Happy Birthday Paramo Cascada

It's hard to believe, only yesterday it was a tiny little pink blob oozing gunge from its vents and dribbling all over the furniture, but now the Paramo Cascada is a mighty ten years old.

That might not sound much, but in the world of outdoor clothing, ten years is the equivalent of at least 50 of your human years, maybe more. In that time, the Cascada has become Paramo's best-selling jacket, as well as its longest-running, with more than 43,000 of the things emerging from Paramo's Colombian maternity ward to wander condensation-free across the hills complete with UK-friendly pockets, hood and the Paramo Nikwax Analogy fabric.

The Colombian reference is no joke either, most Paramo clothing is produced in Colombia in conjunction with the charitable Miquelina Foundation with real benefits for underprivileged Colombian families.

According to the company, that means over the last ten years, 320 women per year have been trained in outdoors clothing making. Some 17 houses have been built through their women's co-operative, 100 under-fives attend a nursery daily, 400 children eat daily at a canteen set up by Mother Superior Esther Castagno, who has won three awards from the Colombian government for her work.

So happy birthday to the Cascada and the Paramo clothing system as a whole. More information at www.paramo.co.uk