Friday, August 29, 2008

Trailfeathers: A new women's clothing line

Quite the busy morning for huntresses in the news: I had yet to recover from the buzz of seeing a huntress on the Republican ticket when I came across an article in the Burlington (Connecticut) Free Press about a lifelong huntress who just launched her own hunting clothing line.

Wendy Butler is the newest in a short line of women like Pam Zaitz (SHE Safari), Shelah Zmigrosky (Foxy Huntress) and Kirstie Pike (Prois Hunting Apparel) who grew tired of wearing ill-fitting men's clothing on the hunt and decided to do something about it. I adore these women.

Her clothing line is small so far - appropriate for a startup - and the prices are on the higher side compared with her competitors. But I'm immediately impressed with her "Double Fly Pants," which include a traditional men's fly and a women's fly that basically opens up the entire crotch of the pants so we don't have to pull our pants down to take a leak.

Even more sporty: The product description touts the ability, wearing these pants, to pee easily out of a treestand. Now, I don't hunt from treestands - we don't do that so much out West - but if I did, I'm thinking that would be a bold move. I don't want to be too graphic here, but all I'm saying is we don't aim as well as guys do...

Moving on!

Butler isn't the first on the market with a women's fly - Foxy Huntress sells pants with a Velcro opening at the crotch (see photo at right) for exactly the same purpose.

But Butler comes by the idea honestly: Her mother customized her own pants in this way 30 years ago after getting tired of dropping trou on cold days in the woods.

So, I'm pleased to add a new link today to my women's clothing company list in the bar to the right of this column. And with any luck, I'll get my hands on some of this stuff and do a review for Jesse's Hunting & Outdoors to let you know how it works.

At ground level, anyway. I'm thinking I'm not ready to pee from a tree yet.

© Holly A. Heyser 2008

8 comments:

SimplyOutdoors said...

I know I'm not a woman, but I think it would take some talent to hit that hole. I'd be careful with that:)

Looks like a great clothing line for the ladies out there though.

Othmar Vohringer said...

Hunting fashion sure has come a long way since the days when the only option for huntresses was to wear male hunting garments.
-ov-

Blessed said...

This is awesome! I love seeing all the new clothes coming out for us women who hunt

Jon Roth said...

With all this high-fashion, even The Wife may get interested in becoming a huntress!!

Holly Heyser said...

Ha! Aesthetics do matter to us. One of my colleagues is preparing to start duck hunting, and when she went out and got her camo earlier this year, she was adamant that her waders and jacket should have matching patterns.

I told her it really didn't matter to the ducks, but it sure mattered to her!

Jesses Hunting And Outdoors said...

Will they make my butt look big? 8^)

Chas S. Clifton said...

I will pass this on to my wife -- as a slim, athletic woman of 5'4", she has a hard time finding good outdoor clothing, even something simple like cargo pants. Even the small sizes are often too balloon-y in the hips for her.

I would not pee out of a tree stand regardless of sex -- talk about leaving a human scent!

Holly Heyser said...

As luck would have it, some Trailfeathers clothes are on their way to me in the mail, and I'll be hunting in them in two weeks.
So please check back to see how it goes - I'll write about it here and for Jesse's Hunting & Outdoors.

Sounds like my hips are pretty different from your wife's (ballooney sounds good to me! ;-), but these come in XS, so I'm betting she'd be fine.