After finishing my second stint at tertiary education in Clothing Technology, circa 1994, I began making a little money designing clothing

for adventurous friends and friends-of-friends. Not in the proverbial garage, but in the kitchen. When not sewing up custom-made travel

pants for backcountry skiers, (they still remember the radical colourways!) I was giving my industrial sewing machine much grief by

repairing buoyancy vests and spray decks for kayaks. Though a chain of fortuitous events, I found myself as the designer for Paddy Pallin,

Australia's legendary outdoor company, started in 1930. During the period 1986 -1993 I was lucky enough to create market leading

initiatives. Some of those are listed here:

Designer (products manufactured in Australia)

Developed concepts, sourced all fabrics and components, cut patterns, designed and sewed prototypes, field tested samples, managed third

party field testing, refined prototypes, coordinated grading of patterns for other sizes, developed colour palette, coordinated fabric lab dips

for colormatching, specified all materials, developed Bill of Materials, liaised with machinists on production techniques, prepared

production samples, wrote full product manuals for marketing and sales training, wrote copy for catalogues and visited all national retail

stores to present at staff training events.

• Designed ‘Integral Clothing’ range, which sold over $2.5M p.a.

• Introduced over 40 new garment designs, including more than 8 specific womens styles

• Introduced over 17 new technical fabrics

• Developed exhaustive field testing process including questionnaire, with over 50 questions

• Designed the patented ‘Watergate’ storm closure for apparel, still available over fifteen years later

• Designed first articulated arms and knees in rainwear, in Australia

• Designed ‘’whipstop’ hood cord retainers — now industry standard

• Designed Vista rain jacket, the definitive bushwalking jacket, substantially unchanged 15 years on

• Designed first Womens’ Gore-tex jacket in Australasia

• Designed first overpants with a seamless in-leg , for durability in Tasmanian mud

• Designed range of 10 down sleeping bags - from hostel travel through to expedition

• Designed line of Gore-tex bivouac bags, from budget to deluxe

• First to specify Pertex fabric for sleeping bag shells, in Australasia  — now the industry standard

• First to introduce a line of bicomponent fabric construction bodywear (Drytech), many years before Polardry

• First to design a full rainwear line, where all pockets could be accessed while wearing a pack

• First to introduce a range of dedicated lightweight travel clothing to Australia, for both genders

• First to offer full apparel range from bivvy boots to belts, underwear to outerwear

• First to introduce a line of lightweight, windproof, compressible warmwear (Intercept)

• First to specify Malden Polarlite fabric in Australasia, later to called Polartec 200

• First to specify Toray H2Off windproof fabric in Australasia

• First to introduce a non Gore-Tex 3 layer waterproof/breathable fabric (Aquanort)

• First to specify RiRi Swiss quality zip fasteners

• First to specify Prym snap fasteners from Germany

• Designed Gore-Tex Laminated-to-Drop (LTD) travel waterproofs

• First to specify Ecospun recycled PET fleece outside North America

• First to specify ‘Green Cotton’ content in travel clothing (free of the formaldehyde common in most cotton)

• Designed the waterproof St John Ambulance Adventure First Aid Kit

• Garments selected for photo spread in Australian Vogue

Product Manager (products not manufactured by Paddy Pallin)

• Sourced Tika rucksacks and travel packs from New Zealand (Contributed in range development)

• Sourced Osprey packs from USA

• Sourced Paddy Pallin labelled synthetic sleeping bags from New Zealand

• Sourced third party production of Paddy Pallin labelled socks, crusher hats and daypacks from Australia and Asia

• Sourced Five-Ten climbing shoes from USA

• Sourced Arc’teryx climbing harnesses from Canada

• Sourced Seam Grip - McNett proofing agents from USA

• Sourced Alpineaire freeze dried food from USA

• Sourced PackTowl from USA

• Sourced Ultimate Direction hydration systems from USA (Long before the whole hydration fad took off)

• Sourced Artiach self-inflating sleeping mats from Spain

• Sourced Manzella gloves from USA

• Sourced Arkos travel footwear from Italy

• Product managed Edelweiss climbing ropes from Switzerland

• Product managed Eagle Creek travel accessories

• Product managed Sierra Designs tents from USA

• Product managed Mont•Bell outdoor equipment from Japan

• Product managed Chouinard/Black Diamond climbing and backcountry ski gear from USA, attending regular US meetings

• Managed the flow of all the raw materials and components for all Paddy Pallin clothing and down sleeping bag production

• Attended trade shows, conferences in UK, Germany and USA

• Visited operations of Berghaus, Black Diamond, Patagonia, RiRi, Rohan, The North Face, Phoenix and Sierra Designs