Rohan Hyde

A Schizophrenic Body Wear System for Rohan

The windshirt underpinned the very early lightweight, windproof upper body clothing system that Rohan pioneered. The Rohan Hyde windshirt had many reincarnations over its short life 1980 -1984.

A windshirt was a very simple concept. Put a windproof shell over what is now referred to as your base layer, and you will achieve a very high degree of protection and warmth that far outstrips the weight of the fabric, assuming the fabric is windproof and breathable. The use of Airlight fabric to actually make a shirt and do exactly that was a totally new concept in the late 1970’s. The first windshirt, Rohan Mark 1 Hyde came to the market in 1980. Developed as part of a new, unique  garment system to provide the maximum protection and comfort for minimal weight, quick drying and easy to wear. It came to the market with Jekyll. If you were going to wear the Hyde you had to have something compatible to put under it. It’s hard to talk about the Hyde without reference to the Jekyll, the under Hyde garment. We will cover Jekyll story in a future post on Rohantime.

Extracts from a 1980 Rohan newslette & photo John Cleare wearing a Mark 1 Hyde and Rohan Bags Mark 1.

The Mark11 Rohan Windshirt soon followed. It was an open up the front versions. Poppers not zipped. The Airlight fabric had  become ripstop Airlight. The garment was much sleeker. By 1983 the garment had changed name to the Action Jacket & the Hyde was lost forever. Hyde’s spirit was reborn in the Moving On – that’s another story. Hyde Mark 11 was the start of a new look in outdoor clothing. A much sleeker, cleaner profile than the market was used to. The combined outfit of Bags and Mark 11 Hyde moved the Rohan range nearer to easy care day and travel clothing.

The decision to drop the Hyde was because of problems with the availability of the Jekyll fabric, Dunova.  You couldn’t have a Hyde without a Jekyll, so both disappeared.

Had both Jekyll  & Hyde remained in production and enjoyed similar longevity to Bags would we all be wearing much sleeker garments today?

Sarah Howcroft Co-founder Rohan Clothing

Check out photo’s of Jekyll and Hyde on Rohantime Photo Archive. If you have a photo of Hyde or Jekyll please share it with us.

Was this the First Olfio?

Was this the first Olfio? Paul Howcroft’s own OLF10-Ferrari 308 GT 4-2+2. Business must have been good that year. Thank you Ed and Ade Rudler for the photo. However, was this the first Olfio?

We have referred to the naming of Olfio in a few posts on Rohantime. Olfio was indeed named after a car registration plate that was used on a number of Rohan vehicles. Thank you to all who mentioned it. Now is a good time for me to own up to the fact that Rohan Sohao was also a number plate.

It is good to know that some Rohan traditions go on. My first visit back to Rohan Milton Keynes head office for many years was last year and the first thing I saw that stopped me in my tracks was Ofio. There it was, outside Milton Keyne head office, on a beautiful black Land Rover. That raised a smile.

A number of 4 wheeled Olfio’s have passed between the Ferrari and the current Land Rover. The  picture below shows one, the Range Rover with Susan and Allan in Rohan Olfio’s and Rohan Bags 1985.

Are there any photos and stories of the other cars that have carried the Rohan Olfio number plate over the last 25 years?

See a great example of the Rohan Olfio as part of the Rohan Originals collection in Rohan Keswick and Rohan Guildford

Check out to Rohantime Flickr some great photo’s of Olfio taken from the Rohan Catalogues 1985 – 1990.

Sarah Howcroft

History of Rohan Clothing

Message from Warren McLaren

Congratulations on Rohantime. Such a great service the current Rohan team are providing. It’s wonderful that the creative energy so apparent in the early decades of the Rohan story is being captured and archived.

A shame this isn’t true of many other iconic outdoor companies. For prior to the outdoor industry becoming substantial enough to attract corporate investment, the founder/designers of many outdoor brands poured their heart and soul into these ventures to produce cutting edge product. Their imagination and passion inspired me to also want to design outdoor gear. Along the way, I amassed a sizeable collection of gear and clothing catalogues.

About 18 months ago I had the vague idea of collating some of those outdoor product innovations into a form of web database. Alas, having my first child interrupted the process somewhat, so the project is a tad incomplete, but the Rohan profile is reasonably full. It might interest your readers, as may the product heritage of other British brands like, Berghaus, Blacks of Greenock, Karrimor, Ultimate and Wintergear. If time permits (ha!) I hope, one day, to fill in many missing details. And brands.

Endeavours like Rohantime, and Berghaus re-releasing their original 30 year old Trango jacket, suggest that, as the outdoor market has become increasingly homogenised, active people still hanker after a time when passion drove designs, not sales charts. Maybe my effort, called ‘Compass: charting the evolution of outdoor gear,’ can add a little something to that resurgence of interest. Direct link to the Rohan profile

cheers, Warren.

What’s in a name?

