I saved up for the postage stamps (one for on the SAE) and popped my letter in the letterbox.
I’d seen a small advert in the back of a walking magazine (perused on the sly in W H Smiths) for some new fangled outdoor clothing. A week or so later an A5 envelope arrived and in it was an A5 card folder and in that were quite a few A5 bits of card with words typed on to them. Users of the new kit had written in with their reviews and in turn they had been typed on to these cards which were sent out as honest reviews. The cards had the name and ‘position’ or ‘role’ of the user on them.
In later years i’d realise that some of those names were the mountaineering elite of the day (see linked article below). The one i recall most was a bloke in the Royal Marine Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre who had managed to get his nay-saying bosses to include the kit in an Arctic clothing system test. Several Marines were each dressed in a different clothing system of the day. Then they jumped through a hole cut in the ice in Norway. They stayed there for a minute then clambered out, put their skis on, and set off skiing – monitored by staff. The results, so the A5 card informed me were mostly stages of hypothermia – apart from the Marine wearing this new clothing system called ‘Buffalo’. He had had to stop and vent his clothing because he was close to overheating.
Probably late 80s. The television news showed a small plane crash (i think somehwere above Matterdale or thereabouts). The weather was turbo winter and the reporter was having a terrible time being heard in the terrible weather. Behind him the camera watched the Mountain Rescue Team cutting about searching. They were all wearing this two piece blue suit and a matching hood. Buffalo. None of them seemed the least bit bothered by the raging weather. It might be forty odd years later but the lesson of that clip stayed with me – ignore the trends and focus on what the people at the sharp end are using and wearing. Real life influencers if you will.
The ‘legend’ of the type-write ribbon is an old one ….. Hamish needed something to go over the beloved fibre pile in order to protect the pile but also dissipate moisture. He had noted the way in which type-writer ribbon moved ink across its surface …. and with the inventors eye he set about seeking a textile equivalent. His inventiveness collided with Perseverence Mills in Lancashire and Pertex™️ was born.
Hamish applied the Double-P system to sleeping bags first – creating a layering system. A big thick fibre pile bag inside a fibre pile and pertex bag was the ‘4 Season System’. If you could carry it (fibre pile doesnt really compress) it would keep you warm in some horrible places. There was an advert once of somebody happily floating (pretending to be asleep in a Buffalo sleeping bag) down a river.
The sleeping bags involved in to the ‘Super Bag’ beloved of the military and of cold fell runners who you used to see getting in one after a winter race – unzipping the arm and feet holes – and driving home !!
(* have you ever truly lived unless you’ve had to fight your way out of a ((devilishly constrictive)) Buffalo sleeping bag in an emergency 😳😳))
It’s interesting (to geeks like me) that two of the most efficient and enduring outdoor clothing systems have arisen from studies on how animals cope in inclement weather and have sought a textile reproduction of those fur systems. Paramo and Buffalo.
By bonding Pertex to fibrePile Hamish created his ‘Double P’ system and promptly blew the doors off the outdoor clothing system …. if you were prepared to ‘wear it properly’ it was and still is an incredible clothing and sleeping bag system.
*properly being against the skin and using the multiple vents to dump or trap heat.
The naysayers will say ‘it doesnt’ breathe whilst wearing it over a t-shirt or base layer … Mike Cudahy knew a thing about breaking ultra distance fell running records in all weathers and also how to wear a Buffalo mountain shirt ‘properly’ …
Perhaps more than any other clothing brand it followed the function before fashion mindset.
Heaven knows how many days, weeks, months and years British armed forces personnel, mountain rescuers, outdoor instructors, British Antarctic Survey staff and many many others have spent in a Buffo shirt. If you were active in cold damp conditions it was / is unbeatable.
For me, Buffalo clothing has a suit of armour appeal to it – even now (after 35+ yrs of using it) if i have to go out in wretched weather and i know i am going to be active – then a Buffalo Mountain Shirt or Special 6 Shirt gets the vote.
If you’re still resding this far down then can i recommend what is quite possibly the best ‘ode to a brand’ article that Stephen Reid (owner of Needle Sports in Keswick) The above article by Stephen Reid, owner of Needle Sports wrote for On The Edge in February 1993 – here
PS way before founding Buffalo, Hamish worked for Vango and gave tent design a stellar leap forward with the Force Ten tent
Hamish Hamilton died on 18th March 2024 🙏