The walking billboard thread

bykfixer

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Ok, the point of this subforum is about outdoor adventures. So I didn't really know if it would be appropriate to do a 'do you wear flashlight swag' thread here. Instead it's a 'are you a walking billboard' thread.

As in when going off on said adventures do you prefer your attire to remain nameless in the public eye, somewhat subdued or outright logos for all to see?

I prefer the brand name of clothing articles to be subdued or not showing...but do like to see products that I like to be seen...swag as it were.

Example would be a Sure Fire jacket made by Columbia. I'd prefer the Columbia logo match the jacket color, but the Sure Fire logo to show.

So far I have 2 ball caps with flashlight logos and a t-shirt.


^^ a waxed cotton leather look with a subdued logo.


^^ made by these folks


^^ hidden logo


^^ or the "walking billboard" shirt.


^^ a walking billboard hat.

Now note the holes in the top, yet no button.
Great for wearing under a helmet.
The tak gear cap has holes on the side. More useful for circulation imo as they are slightly above the sweat band that hugs your head. While walking more positive air flow than at the top.

Even the simple baseball cap is subject to modern technology.
 
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Monocrom

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I prefer to keep a low-profile in general. (Now that I think about, very low actually.) Even my baseball caps are unbranded. (No team logos.) All black cap, and a blue one with black trim around the edges. T-shirts in one solid color. (No lame, funny, hipster style slogans.) Black pants, black shoes. Traditional black leather belt. (Though the one I'm wearing now has "Levi Strauss" etched across the belt buckle. Though it's very tiny lettering that no one is really going to notice.)

I do have an Adidas branded shirt. But honestly never wear it.

I do have one thing special. A custom-made SureFire T-shirt from a certain fellow forum member. Wonderful shirt design. Not available from SureFire. I love it. Though to make sure it lasts, I don't wear it too often.
 

bykfixer

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^^ one off shirts are COOL!

Are you a ninja monocrom?

When I was a little kid, while standing on my parents porch another kid (who's dad drove a dragster) goes whizzing by on his bicycle yelling to an older kid "hey keith I got some new details"..he was showing off his latest batch of racing decals his pop had acquired at the race track back in the days when they gave away shirts, hats and stickers.
I was intrigued...

Later the kid's dad got him sponsored by a local motorcycle shop. He was a walking Yamaha billboard.
About that time NASCAR was becoming televised and Bobby Allisons kid (Davey) was a walking Coca Cola billboard and Richard Petty's kid (Kyle) was a walking STP billboard.
I was intrigued.

Later in life I became a 'sponsored' skateboarder.
Finally! I COULD BE A WALKING BILLBOARD!

Even later I owned a bicycle shop. Being a walking billboard was useful at trade shows or when travelling. Sometimes other shops would give me stickers, hats, shirts etc hoping I'd help them get going.

So the logo thing is in my chromosomes now.
But I still prefer the subdued thing and limited edition stuff.
 
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bykfixer

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Back to action and adventure stuff

A couple of years ago I found a real, real nice Browning wool camo parka on clearance.
Another story:
An older coworker told me of a friend of his die-ing of pnuemonia at an early age (back in the 60's) from a spill in a canoe.
Seems they tipped it over and when reaching shore they built a fire. It seems the friend had on a lot of cotton. My coworker was wearing wool (according to him).
The friend had to remove much of his clothing to attempt to dry it. The coworker stated his woolen clothing dried quickly.

Back to the coat. I had borrowed a kayak and was planning on doing some winter kayaking. So remembering the story I figured I'd put on as much wool as practical. And now I had a nice wool coat...and camo to boot.


Wool pants. Check
Wool socks. Check.
Wool head covering. Check

But the coat has more openings than a window screen. So a liner is required to keep out the kayak induced cold breeze.

The coat had this giant bright golden yellow Browning logo. On the way home from the sporting goods store I stopped by a big box office store and bought some nature colored sharpies.
While in the parking lot I colored the logo with the markers with similar colors to the background behind said parka.

It is by far my favorite coat.
Oh, and I never did go kayaking in winter.
 
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Monocrom

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^^ one off shirts are COOL!

To be fair, it's a two-off shirt. I know that other forum member made one just like it for himself. Come to think of it, he may have made more. Ironically, I'm arguably SureFire's biggest critic on CPF. Then again, I own about two dozen SureFire models so I know what needs criticizing and what the company is doing right. :grin2:

Are you a ninja monocrom?

Yes. And I'm in your kitchen right now.... eating your Cheetos. I'm doing it without making a crunching sound. :sssh:

Actually, I just hate random encounters with strangers. IN NYC, it's either a mugger trying to be cool, an obnoxious ******* trying to be funny or show off at your expense to his friends, a hipster trying to be clever, or a hooker trying to land her next John, or some animal rights wacko/lunatic tree hugger trying to convince me to donate money, or a homeless guy getting a bit too aggressive with his pan-handling. With the exception of that last one, they all deserve a right proper beating with a baseball bat.

Seriously, you never have a random encounter that leads to a good thing for YOU. So, if you play the part of the Grey Man, and simply blend into the background being non-flashy; you reduce your chances of random encounters with total strangers.

When I was a little kid, while standing on my parents porch another kid (who's dad drove a dragster) goes whizzing by on his bicycle yelling to an older kid "hey keith I got some new details"..he was showing off his latest batch of racing decals his pop had acquired at the race track back in the days when they gave away shirts, hats and stickers.
I was intrigued...

Later the kid's dad got him sponsored by a local motorcycle shop. He was a walking Yamaha billboard.
About that time NASCAR was becoming televised and Bobby Allisons kid (Davey) was a walking Coca Cola billboard and Richard Petty's kid (Kyle) was a walking STP billboard.
I was intrigued.

Later in life I became a 'sponsored' skateboarder.
Finally! I COULD BE A WALKING BILLBOARD!

Even later I owned a bicycle shop. Being a walking billboard was useful at trade shows or when travelling. Sometimes other shops would give me stickers, hats, shirts etc hoping I'd help them get going.

So the logo thing is in my chromosomes now.
But I still prefer the subdued thing and limited edition stuff.

You touched upon another reason I normally hate wearing branded clothing.... I'm not being sponsored.

I'm not getting a penny from any company. Adidas isn't paying me to walk around in public while wearing their shirt. That's the main reason why I never wear it. On top of that, it's not even as though I got the shirt for free. I had to pay for it.

So.... I walk around being free advertising for their company AND I paid them for the privilege of doing so?!?! Oh Hell no!!
(It's a nice scam when you stop and think about it. If the clothing was given away for free, then that would be a different story.)
 
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