And now for something completely different

Rohan Sohao circa 1983/4. The story of the Rohan Sohao is worth recording. Not because it was a record breaking popular Rohan garment of years gone by. More because it illustrates early Rohan thinking.

What was the Rohan Sohao? The story of Sohao cannot be told without reference to the story of the Olfio. Date early 1980’s, Olfiio and Sohao were introduced to the market in early previews as a Tech Pullover – the Arran sweater gone high technology. Both garments were definitely high tech but had no likeness to the Arran sweater, other than they kept you warm. Both garments weighed under 600 grams each, were windproof, lightweight, dried very quickly, small pack size and had lots of zipped pockets. Not the description of any Arran sweater.

Both Olfio and Sohao were constructed from Rohan Airlight™ and an Insuflex inner. This was the first of a number of fabrics in the Rohan Insu range. Innsuflex was Rohan’s answer to lightweight synthetic insulation. The decision was made not to go down the fleece road and instead develop a lightweight and soft insulation wadding layer, unique to Rohan. This fabric was not only used in the Olfio and Sohao but also Hot Bags, Wild Vest, Big Kids Suits and the children’s range. We will get to them all in future posts on Rohantime. The polyester wadding was laminated to a thin cotton model knit. This stretched with the body and offered a high comfort factor. Most of the production was a strong  gold colour, which gave the garments in this range a very distinctive identity. The combination of Airlight fabric and Insuflex provided a very windproof garment. It was a development trend that, if progressed, would have taken the company down a very different road. However, the seduction of fleece was then and remains very strong.

The garment design of both Sohao and Olfio was progressive. Olfio was an over-the-head garment, Sohao front opening with an extended lower front flap. Early Rohan garment design favoured over the head jackets because they are so much more efficient. If we released an over-the-head and front opening version of the same garment the market would take up the latter regardless of the superior function of the former. So the answer was easy, make the Sohao design really progressive. That is why the Sohao looked like it did. Sort of reversed marketing.

The following is an extract from a Rohan newsletter dated 1985, I think it tells all…

Both Olfio and Sohao illustrated the commitment to design and innovation that was such a feature of all early Rohan garments. There have been no other garments like them since. The development trend of using ultra lightweight synthetic fillings is just starting in the market now, 25 years later.

The Sohao was used by Chris Townsend on the Continental Divide Trail in 1985. This is Chris’s words on his experience of  the Sohao and Wild Vest on the trip

“In the years between my PCT and CDT walks Rohan had developed new designs and introduced new materials, most noticeably a light, thin synthetic fill for insulated garments. Because Rohan didn’t make warm clothing in 1982 I’d carried a pile jacket and a down vest on the PCT. On the CDT I took Rohan’s new synthetic insulated Sohao Jacket and Wild Vest, a combination that was lighter and more compact than the PCT clothing and just as warm. As the garments were shelled with polycotton they were also windproof, unlike the pile jacket, and quick drying and reasonably warm when wet, unlike the down vest. These properties were important in the Rockies, especially when cooking and eating outside. Worn together the two synthetic tops kept me warm in below freezing weather whilst I was sitting outside waiting for the dinner to cook with no need to protect them from wind or rain.  Today similar garments are found in every outdoor shop. It’s only in the last decade they’ve become popular though, twenty years after Rohan first made them”.

The good news we will all see a great example of the Sohao as part of the Rohan Originals collection in Rohan Keswick.

One last question: Where did the name Sohao come from? Answers please. Hint – Olfio still travels well!

Sarah Howcroft Co Founder Rohan

Stop Press: Just uploaded to Rohantime Flickr some great photo’s of Olfio taken from the Rohan Catalogues 1985 – 1990.

Rohan – Back to the Future

Over the last nine months, we have published on Rohantime three posts from Chris Townsend. Recording some very early memories of Rohan and the Rohan garments used on some of  those very early trips. These memories stretched back over 32 years and included his first in-counter with the late Paul Howcroft co founder of Rohan. The three posts recorded not only his experience of using early Rohan garments on the trips but amazing memories of the trips themselves, in particular the Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide. The three posts have been so popular on Rohantime,  we thought it would be a great idea to collect them all together and ask Chris to round them off with a look back at those very early memories and to put it all into context… now read on.

