Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Colorado huntress: the case for pink camo

I have to start this by saying I've always hated the color pink. It is the enemy of all tomboys.

Or so I thought. A story by Charlie Meyers in the Denver Post (click here to read it) may give me reason to grudgingly accept pink.

Meyers writes about Keli Van Cleave, a goddess of bowhunting whose entire persona is infused with pink. If you click on the link or the photo here, you'll see that even her arrows are pink.

An excerpt from the story: "It may sound crazy," she says of the seeming incongruity of pink camouflage, "but it works because animals are colorblind. Camo is just a breakup."

I'm guessing she's not a waterfowler - ducks see colors perfectly well. But that's fine. The point is, here's another huntress showing that women don't have to sacrifice their particular affinities to become hunters. "I've shown you can be in the outdoors and still look good," she tells Meyers.

Meyers reports that Van Cleave has a company, Pink Outdoors, that has a pink camo clothing line. I searched for it online and found a website that says "coming soon," so I can't see what she's got to offer. But I'll be sure to check it out and report back once she goes live.

© Holly A. Heyser 2008

8 comments:

Blessed said...

Good story - thanks for finding it for us! And pink, well - let's just say that some days I wake up and I'm all tomboy and other days I wake up and I want my purse and my shoes to match my pink skirt :)

Holly Heyser said...

I think my favorite "girlie" line ever was when I went hunting for the first time with my friend Dana and we were talking about why we chose our guns. She said she wanted one with the grass camo pattern on it "to match my waders."

That was good for a pre-dawn giggle.

The Hunter's Wife said...

I am no tomboy! So my opinion won't matter as far as hunting. But I know for fishing...I LOVE my pink fishing rod.

Holly Heyser said...

Personally, my favorite color is orange, so I'm happy as a clam going upland game hunting. I even painted on of my offices at school a fairly bright orange, and named it "The Tangerine Palace."

Anonymous said...

I have never liked pink and probably never will, but I do understand a lot of women like and identify with that color.

Personally I like purple and green. So, if anyone can find me a purple fishing rod or bow or rifle, I'd probably buy it.

Anonymous said...

No reason it wouldn't work pretty well for big-game camo (not that I think you really even need camo for big game)... as the lady said, the colr isn't really important. As long as it breaks up your outline.

As to pink... well, it's never been my color either, being neither a tomboy nor a girl (well, there was some confusion about my gender prior to birth, resulting in a whole wardrobe of pink stuff...but that's neither here nor there).

Cool stuff, though.

Anonymous said...

OK, so pink camo is fine. But I wish I could convince my five-year-old not to wear his shiny white sweatpants with red and blue stripes when we go deer hunting.

PDQ said...

Hunting: A Woman's Perspective!!
Your article in the Sacramento Bee today was timely and very refreshing. So many people choose not to understand hunting. You are a refreshing breeze to all hunters.

Phil (qmallard45)