Outdoor Recreation Archive: Preserving the legacy of the outdoor industry
Outdoor, hiking and functional garments have been in the fashion spotlight all throughout 2020.
Never before has the utilitarian aesthetic been in such high demand by a fashion-conscious audience, despite the extensive history and culture that paved the way for the latest hype around Salomon, Gore-Tex and the likes...
We’ve seen Arc’teryx on every explore page, after the Canadian brand has made an appearance in OFF-WHITE’s FW20 show, collaborated with BEAMS on multiple occasions, and more recently announced its partnership with Jil Sander for FW21.
One outlet working to preserve a purist’s history of the outdoor industry is the Outdoor Recreation Archive (ORA); founded in 2019 as a collaborative output between Utah State University’s Special Collections & Archives and their Outdoor Product Development and Design undergraduate program, the archive works as a timeline for outdoor style and a tool for the education of students as well as for outsiders of the institution.
Comprising approximately 3000 catalogues of outdoor products from around 200 companies the collection is a documentary of the evolution of the outdoor aesthetic, be it through features on garments, materials and textiles, or graphically. While existing primarily as a physical resource to students at USU, the ORA has a digital installation and an archival Instagram account, acting as a showcase for catalogue covers and page scans.
Sabukaru linked up with Chase Anderson of the Outdoor Research Archive to chat about the outdoor industry’s rich history and to learn more about the USU’s fledgeling programme.
When launching the Outdoor Research Archive, what were your aims and do you think you’ve achieved these?
Our goal was to preserve and protect print materials that help tell the story of the outdoor industry, the people involved, and its products. We wanted to help provide a home for the industry, researchers, students, and public to gather to appreciate and study the evolution and impacts of the industry.
It was also really significant to build this collection at Utah State University, home of the Outdoor Product Design & Development program. While the collection is meant for the general public to access, we felt that USU was the perfect place to house these archives where the future designers of the industry are studying and can access them. We want the future designers of the industry to have an appreciation for the evolution and heritage of this industry.
Right now we are in a collecting phase. We are actively bringing together materials, cataloguing, scanning, and making those available for use. In the short term, we have had students, faculty, and industry utilize the collection so I definitely feel that we are on our way to accomplishing this goal in a big way.
As a publication, Sabukaru spends a lot of time talking about fashion, be it from a functionality point of view or purely aesthetic. Fact of the matter is, 2020 has seen the very utilitarian aesthetic of functional wear, especially so that of the great outdoors, come up as a “trend” for lack of a better word. What do you personally think of this insurgence of consumers, and has this boom in interest changed the direction that you’ve taken the ORA in at all?
I don’t think it’s changed what we collect necessarily but it changes how we make the collection available. I think we realized early on that designers from across industries, whether high fashion, sportswear, or true outdoor would appreciate these materials. We wanted to ensure that we could reach them in a meaningful way. If anything that drove the decision for us to put these materials on Instagram where designers are constantly looking for new trends and for inspiration. Meeting designers where they’re at was important for us as we thought about how we’d make the collection available.
Let’s talk about functional wear. Right now, GORE-TEX is heavily dominant and is employed almost universally across the scene. The material is seemingly perfect for its desired application, so what effect has this had on competitors? Is there a tangible successor in sight?
Hard to say if there’s a successor coming in the near term. They are such a dominant player and only seem to be doubling down. I believe they are reaching new audiences like never before with brand collaborations that are helping elevate the brand and allow them to cross over into new markets
I think if anything they, as well as companies like Vibram, are challenging other materials companies to think more about how to develop a recognizable brand. That’s an interesting dynamic to the outdoor industry. Outdoor users eat and breath the details of what their products are made out of. It’s something that has fueled the rise of companies like Gore, Vibram, and Polartec. I think this is a great time for other material companies to make names for themselves and recognize the people DO care about what their products are made of and where they come from.
Historically speaking, what other textiles have really impacted the scene? Has any tech had as tyrannical a reign as the current champion?
Ever since the rise of GoreTex in the 70s, tech and performance have been on the rise. You’ve also seen some materials that are returning and are becoming timeless in a way like Patagonia fleece. Fleece is as big as ever yet there’s push back due to the impacts of synthetic materials on the environment. There’s a constant push and pull between needing performance and preservation of the natural world that consumers wrestle with. There’s always a back and forth between synthetic and natural and which is truly more sustainable. As an archive, I don’t know if it’s up to us to make those claims. I hope researchers and industry partners can utilize the collection to chart that course and make those determinations.
Now through your archive, what kind of developments have been made aesthetically/graphically when you compare different periods of time? We talk about trends a lot now, what “trends” were dominant in the outdoor industry throughout the 20th century?
A consistent theme of most catalogues is the use of nature. This shouldn’t necessarily be a surprise, but most brands, no matter the decade, use outdoor imagery. There’s always been an aspirational element to outdoor marketing, a message of escape, adventure, etc. That’s no different today.
If anything, you can chart the changes in technology that informed graphic design across industries. In many of the early LL Bean catalogues, for example, many of the covers appear to be original pieces of hand-painted art. Each one carefully crafted. Over time you start to a conscious effort to try new layouts, employ new graphic design techniques or art styles, etc. Photography, in the second half of the century, becomes more important as well as adventurers and outdoor enthusiasts begin to capture aspirational images of climbers, mountaineers, and adventurers. The themes are consistent though. Aspiration / Escape.
Which brands and names have been the most consistent with creating flavorful catalogues? Which pieces are your personal favourites from the collection?
My favourites aren’t necessarily the brands you’ve heard of. I love the small brands that came and went, yet provided meaningful contributions to the outdoor industry.
My all-time favourite catalogue is from the short-lived brand Snow Lion. The cover shows a mountain peak in the shape of twin snow lions with a mountaineer looking on. It’s so striking, so different, and so beautiful.
I’m also really partial to the Summit Magazine collection. Summit Magazine was one of the early climbing magazines and it was started by two women in 1955. It ran for 40 years. Each catalogue cover is carefully designed, crafted, and is entirely unique. This publication gave a platform for brands like Chouinard Equipment, Holubar, Gerry, as well as individuals like Royal Robbins to advertise or write and really get their start.
Similar themes, as mentioned before, are exploration, aspiration, and getting back to nature.
If anything though, what is different is the changing definition of the outdoors. More and more recently, we are seeing that definition evolve (for the better in my opinion). Rather than being completely focused on summiting the tallest peaks, brands are realizing that the majority of people in cities may never climb a mountain, but they’ll go on a run, they’ll go to the park, or they’ll do yoga in their apartment. More and more there’s a shift towards expanding the definition of outdoor to focus on activity, whatever or wherever you do that activity.
Moving forward, the current energy around the outdoor industry has given you some buzz outside of the educational purposes of the project. What aims do you have for the future of this archive, be it educational or not?
The hope is to not only expand the catalogue collection but bring in specific collections focused on brands as well as individuals. There’s a huge opportunity to collect materials from the early days of companies including corporate documents, early product sketches, company or founder correspondence, etc. We have exciting things coming in the future, so stay tuned!
Thank you for your time!
About the author:
Samuel Le Roy is one of Sabukaru’s Senior Editors and resident shoe dogs. Residing in London, he is also the Editor of fledgeling publication Hartcopy, a magazine dedicated to shedding light on rare, sought and flavorful sneakers from the past and present.
