Come in Number two

October 19, 2009 Rohan Flashback 5 comments

Come in Number two – Your Times Up.

1st-order-customers-please1 The very first Rohan customer was sadly lost on a big mountain many years ago. Let’s try and find the second Rohan customer. The garment the Rohan Mountain Salopette. The first Rohan Salopette was sold way back in the early 70’s to an outdoor shop. No Rohan Shops in those days! Outdoor and Mountain Shops where few and far between. Read more about the outdoor trade in the early days. That all important special first order came from Pindisports Holborn followed by YHA Manchester, The Climbers Shop Ambleside, George Fisher Keswick and Joe Browns Capel Curig. Thank you all. There were others, refresh my memory please if you should be on our list.

We sold about 20 garments on our first tour of the Mountain Shops of the UK. That was good enough, Rohan was alive and well. I can still hear the words from the few…

“we can’t sell them – they will never sell – our customers will not buy these”

Ring a bell, well it was a long time ago, we will not hold it against you. So if you were a customer of those early Outdoor Shops, had a passion for the high mountains, maybe you purchased one of the first Rohan Salopettes. Or perhaps your your Mum or Dad did just that, or Grandmother or Grandfather – no that’s not right is it? Maybe you worked in those early stores and remember the first Rohan garments – or it was you that gave us that all important first order. Share the story please in the comments below.

Its good to see the spirit lives on in the new Rohan Pinnacle Series just released.

Sarah Howcroft

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5 Comments

Pete Clinch says:

26/08/2010 at 09:51

I have a later pair, post integral gaiters, but they’re still going strong and still my Weapon of Choice for resort-based telemarking. Now replaced for touring and mountaineering with some Powershield ones from MEC that are just that bit lighter and have more venting.
My Super Salopettes can be seen in ski touring action at http://www.personal.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/hardanger.jpg (Norway, next to the Hardanger glacier) and http://www.personal.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/ski.jpg (Cairngorms). Sadly my greatest ever climbing day in them didn’t get any action shots ’cause I was on my own!

If the current Superstriders were extended into a salopette version I’d be looking very hard at them, for days when the Powershield ones are a bit too monster.
simon ford says:

25/08/2010 at 16:12

I loved my Rohan Salopettes. I bought them in 1978/9 and they were blue and black with zip-on gaiters. I want some more. I am sure they would sell now, they were just ahead of the times.
Sarah Howcroft says:

01/07/2010 at 10:19

Hi John Thank you for the great memory ahhhh Pindisports and Tony. Your right Salopettes where one size smaller than most of the world expected.
Keep in contact Sarah
John Hopkins says:

30/06/2010 at 17:45

Hi Sarah
Found this website by chance and just thought I’d refresh my memory of meeting Paul at the Holborn shop of Pindisports. I was the manager of the mountain shop (the ground floor part) there until the late 70′s when Pindisports was sold.
I remember being introduced to Paul and the Rohan mountain salopette by Tony Lack, who was Pindisports main outdoor equipment buyer.
I can vividly remember the looks of shock and horror on the faces of the ‘hard men’ climbers we had working for us at the time, especially when I co-erced one of them to actually try on a sample that Paul had supplied.
I think it was a difficult pitch for Paul and we received quite a few samples before actually placing firm orders.
But once stock of these arrived (I always remember they seemed to be at least one size smaller than we expected) sales started to slowly take off.
Graeme Dunn says:

11/11/2009 at 10:09

I think I was one of the very first Rohan customers in the 1970′s for mail order having first seen items in Ambleside and had one of the first pairs of Rohan striders which I still have but sadly no longer fit but had great use in walking in the lakes, North Wales and Scotland later in the Pyrenees. Rohans early shorts and shirts and a selection of later tops covered my travels in Middle East and later on my first ROW trips and then had range of Rohans first suits and Jackets for my work travelling over much of the globe still use some and converted a Globetrotter suit jacket to a Blazer for travelling when my job required smart casual travel to meetings. which I still use today. Keep up the great work a committed Rohanite