturbingly close to fashion anyway Price wise too!

> There ranges on show were (IMHO) brilliant for the european enlightened colour palate.

I have a theory about why Germans seem to like parakeet colour schemes.  Where's Herr Flick when you need an example of what they're trying to get away from; black has too many unpleasant connotationss...

> Of course the shops are going to stock what they think the average person wants.

Now we're into the realms of the 'colour futures predictors', those strange people who tell the fashion industry what colours are going to be 'in' in two years' time.  A bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy...

... as is people wearing what they can buy in the shops.

I have noticed that purple appears to be this year's black, having been resurrected from its post late-90's grave.

I like black. And black and black.  I'll tolerate dark green or dark blue.  Or maybe grey.   And that's at home as well as on the hill!

Doesn't matter how good a product is, if it's only available in bright colours I wouldn't wear it if you gave it away.  I don't want to see you, and I don't want you to see me

Maybe I'm just not gay?