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Kuiu our new "hunting liason"?

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(From Men's Journal article With Kuiu's success, Hairston has fielded a number of offers to buy the company, but says he'd rather be good than big: "I made that mistake with Gore. I won't make clothes for women, and I won't make clothes for fat guys, because then the skinny guys won't look good in them. I want Kuiu to be an aspirational brand."

Hmm. Interesting. Starting to blur the lines between "legit" hunting brand and "aspirational" hipster-holier than thou fashion statement with that quote. But I digress.

At the end of the day, who do we want as our voice for the public land hunter/angler? I think that is the biggest concern we all have - I don't see Hairston being an unwavering pro-public land advocate, nor have seen or read where he goes on record to firmly state his position on public land sales/transfers. When was the last time he went out on a good old fashioned hunt on public land without a guide, doing his own research and connected or came up empty-handed? He doesn't necessarily "need" public land access, nor value it the same as the majority of people who use public land for their chosen pursuit and passion.

I worry this is plain and simple cronyism and nothing more, and the powers that be will do what they want, with little or no regard for the public voice.
 
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I read that article. The quote in the outdoor life article is a 2nd hand quote from a Men's Health article. The author of the outdoor life article didn't even interview him.



Damn, he is against whitetail and duck hunters too!!

In the article in Men's health the theme was a focus on staying small and high quality, not trying to be everything to everyone. I don't think Hairston is against fat guys or whitetail tree stand hunters or duck hunters or women. He just doesn't want to make clothes for them.

Not wanting to come across as a blinded Kuiu loyal supporter. I do have some of their clothes and some Sitka too. They are good clothes. Just not sure the 2nd hand quote is something where he is some bigot against fat people or women.

Its one thing to say you want to concentrate on being small and doing one thing really good, but by adding he wants to be an aspirational brand in the same breath as saying no fat people or women....that's just too elitist.
 
(From Men's Journal article With Kuiu's success, Hairston has fielded a number of offers to buy the company, but says he'd rather be good than big: "I made that mistake with Gore. I won't make clothes for women, and I won't make clothes for fat guys, because then the skinny guys won't look good in them. I want Kuiu to be an aspirational brand."

Hmm. Interesting. Starting to blur the lines between "legit" hunting brand and "aspirational" hipster-holier than thou fashion statement with that quote. But I digress.

At the end of the day, who do we want as our voice for the public land hunter/angler? Somebody that is a hunter would be a good start, which is more than we would ahve got with the other choice, and something that we didn't have with Obama, Bush, Clinton, other Bush, etc. I think that is the biggest concern we all have - I don't see Hairston being an unwavering pro-public land advocate, nor have seen or read where he goes on record to firmly state his position on public land sales/transfers.Look on his personal instagram. If you have any doubts, maybe write him an email or call him or Brendan. They will respond. When was the last time he went out on a good old fashioned hunt on public land without a guide, doing his own research and connected or came up empty-handed? I believe they do a family deer hunt in California every year. He doesn't necessarily "need" public land access, Where do people hunt sheep on private land? nor value it the same as the majority of people who use public land for their chosen pursuit and passion.

I worry this is plain and simple cronyism and nothing more, and the powers that be will do what they want, with little or no regard for the public voice.



I threw in a bit of what I know that you asked about and asked a question of my own in bold/italics.
 
Its one thing to say you want to concentrate on being small and doing one thing really good, but by adding he wants to be an aspirational brand in the same breath as saying no fat people or women....that's just too elitist.

So if he had said he didn't want to "lose core appeal" it would be okay but because he said he wanted to be "aspirational" it isn't okay? Or is it fat people and women vs. whitetail and duck hunters?

The hunttalk spell checker doesn't even think aspirational is even a word.

So I guess we have a male chauvinist, anti fat people, anti whitetail and duck hunter who has been tapped to be the new made up unpaid hunting liaison to the Department of Interior.

The dude is a fashion designer. He might think he is super cool and all, and an ex NFL football player, but he does make and sell clothes. As him to get his seamstress tape out and see if you can have a measuring contest.

I haven't seen a lot of fat models or clothes designed for fat people at fashion shows. Plenty of fashion designers that wouldn't be caught dead making something for men due to it not being aspirational to the folks they are trying to sell clothes to.

I wonder how a fat transgender duck hunter might feel about all this?
 
His biz model is his own bizness, if I looked as good as mtmiller in kooyoo, I'd buy the hell out of it.

 
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So if he had said he didn't want to "lose core appeal" it would be okay but because he said he wanted to be "aspirational" it isn't okay? Or is it fat people and women vs. whitetail and duck hunters?

The hunttalk spell checker doesn't even think aspirational is even a word.

So I guess we have a male chauvinist, anti fat people, anti whitetail and duck hunter who has been tapped to be the new made up unpaid hunting liaison to the Department of Interior.

The dude is a fashion designer. He might think he is super cool and all, and an ex NFL football player, but he does make and sell clothes. As him to get his seamstress tape out and see if you can have a measuring contest.

I haven't seen a lot of fat models or clothes designed for fat people at fashion shows. Plenty of fashion designers that wouldn't be caught dead making something for men due to it not being aspirational to the folks they are trying to sell clothes to.

I wonder how a fat transgender duck hunter might feel about all this?

