Bear Grylls – did you know that Bear is the Chief Scout, in charge of a worshipful army of 28 million scouts worldwide? That he's the Discovery Channel's biggest draw on a global basis? That's he's huge in the US? That he was voted seventh coolest man on the planet by the readers of Zoo magazine, beating David Beckham and – this is where we come in – he has his own signature range of outdoor clothing produced by Craghoppers?
We first meet Bear in person at the Outdoors Show in the NEC two or three years ago. Okay, he was just a cardboard cut-out, but while he was a little two-dimensional, he had more clothes than Action Man.
And here we are meeting Bear all over again, except this time he's a signed poster in Craghoppers reception. We're there to see what's new from the brand for next spring and that includes the Bear Grylls range.
Craghoppers might be best known for Kiwi trousers – the best-selling outdoor legwear in the UK – and a range of adventure travel kit, but they have genuine outdoors heritage and for next year, they're getting back to that a little with a range of 'Outdoor Active' clothing aimed at archetypal 'fast-moving', active, multi-sport types.
The range actually looks pretty decent, not radical cutting edge, but there's a neat microfleece, some lightweight windproof shell stuff and what we reallu like the look of, long stretch shorts and even crop trousers. We're converts to stretch shorts, courtesy of the Haglofs soft shell short we've been using.
And then there's Nosilife, Craghoppers' exclusive – for now – permanent insect repellent treated range. Mostly it's travel-ish stuff, cargo pants with lots of pockets, zip-offs and conventional long-sleeved shirts with cunning double-decker pockets, but the potential is there to mix it all up and have insect repellent fast-movers shorts for those midgey belay days and apparently, insect repellent pjamas are on the way... And there are some neat short-sleeved tops due out in the spring too.
But as the nice man from Craghoppers shows me all this stuff – and you, see the pics – I find myself shamefully drawn to Bear. This shouldn't be happening, Bear's range is aimed at novices who idolise the clean-cut, offal-chomping TV star, but the truth is, Bear gets all the best kit in the Craghopper showroom.
Bear's stretch trousers for example are cut more like, well, trousers, and less like 'dad pants' and some of them are stretchy. They look tough and functional, a bit like, well, a bit like Bear himself. And Bear's shell jackets look neat and well featured.
And, oh my, I've tragically fallen in love with Bear's Tracker Top – as soon as I see it, I know that I want it, desperately. It's sort of a pile-Pertex concept thing that actually looks half-decent with a high-loft, furry, deep pile fleece inner and a windproof, tough, Polyamide outer.
The PR people are looking at me strangely. They think I'm joking. They think I'm taking the piss. Out of Bear and his fans. But actually I genuinely like the look of this thing. The world is crying out for pile-Pertex that doesn't look like, well, Buffalo, and here it is – maybe – sat in front of me. And the only thing wrong with it is that it has Bear Grylls written on the chest.
Apparently Bear actually brought in an old climbing jacket and asked Crags to copy it and the Tracker Top is the result.
The upshot of all this is that we're getting in some Bear stretch trousers and a Bear Tracker Top for review on the site and we'll let you know what we really think of it. And yes, it's going to be faintly embarassing, but you never know, being Bear might not be that bad after all.
More about Craghoppers including all things Bear-ish at www.craghoppers.co.uk.
