Female in the Outdoors Shop

I was reading this post at Twisty's - about a new all-pink airline with manicures and trips to Paris - when I was struck by something that came up in a few of the comments:

The inability of most outdoors manufacturers to understand what outdoorsy women might like.

Here's what I want:

Clothes that fit. Clothes that are durable, comfortable, and easy to care for. Clothes that do not show dirt. clothes in colors I like and that flatter me. Gear that meets the same criteria.

Basically - and why is this so hard to understand? - I want the same gear men have, altered to take into account the differences in my body shape and functions.

I do not want jackets without pockets. I do not want clothes in "melon" or "lime" or gear in "rose" or "lavender" or "clear blue". I don't want equipment that's missing an essential function because that would get in the way of it being small and cute and feminine.

I want clothing in colors like the men have: dark green, rich brown, red, navy, sage, olive, terra cotta. The reason so much of my outdoors wardrobe is black is because it seems to be the only non-pastel color (well, maybe khaki, though that may too be a pastel) that manufacturers bother to make for women. I'm trying to blend in with trees and rocks and dirt, not frolic in an air-freshener commercial.

I don't like pastels, or most clear, bright colors. They get dirty easily, and I look like I'm ill when I wear them. I prefer darker, richer colors - but, my god, do I have to fight to find them in the women's sections of outdoor catalogs and stores.

Ditto bikes, canoes, PFDs, sleeping bags, luggage, hats, gloves... wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to offer women's smaller products in the same materials and colors as the men's? The only reason I can think of that makes any sense is this: while it is okay for women to wear clothing designed for men, in men's colors (hell, most of us have been doing it for years), the converse is not true.

The girly clothes are girly-colored so that men won't accidentally buy them.

Does anyone have a better explanation?

Comments

[Jill Smith]

Oh, amen. A corollary: I am ordering tee-shirts for a charity thing we're doing at work. Luckily, nowadays they have "companion style" tees - in essence, two varieties of the same tee, one cut for men, one for women.

Guess which tee comes in more colors - as in three times more colors?

The men's version.

Why? Because it's assumed that women will buy cut-for-guys tees (which we will) and like it (which we won't - at least, not most of us). I can't assume it's because the 'leventy seven shades of green, pink, aqua, etc. that the "men's version" would be of any interest to a man.

[Rana]

Oh, gah. Don't get me started on t-shirts. One of the things that made me finally happy was the development of the so-called "baby-doll" (wtf?) versions, which meant that, for the first time in my life since I was a child, I could actually wear a t-shirt that fit and was flattering. I'm thin and small busted, but I DO have curves, and so both kids' and standard adult t-shirts look terrible and fit either like sacks or tube tops.

But this means, of course, that in order to have a shirt that fits, I have to buy something called "baby doll" or "girly" despite being an adult person, and accept a smaller range of colors. Or I can buy something that fits like a pillow case in a color I like.

Isn't it fun being the "nondefault" gender?

[Rana]

I forgot to mention my most recent endeavor to procure "hikey shoes." First D. and I went to the chain shoe store where he'd gotten his. They had plenty of running shoes in my size in the women's, but no hiking shoes, just lots and lots of "nonathletic sneakers." So then we when to the big shoe store. TONS of great shoes for him - but all the women's were in sizes B or smaller (I wear an 8.5 C), and two-thirds of the shoes available were shoes with heels and straps - which is fine, when that's what you want. But they weren't.

So finally, we went to the only outdoors store in this area - Dick's - (isn't the name a tip-off?), and I did find a pair of shoes there that I liked, in a color I liked, that fit my feet. BUT.

Here's what greeted my eyes when I went upstairs to the hiking shoe department:

Men's hiking shoes. Men's climbing shoes. Men's mountain biking shoes. Men's boots. Men's sports sandals. Each had its own section on the wall. Then, over on the far side, there was ONE section containing ALL of the women's outdoor shoes. And all but two of them (one of them the pair I bought) were accented with colors like lavender, pink, rose, and mauve.

All I wanted was a sturdy pair of good-looking shoes in brown or green. How lucky for me that the only pair that fit was also the only pair that looked like that!

(It made me miss REI, I tell you!)

It's like shopping for shampoo: if you're a woman who's not into fruit or flowers, preferring instead mint or sage or wood or rosemary, well, then, you have to shop in the "men's" shampoo. (And I do mean "men's" - these scents only appear in shampoos explicitly marketed to men.)

Of course, it runs the other way, too. Poor D's favorite shampoo, which used to smell vaguely greenish and planty, was not a "man" shampoo - it was, we'd both thought, an ordinary unsexed shampoo - was reformulated and repackaged to appeal to women, and now all of it smells like fruit or flowers. Lost two customers there, folks!

[jo(e)]

Oh, you've hit upon one of my pet peeves. For years I wore outdoor clothing that was too big for me. For instance, one of the outdoor shops used to sell polypropylene long underwear ONLY IN MEN'S SIZES. The women's long underwear was all cotton. And I've always bought hiking boots and sneakers in the boys' section of the store.

[Amanda]

Thank you, thank you. I hate most pastels, and I hate it when manufacturers think that if they make something for women, it's gotta be pink, whatever it is. I don't know why they do that; my guess is that somewhere in their professional training, they're led into a room and brainwashed with messages like "Women only want pastels" and "Women like shoes that hurt their feet."

[Pica]

I hate pastels but don't put any of those khakis/military greens/sands on me -- pale skin and white hair make me look enough like a ghost already!

[David]

It would be great if more choices were offered to women as there are too few women hiking. Pastels have no place in the wilderness.