Asolo Scout shoes were the first lightweight shoe specifically designed for hiking, and as such, commercially deposed the market in cheaper but less comfortable surplus armed forces footwear.
73 : Asolo Scout shoe
1975
Asolo Scout shoes were the first lightweight shoe specifically designed for hiking, and as such, commercially deposed the market in cheaper but less comfortable surplus armed forces footwear.
Birds often live in inaccessible and sometimes severe habitats, and to see them in the wild, birders must venture into that inhospitable environment. To do this in comfort or even to survive, they must don appropriately rigorous apparel.
The history of outdoor clothing extends back into times when humans pretty much lived outdoors. ‘Ötzi the Iceman’, a 5,300-year-old or so preserved man excavated from a glacier in the Austrian alps, had the remains of what is believed to be either a snowshoe or a backpack associated with his corpse. With that kind of history, it is impossible to say when these or any other basic item of outdoor attire was first developed.
Clearly, any item of clothing intended to be resistant to the elements could be termed ‘outdoor’, but the 20th century saw great innovations in baggage, footwear, insulation and outer wear that would be adopted by, and eventually designed specifically for, birders.
Traditional external frame backpacks have been known and used by both mountaineers and the military for many centuries, but these developed metal frames in the mid-1900s, followed by the internal frame introduced in 1967 by Greg Lowe of Lowepro. The semi-rigid design makes a large pack more comfortable to carry, and a detachable daypack without a frame is also sometimes incorporated into the design. Such packs, waterproof and highly durable, are essential in rainforest and desert expeditions, and with capacities up to 50 litres can fit optics including scope, tripod, clothes and books for trips lasting several weeks.
Outdoor clothes tend to be designed for the extremes of cold, heat or wind or, in the case of footwear, for rugged terrain. Though people have long needed to cross rough substrates and mountaineers were ascending peaks for leisure by 1874, when Europe’s highest mountain was conquered, it wasn’t until as recently as 1975 that the first specifically designed lightweight hiking shoe, the Asolo Scout, was developed.
Prior to that, by 1920 Adi Dassler and his company – the now ubiquitous Adidas – had developed a running shoe for athletes, and both strands of footwear manufacture were contributed to by orthopaedic medicine when shoes with arch support were first produced. Asolo’s lightweight Scout shoe was the logical consequence of this; manufactured from leather and nylon, it was designed for trekking alpine trails. Many other companies have since followed suit, and there is now a crowded market for all styles of walking, hiking and climbing boots and shoes, often with the innovatory Gore-Tex fabric included (see pages 144–145).
Gore-Tex and other layered and chemically impregnated fabrics can also be found in the wide range of coats, trousers and field waistcoats now available. Companies such as Páramo (launched in 1984), Country Innovation (1996) and other outdoor clothing specialists have developed garments specially designed for the situations in which birders and other naturalists find themselves. Camouflage colours, waterproof and insulated inners and outers, and multi-faceted storage pockets are incorporated into almost all possible clothing combinations, until squads of birders can resemble paintballing teams, if not the actual military.
However, there is little doubt that such clothing helps conceal birders from their quarry, and even saves lives in extreme conditions.