Check out the new Isola Press book Mountain Style: British Outdoor Clothing 1953-2000, available to back on Kickstarter now. A 300 page hardback charting the evolution of big players like RAB, Mountain Equipment and Berghaus and niche ones like Buffalo Systems. Essential for outdoor geeks.
We’re opening the Utility Archive studio as part of The Factory Open Studios weekend, 20 & 21st April 11am - 4pm.
Alongside the full range of Utility Archive bags we’ll have outdoor accessories from @leathermanuk, @kleankanteenuk, @lightmyfiresweden and @kintoeurope on display to try and buy. We're also selling a selection of rarities from The Archive.
Hope to see you then.
18F The Factory, Castle Mills, Aynam Road, Kendal LA9 7DE
We love the work of David Nash, its simplicity and longevity. He was one of the first two artists in residence at Grizedale back in 1978. This informative exhibition in the visitors centre features work from that stay, and also more about Wooden Boulder and Ash Dome in North Wales.After the exhibition we wandered a couple of the sculpture trails coming across Cliff Structure by Richard Harris, the other resident artist in Grizedale in 1978 and RUUP by Birgit Oigus.
Yay, 1,000 Instagram followers. Huge thanks to you all, not least the last few who pushed us over the line.
You’re probably unsurprised to learn we prefer the many sensory pleasures of outdoor living over immersion in the digital realm, which makes this little milestone all the more sweet. Yes, you can have both, but if you really had to choose…
Fist pump, back slap, short round of applause...
Not following us? Head over here to be 1,001.
Congratulations to @tess.treks, our competition winner! We’ll be in touch and your prizes will be on their way to you soon. And a massive thank you to everyone else who entered. Happy summer.
Almost there. Freedom to yomp, tramp, roam and wander when and where we please. To celebrate, we’re running an Instagram competition with a £250 prize of Utility Archive product to help you on your adventure.
To enter, head over to Instagram, find the competition post [same image as above] and do the do.
Good luck all
#WinUtilityArchive
We just started working with Scree Creative. Paul has been putting some UA pieces through their paces in the Lakes. You'll find the resulting images, words and, soon, film on our Instagram feed. We'd love to hear your thoughts.
We've joined the many thousands of businesses and individuals making a commitment to the planet for future generations. Channelling our contribution via 1% For The Planet and the environmental nonprofit organisations they support ensures it makes the most impact possible.
Putting some money, and action, where our mouth is.
We refused to discount our prices over the Black Friday weekend with a commitment to donating 20% of sales to the Mountain Rescue. Huge thanks to all our customers who ordered and so contributed to todays donations to the England & Wales and Scottish organisations. We're genuinely heartened to see how many brands avoided Black Friday this year. Feels like momentum building.
No discounts this Friday. Instead we’re donating 20% of sales to the Mountain Rescue. We’ll split this between the England & Wales and Scottish organisations. All sales, all weekend until Monday. Utility Archive is founded on the idea of harmonising with nature, in terms of our aesthetic and our stance on sustainability which underpins this. We design and make better product that lasts longer. We prioritise quality, therefore longevity, over price. Always. Discounting to generate volume sales doesn’t sit well with us. It encourages over-production and over-consumption. Exactly the opposite of what we should be doing in a climate crisis. But, the genie’s out of the bottle and we’re all primed to spend at this time of year. But, a...
This quintessential Lake District beauty spot is a must-visit for many visitors. Rightly so, it’s undeniably beautiful and has an accessible track all the way around. Not so busy on a wet Sunday in Lockdown though. Originally three tarns, the lower was dammed by the Victorian landowner to create the current one. In addition to this re-landscaping they were busy farming and mining their vast estate. They eventually sold the lot to Beatrix Potter, who passed it on to the National Trust who look after it now. A few centuries earlier still and those Viking invaders turned settlers populated the area. Not much evidence of them now, except the name - Tarn Hows originates from the Old Norse Tjorn Haugr,...
Since arriving in the Lakes we've been lucky with the weather. Very un-Cumbrian. The tail-end of hurricane Epsilon just ended that. And so yesterday we got outside. Committing to head out in poor weather we’re typically drawn to more water. Rivers, waterfalls and the coast become energised. We opted for the latter, Jenny Brown's Point, at the eastern edge of Morecambe Bay. Perfect wet weather geography, a filigree coastline of wooded limestone crags. We trudged through wet woodland eventually stumbling out onto salt marsh and shingle. Looking south, a vast expanse of wet sand, mud and grey sky all indistinguishable in the flat light. Wandering along the shore the mist lifting, a thin yellow strip began to mark the horizon. Tracing west,...
