What happens when outdoor clothing designers think about that oh so common situation when the mountain man meets the café lifestyle? Perhaps a mix match of flannel, zip off pants and half a beard. Because surely any mountain man worth his weight in beard from a long hike, has accidentally burnt half of it off trying to start a toe warming fire because real mountain men don’t wear socks. Or feelings.

Well enough stereotyping of fictional male characters that I wish I had in my life. *note any man who has half a burnt off beard because he was trying to start a toe warming fire please contact me. I need you in my life to keep me entertained and my toes warm once you get the fire going. So what does the man who loves mountains want from his outdoor wear?

Functionality. Style. Ease of cleaning. Durability. A fairly simple want I’d say.

We recently discussed Travel Clothing for the Lady That Loves to Travel. For me it was a pleasant surprise to have some lady wear that wasn’t pink frills, zip of pants, grey square shorts or vagina looking motifs on over sized tees. Now it’s time I came off my high horse atop a mountain and discussed some manly men attire.

I’m rather jealous of the HUGE selection that the male population has in outdoor adventure clothing.  Colours, shapes, sizes, general things that fit and work well. I have to say that the Mountain Design range is exactly this. There’s a LOT on offer for the traveller/tourist/general person who wants to look stylish with functional and practical wear.

Mountain Designs Six Foot Cargo Pant

James received some skinny man pants. Which seriously is a m a z I n g. At a waist size 28 it’s nearly impossible to find adult sized pants for him to wear that don’t require a heft belt. These pants are designed for the travelling enthusiast who enjoys outdoor adventures, lattes and needs items to be lightweight, durable and coffee stain resistant.

The innovative part of these pants is the convertibility. They easily rolled up from full length pants to super sleek shorts. Notice the lack of zip off pants. We’re openly anti zip-off pants as they really do seem to scream I’M A TOURIST TAKE ALL MY MONEY AND DIGNITY. Having the option to roll up as you’re rolling along was an added bonus.

Things loved – Built in belt.
Pockets. All the pockets
Roll up function. Saves on packing extra items and left more room in the bag for coffee

Corespun Merino Short Sleeve T-shirt

Blue with envy. Another piece of clothing that just fitted really nicely. It sounds like I’m complaining a lot but it does make life so much easier when you can just grab an item off the shelf and know that it’s going to fit a skinny person.

This tee shirt went on mountain bike adventures, coffee dates and general road trips. The only thing we haven’t yet tested this tee on is the good ol’ camp side river wash and wear test. Wash by the river, let dry and wear again!

These tees are made from 100% Australian merino wool making them fairly smell proof. Which is a huge benefit when you’re coming in from an adventure for a beer or coffee break. Not everyone else around you needs to smell where you’ve been.

Mountain Designs have publicly made a huge claim on who they are and what they are doing.

We exist to equip and inspire you to do what you love – from climbing the highest peak, to camping with friends, travelling the world, exploring the outdoors, staying fit, or simply getting from A to B in the urban jungle. A product bearing the Mountain Designs label represents quality, innovation and functionality crafted for the world’s adventure playground – the outdoors!

The weather here in Victoria has been miserable lately. So we haven’t gone on as many camping, hiking adventures as we generally would by the end of November.   Mountain Designs kindly send both James and I a few items to have adventures in. We were more then happy to test out these items based on the above claim. Cause we are super generous like that. If you’ve noticed us wearing other items of Mountain Design in our social media that’s because we loved the samples we were sent that we purchased our own bits and pieces!!

End thoughts?

It doesn’t matter where you are sitting on the gender scale. Mountain Designs are creating adventure worthy items. There is a vast offering for people of different sizes, shapes, heights and gender preference. It’s not all about the thin fitspo couple that Instagram loves. This is real clothing, designed by real people doing real things. Keeping it real.

We do note that there has been some murmur about the price point. Well I’ll just say this – If you pay peanuts then you’ll get the clothing that the monkey doesn’t want to wear because it won’t last your next adventure. 

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Just a little FYI- this article was written in partnership with  Mountain Designs. Any and all views and opinions expressed are entirely my own based on personal experiences when travelling and are honest and factual without any bias.

Thank you to the team from the Mountain Design team in the Melbourne Central store for helping me choose colours and items.