Cabela's Cazadora Wader - coincidence?

So Cabela's is coming out with a new women's wader, and they're calling it the Cabela's Cazadora Wader. Coincidence?

No. And today's the day I finally get to tell you all about it.

Remember back in October when my friend Sarah and I went to Cabela's in Reno to shop for women's waterfowl gear and came home disappointed? I wrote later that Cabela's had responded with both apologies for the experience and a discussion about improving women's hunting clothing.

But that wasn't the whole story. Read more...
What I've been (painfully) keeping under my hat all this time is that they invited Sarah and me to do product testing on a new, built-from-the-ground-up women's wader. In short, after all that complaining about having to put up with ill-fitting men's waders, Sarah and I would be helping to design waders made for us - and for all our duck hunting sisters out there.

Right away we started working with Cabela’s Product Manager Rob Burnett and Purchasing Specialist Joe Haddock to talk about what we wanted, and the main thing - aside from the obvious, like boots made for women's feet and length made for women's height - was Velcro straps. We were sick of how the buckles on waders sat right where we shouldered our shotguns. (Sure, you could design them to sit lower, but then look where they'd be - no thanks!)

So they got busy, made two prototypes and popped them in the mail to us in early November, with the request that we use them as much as possible. Sarah and I tore open the boxes when they arrived at our houses and tried them on.

We were really excited because they actually fit us!

But there were problems. The boots were freakishly tight on our calves - and neither of us has particularly big calves. The handwarmer pocket was so high that putting our hands in there was pretty much resting them on our boobs. (I know, men are thinking, "What's wrong with that?" But seriously, walk around with your hands grasping your pecs for a while and see if that doesn't feel a little awkward.) There was no extra padding on the knees - a feature we've loved in our other waders. And Sarah really wished it had come with a belt for safety.

We each sent them emails outlining the problems, and Rob and Joe were actually delighted that we'd offered such detailed critiques, because that's what they needed to make the product successful.

But that wasn't the coolest thing about working with them. What I really loved was how excited they were about the whole project. While Cabela's has a couple women's waders in its product line, this was the first time they'd built them from the ground up, rather than scaling down the men's product, and Rob and Joe were really enthused about it.

The interesting thing is this is what all the women's hunting clothing companies I love so much (Prois, SHE Outdoors, Foxy Huntress) talk about - the fact that they build women's hunting clothes from the ground up, rather than just shrinking men's versions. Now we had a major retailer doing the same thing - for waterfowl gear, which is the one area the women's companies haven't touched.

Rob and Joe sent us Version 2 of the waders in late December and they were just about perfect. I had some different-sized women friends try them on, including one who's much shorter than I am and another who's much taller and bigger, just to see if the size would accommodate many different body types. It did.

Then Sarah and I happily hunted the entire rest of the season in them, right down to closing day. All that was left to do after that was compile a little wish list about other features we wanted and put them into production.

And of course, we needed to do a photo shoot, because our story is going to be featured in the Cabela's waterfowl catalog that will come out this summer. So I enlisted one of my students - Andrew Nixon, who's an excellent photographer - and the three of us went out to the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area and spent a beautiful Saturday morning hamming it up.




Now I really hope all my fellow women duck hunters out there will buy a pair of these waders when they're released this summer, and not just because it's a good product.

Why? It would be very easy for companies to ignore women waterfowlers because there are only about 131,000 of us nationwide - one-twentieth the number of male waterfowlers. (Click on that chart if you'd like to see details).

But Cabela's didn't ignore us. In fact, when I wrote a snotty blog post - complete with video! - about how disappointed we were with their selection, their immediate response was, "Work with us to solve the problem."

The only advice of ours they didn't take was the name for the waders. We came up with a few ideas, but they didn't like them, so they're the ones who suggested Cabela's Cazadora Wader.

And what do I get out of this? Nothing more than a fat head and a pair of waders (well, more than one if you count dud versions). Cabela's hasn't paid me a dime - the money continues to flow the other way, from me to Cabela's, just like it does with the rest of you.

I am recommending this product for the same reason I've recommended other women's hunting clothing: because it works. I'm just a little bit extra excited about the Cabela's Cazadora Wader because the reason I know it works is that Sarah and I helped make it work.

© Holly A. Heyser 2009