Made it! We've relocated the Utility Archive brand, and family to Cumbria. The showroom and studio is all set up in River Mill, Staveley Mill Yard, close to Kendal and on the main route north into the Lake District. You’re welcome to drop into the studio for a chat and take a look at/try on all the bags. Best to make an appointment, Monday to Friday, to ensure we're available.
Staveley Mill Yard is home to a variety of businesses, from Waters & Acland furniture workshop to More Bakery, Wilfs Cafe and Hawkshead Brewery. That’s breakfast, lunch and dinner right there. There’s also roster of outdoor businesses including Wheelbase cycling store and the sales offices of The North Face, Merrell, Inov-8 to name but three. Great company.
Ana rifles through some old boxes in the loft producing a pile photographs from the 1990’s. The shots look classically desaturated as one would expect from a cheap snap of that decade. From one view, an image taken from across the valley, four nondescript white tumble-down buildings in need of repair perch on a barren hillside. The area looks more like the side of a quarry than any part of the Andalucían countryside. Only a few random olive trees can be seen in each image. The land is otherwise clear and devoid of any noticeable, prominent vegetation - a blank canvas, but one where the artists had a clear vision. Ana and I came to Spain in mid-March to sit...
I first encountered Paul Thompson's Navigate series a couple of months ago. For an inherently benign image the effect was arresting. I stopped and stared. Learning more about the project and Paul's multi-layered approach and technique I began to understand my initial reaction. Shot at sunset using a large format film camera with exposure times ranging between one and eight seconds, gave little control over what happened within his image to shape the end result. This happenstance is vital to the work as Navigate becomes a series of chance events dictated by the constant and unpredictable motions of the sea, the wind, and the light; a reaction against meticulously planned image-making that leaves no room for twists of fate. The long...
We're really taken with the work of Zoe Taylor. Directly inspired by the Britains land and skies and also by West Wales and the Pembrokeshire coast. Her modern paintings are bold and soul-stirring, employing complex natural tones. She works in oil and cold wax and latterly in acrylic/mixed media on aluminium. Although her main works are breathtaking I’m drawn to her sketches, in oil and other media which are abstract and energetic. Each work is enigmatically titled, but gives no clue to location, leaving the viewer to imagine.
Musings from my lockdown in Spain, Will Appleyard. I’ve been on locked down in Spain since 16th March. I chose to be here. The cabin crew aboard the EasyJet flight out of Gatwick eyed me quizzically at first and then further into the flight, politely probed me about what I was doing on a flight 99% full with Spaniard in a time of global crisis. At this time of course most people just want to go “home”. I felt vaguely like the writer Laurie Lee, returning to Spain in his late youth to find adventure in the form of the Spanish civil war, except I didn’t walk to the Pyrenees in winter, I can’t play the violin and other than...
The past few days have seen Covid 19 really take hold in the UK. Some of our friends and those in our community have it and our thoughts are with them. The wider health, social and economic implications are difficult to comprehend. One certainty - now, more than ever we have to look after each other and ourselves. Whether working from home, self isolating or simply absorbing the situation, taking time out to find space will benefit us all, assuming local advice and health allow. This is possible even in our most populated cities, be that the garden, park or canal, and if time allows then venturing further afield to rivers, woods or hills. Being outdoors in nature, and the...
Our ambassador Verena Splett and friend Laura Woolley recently visited St Abbs Head, an hour east of Edinburgh on the Berwickshire coast. Much of the area is greywacke and siltstone sandstone varieties but the cliffs themselves, rising 300ft above sea level, are volcanic and have weathered the frequent battering of the North Sea. Both avid outdoors photographers they chose St Abbs for the high cliffs which provide spectacular views of the coastline. And for the wildlife, sea birds in the many thousands of course and also seals, which they heard yet despite their best efforts, and a day spent wandering the coastline, they did not actually see. Next time. Lack of seal shots notwithstanding, the photographs are stunning. Verena is...
The Eden Valley isn't a secret, but it’s certainly less well frequented than most of Cumbria. The landscape is in stark contrast to the central Lakes, but just as beautiful, in my opinion anyway.
Coombs Wood is great to explore on foot or bike. Enter at Longdales hamlet and traverse steep paths then follow the river to reach Armathwaite Crag. There's some bouldering here. I love the colours - the bright orange sandstone and khaki lichen are echoed in the reds and greens of the forest. There’s one section of the outcrop with brilliant sedimentary erosion lines. The river's done the hard work and the weather’s finished it.
