SITKA’ S JOHN BARKLOW DESIGNS A NEW CAMO PATTERN FOR THE NORTHWEST
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SITKA’ S JOHN BARKLOW DESIGNS A NEW CAMO PATTERN FOR THE NORTHWEST
INTERVIEW BY CUTTER STREEBY
Photo by Sitka Gear
Post 9 / 11 he was reassigned to Kodiak, Alaska, where he trained special operations forces to live and fight, unsupported, in remote mountain ranges.
During the first year following 9 / 11, the U. S. military lacked suitable gear for modern day mountain warfare— their gear had not been updated since the Cold War ended. This meant that Barklow and other members of the military turned to high-end mountaineering and outdoor companies to provide the technical solutions the military needed to fight a global war on terrorism.
In the months following initial military action in Afghanistan, Barklow worked with Sitka, Patagonia, Mystery Ranch, and others to develop this gear. Barklow would spend the next 15 years in the military training and equipping soldiers for combat in mountain and subalpine environments.
After he retired from the military, Barklow started talks with Sitka. The vetting process lasted almost a year as Sitka was basically creating a“ Big Game Product Manager” position. When Sitka hired Barklow— the Subalpine Pattern was one of his first priorities.
WHO IS JOHN BARKLOW?
John Barklow is the Big Game Product Manager at Sitka. Before coming to Sitka, Barklow served in the United States Navy for 26 years. As a Navy diver, he worked all over the world and eventually began teaching diving to Navy SEALs. In his spare time, Barklow pursued his mountain guiding credentials and began teaching these skills to the military as well.
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Photo by Sitka Gear
WHAT IS SITKA? GEAR SPECIFIC TO NICHE / NOT AN“ ALL PURPOSE” SOLUTION.
Most of the advancements in technical clothing over the last few decades have come from mountaineering. To make a great ice climbing jacket, you must understand individual movements, the sequences in which they happen, the tools and the dangers of climbing ice.
Sitka borrowed heavily from the technical advancements in mountaineering apparel, but it would be pretty useless for them to just slap a camo pattern on climbing gear. Hunting requires completely different movements, different sequences, far more variation in