Rohan: Looking Back

Thinking back to those long walks of the 1970s and 80s reminded me of just how much things have changed. Back then the Rohan clothing I used was cutting edge. So cutting edge in fact that many outdoors people didn’t believe it would work. The fabrics were too thin and too light, they said. The designs didn’t look right for outdoor clothing (i.e. they had some shape!). Stretch materials were too close-fitting and not warm enough. Polycotton was so scorned by the outdoors industry that stores wouldn’t stock it. I’d walked from Mexico to Canada across deserts and mountains wearing it but the retail buyers knew it wouldn’t work. Thin insulation was derided too. I remember being told how it would never keep me warm. But I was never cold walking down the Rockies for 3,000 miles with it as my only warm clothing. Today everything is different. Go into any outdoor shop now and you’ll find clothing made of even thinner and lighter fabrics than polycotton, racks of garments labelled “soft shell” made of stretch fabrics remarkably like the Helanca Rohan was using in 1977 and plenty of thin insulated garments bearing the labels of the leading mountaineering clothing companies. Thirty years ago Rohan’s clothing was revolutionary. Now the ideas, fabrics and designs are the norm. Look closely and you can see the influence of Rohan everywhere. Often now it is third or fourth hand, filtered through other designs, other companies. I wonder how many of today’s designers know the real origin of the ideas and fabrics they use. The revolution in clothing Rohan began all those years ago has made venturing into the outdoors more comfortable and enjoyable. For those of us who were there at the beginning it has been like that for a long time.

Chris Townsend

The Chris Townsend chronicles 1975-1985 – Rohantime

In The Beginning

Pacific Crest Trail

Rohan on the CDT

Chris Townsend in early Rohan Clothing 1979 – 1985

Pacific Crest Trail

This is the second post from Chris Townsend. Thanks Chris. Looking forward to number three.

Rohan and Chris on the Pacific Crest Trail.
On my spring walk from Land’s End to John O’Groats in 1978 I discovered how good Rohan’s stretch Super Strider breeches and polycotton Pampas jacket were and how much I enjoyed long distance walking. Wanting to experience bigger, remoter and wilder places I decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, which runs for 2,600 miles from Mexico to Canada through the deserts and mountain ranges of southern California and then the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountains. With an altitude range from 140 feet to 14,505 feet and terrain from the hot Mohave Desert to the wet arctic-alpine Cascades clothing would need to be versatile. Sometimes I’d be walking in shorts and t-shirt, sometimes in full waterproofs. As I’d be carrying most of my clothing some of the time and my load would be heavy as I’d often be carrying food for a week or more (I carried 23 days supplies at one point plus snowshoes, ice and crampons) clothing would need to be lightweight too. Reluctantly I decided that the Super Striders and Pampas were too heavy, as they would probably spend much of the time in my pack. However just before I set out on the trail in 1982 Rohan introduced a range of single thickness lightweight polycotton clothing. It looked ideal and I chose Shorts, Knickers (a name that was fine in the US as that’s what Americans called breeches), Rohan Bags and a minimalist version of the Pampas called the Action Jacket. Rohan had also started using a wicking fabric called Dunova and I took a mesh t-shirt called the Cool T and a long sleeved shirt called the Long T made from this. Other walkers looked at my apparently flimsy clothing and sneered – “it’ll never last”, “you’ll freeze to death”, “you need good old tweed and cotton for a walk like that”. They were wrong. The clothing was superb and lasted the whole trip, the only serious damage being to the Cool T, which came apart at one shoulder where the pack rubbed on the mesh. (A photo of me wearing this torn t-shirt appeared in my first book The Great Backpacking Adventure, leading one reviewer to hope the book made enough money for me to replace it!). The polycotton clothing kept off wind, sun and mosquitoes, breathed well and dried fast. There was only one problem with it and that was my fault. I had chosen navy blue garments on the basis that the dark colour wouldn’t show the dirt. This was a disaster for photographs, the clothing appearing as black smudges. Thankfully the Dunova shirts were pale coloured. The Action Jacket over the two shirts was warm enough while I was walking but not adequate for camp wear so I also carried a pile jacket as Rohan had not yet got round to making any insulated garments. That would have to wait for my next long walk. Rohan didn’t make any waterproof garments either but Paul and Sarah were experimenting with a soft lightweight Gore-Tex fabric and kindly offered to make me up a jacket and salopettes in this fabric, on the understanding that they couldn’t guarantee how long it would last. In fact the jacket just lasted the six month trip. The salopettes finished in good condition as I wore them rarely, finding polycotton on my legs okay in the rain. In fact the main use for the salopettes was as laundrette wear while everything else was being washed!

The Pacific Crest Trail was an amazing adventure, a fantastic wilderness experience and I returned home feeling refreshed and renewed and determined to do more long walks. First though I needed some work. It came to me. I’d barely recovered from jetlag when the phone rang. “You’ll be needing some work”, said Paul Howcroft. I agreed. He then said, to my huge astonishment, that outdoor retailers were reluctant to take the polycotton clothing because it was so light and flimsy looking so he and Sarah were going to take it round the country and sell it direct. Would I like to come along and tell people how it performed? I would. And did, in a series of roadshows that stretched from Bristol to Aviemore. These proved Paul and Sarah correct in thinking that the garments would sell if the public could actually see them and paved the way for the next episode in the Rohan story – mail order and the first shop.

List with weights in ounces of the Rohan clothing I used on the Pacific Crest Trail:

Cool T 5
Long T 6
Shorts 5
Knickers 9
Bags 10
Action Jacket 12
Gore-tex jacket 21
Gore-tex salopettes 16