There are other ways to say it than to say you exclude fat people and women. I mean he said that. We're not infering anything here. He used the words "Fat people and women". That's just a dumb thing to say, and to me, speaks to who he is. It's fine to say you want to be aspirational. But put it like, "We don't want to get away from our core value of making clothes for the hardcore hunter that aspires to go far and fast in search of game. Therefore we feel that the people that have that ability are going to use certain sizes. Since we are a small company we only have so many resources and we feel we should invest those resources to makes clothes for our established customer base and not making sure we manufacture a wide range of sizes."

I have nothing against him talking about diluting brand by not making a camo pattern for duck hunters. There is a difference and you know it. And I have no problem with them not making clothes in bigger sizes. But Victoria Secret is not dumb enough to say we don't make sizes for big girls because big girls don't look good in our clothes. Alot of clothing stores that are trending like A&F don't carry jeans about a 36, sometimes 38 inch waste for men. It's fine for them to do that. Yet again, they don't say anything about fat people.
 
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Your quote is the perfect way to say it. Do you think while you were out on a hunt and there was a reporter tagging along with you asking you questions you would have said "we don't make clothes for women or fat people" or would you have turned your attention from the hunt, composed yourself, thought it out and then delivered the quote you came up with? I'm not nearly as eloquent in my day to day life as I am with time to think it through behind the keyboard. (And I'm still not very eloquent then). My tiny bit of experience with reporters has been that what they pick up and include in their article isn't always exactly the way I would have wanted them to and it tends to be slanted toward whatever they were trying to get across in the first place. (I've been quoted twice). There are other critical items noted in that article that make me think that it wasn't just a fluff piece, and I'm not saying that Jason isn't a chauvinist pig. He might be. I just think we are becoming too politically correct if someone is going to boycott a company because the owner called someone fat or that he doesn't want to make women's clothing.
 
I'm my most eloquent after 2 or 3 beers.....just saying. I'm a regular verbal lothario.

And I'm not boycotting his clothes or anything. Nor would I call on someone too. I'm just saying that's I'm not sure he's the guy to rep hunters in the Trump admin. I don't buy the stuff, but its because I'd rather buy First Lite because of how they conduct themselves or Kryptek because I like Highlander or Sitka because I live in Bozeman. I think all the top clothing hunting lines are all good and are more or less six of one, half dozen of the other.
 
Your quote is the perfect way to say it. Do you think while you were out on a hunt and there was a reporter tagging along with you asking you questions you would have said "we don't make clothes for women or fat people" or would you have turned your attention from the hunt, composed yourself, thought it out and then delivered the quote you came up with? I'm not nearly as eloquent in my day to day life as I am with time to think it through behind the keyboard. (And I'm still not very eloquent then). My tiny bit of experience with reporters has been that what they pick up and include in their article isn't always exactly the way I would have wanted them to and it tends to be slanted toward whatever they were trying to get across in the first place. (I've been quoted twice). There are other critical items noted in that article that make me think that it wasn't just a fluff piece, and I'm not saying that Jason isn't a chauvinist pig. He might be. I just think we are becoming too politically correct if someone is going to boycott a company because the owner called someone fat or that he doesn't want to make women's clothing.

While I think your point about talking to reporters is well made, I have had similar experiences with their 'quotes', I like to think that if I was taking a reporter on a hunt with me I would play through some of the most obvious questions in my head before hand to make sure that I don't make an idiot out of myself. Jason is his brand, so he knows anything he says or does will effect his company, and he is pretty damn good at marketing himself, therefore I tend to think this wasn't an off the cuff gaff and that this is exactly what he meant to say and accurately reflects his views. Let's be honest this can't be the first time he has been asked about sizing or a women's line, these are pretty basic questions for someone who manufactures garments so I doubt it caught him off guard.

I own some Kuiu it's mostly good stuff, I have transitioned to first lite because I love their mission, I have no problem with the company or Jason but he is definitely an elitist and I would rather the liaison between our community and any administration be inclusive rather than exclusive.
 
For me, working around government officials, engineers, attorneys, business people etc... pretty much the list of people that could sell ice to an Eskimo for 100x the going rate and make them feel like they got a bargain, people that can elequontly take 15 minutes to basically tell you you're a F'n idiot and we don't like you- and make you feel good about it afterwards- Seeing a little bluntness is rather refreshing.

Its not how I would have said it, and if I owned it, would probably ditch the kid's line and focus on a womens line, but I've always appreciated the rare person that doesn't beat around the bush, with a bunch of weasel word, PC bs.
 
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Facts might be painful for some, but should be appreciated by all. The cold hard truth is way less slimy than political correctness.
 
The facts are that he is by no means the best person for the unpaid made up job of hunting liaison to the department of interior. But he is better than many of the alternatives.

Sure glad that it wasn't The Don. He is probably steaming that he didn't get picked. How much cash did he put into Trump's campaign thinking of the influence he was going to have if things turned out the way they did.
 
The facts are that he is by no means the best person for the unpaid made up job of hunting liaison to the department of interior. But he is better than many of the alternatives.

Sure glad that it wasn't The Don. He is probably steaming that he didn't get picked. How much cash did he put into Trump's campaign thinking of the influence he was going to have if things turned out the way they did.

So much truth in this comment.
 
There will likely never be a "high end" company making hunting pants with a 30" inseam for me, so I'll stick with what I can find. I don't expect them to cater to the ends of the bell curve, and I've never been offended by being called short and fat.

What concerns me about Hairston being our liaison are his "hunting politics," and what groups with which he chooses to align. I'm concerned about who might be "consulting" with him and the message he may be passing along to Zinke and others.
 
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