Podcast Host Avery Trufelman on How the Military Influences Outdoor Gear

So the military has relied on external companies for gear since at least before World War II?

Yeah, the Civil War is when the army starts needing gear on an industrial scale. But a lot of what the military was ending up with was bad. It’s around this point that the Quartermaster Corps, the part of the army in charge of handling food, travel logistics, and clothing design, established a stamp of approval to make sure the clothes issued to soldiers were good enough. This is part of what makes surplus later possible.

The Quartermaster Corps became responsible for figuring out how to help the military dress for operations in new environments. Its first real challenge came in the Spanish American War at the end of the 1800s, where soldiers faced heat they would not have in the Civil War. Khaki ended up being a good solution. The cold temperatures of World War I were also difficult. We had these long wool jackets for people in the trenches that really sucked—they were basically blankets. Too hot if you’re moving, but if you take it off, you have nothing.

The Quartermaster Corps began to wonder if they could make a jacket that could work in multiple environments. To do this, they enlist the help of a bunch of these newly famous outdoorsy guys and their companies. The U.S. Military hires L.L. Bean, by which I mean the literal guy Leon Leonwood Bean, and Eddie Bauer, again the man Eddie Bauer. Over time, their ideas find their way into a bunch of military garments.

With the help from some of these outdoor consultants, the Quartermaster Corps developed the Field Jacket, the classic piece that we think of as the army jacket. The product kind of “invents” layering. Which like, yeah duh, layering, but this was a new thing at the time. The early Field Jackets literally have instructions in them on how to properly layer your clothes. You’d use the jacket with a rain layer or a warm layer, depending on the conditions.

The American military comes out looking a little ragamuffin-y, compared to the suited armies of other countries. But items like the Field Jacket were designed more scientifically, after actually asking soldiers what they needed. It’s a product that was really in keeping with the ideals of a democratic army, instead of just trying to do something a general wanted or that was imitating something else.

Are companies like L.L. Bean and Eddie Bauer still involved with the military now?

They’ve had tangos over the last century, but they’re not so much involved now. It’s not like a company just sort of hops into bed with the military and stays there. They all have different relationships. But if you’re part of the outdoor industry, it’s likely you have an inextricable tie to the military. You could be working with a material that was developed by or for the military, have worked with the military in the past, or, of course, be an active military contractor. I’m not trying to vilify it, I just think it’s fascinating.

What’s really changed since the time we’ve been talking about is that our army is much smaller again. And a lot of it is really specialized. The people on the ground tend to be special operators that work under the cone of silence and get a lot of leeway to do their jobs. They also have more freedom to wear whatever they want to wear. Some get a discretionary budget to buy whatever, so they shop from high-end outdoor equipment brands that are catering to them.

I think this kind of gear is at least in part responsible for Gorpcore. I mean, take a look at Arc’teryx Leaf [Editor’s Note: It’s now called Arc’teryx Pro]. It’s awesome. It’s black, the logo is low-key, and it’s really nice. A friend of mine used to be a buyer at Totokaelo, where they didn’t stock mainline Canada Goose but did stock gear from the more tactical line. Another big one is Salomon. Their shoes for special operators are so fucking cool. They’re black, they’re light. I almost bought a pair.

Are military contracts a big part of how the outdoor industry funds itself?

When I first stumbled onto this world of gear for Special Ops, I, of course, was like, oh this is where the dark money is. But there aren’t actually buckets of money to be made in catering to the Special Operations community. It’s tiny. There are only like 400 people in Delta Force.

Some companies can make money producing clothes for the mass military, like Outdoor Research. It told me about 20% of its business is tactical and 80% is civilian. But apparently the process can be a pain in the ass. The military does not work like a normal clothing company, where you have a regular production cycle that’s somewhat seasonal. They’ll apparently be like, we need 6,000 gloves in three months. Dealing with this can be a huge headache.

Has learning more about the connection between the outdoor industry and the military changed how you think about either?

It’s easy to think of the military industrial complex as evil and scary, and I went to some private military trade shows that made me cry. But on a day to day level, I don’t think the outdoor industry is as dark as I thought it might be. It’s not as dark as the weapons world, it’s way less of a problem.

I talked to a lot of veterans while working on this season. Many of them are people who saw some really bad shit who were really healed by the outdoors. As much as advertisements for the outdoor industry are like, the outdoors brings us together, the outdoors are healing. Nature is amazing in a way that society itself cannot always be.

Still, I went to this tradeshow for performance fabrics. Of course, everyone was talking about how wonderful and amazing and healing the outdoors is. But to get into the tradeshow, you had to walk by a tent encampment. There’s this really strict divide between what the country considers acceptable and unacceptable ways to be outdoors. There’s all this legislation in cities that makes pitching a tent illegal. The fundamental hypocrisy of it rubs me the wrong way.

I know the outdoor industry can’t necessarily be out there on the streets of Portland giving out tents even if they would like to. People would get mad at them, they’d be seen as exacerbating the problem. The fact of the matter is that a huge portion of Americans, for lack of a social safety net, live in tents and jackets. It’s really sad.

Has diving into this changed your personal relationship to technical outdoor clothing?

It’s so funny, I don’t wear this stuff. I keep doing shows about clothes I don’t wear. People were like, Oh you’re the preppy person! Oh, god. Oh no. I’m really not!

Same with this, I’m really not a GORP-y person. Someone asked me recently what I wear in the rain. I was like, literally nothing. I just, like, get wet. I’m so not about this, I’m such an indoor cat.