Come to our big Winter sale in Aboyne in Royal Deeside starting Friday 2oth and continuing through to Saturday 28th.

 The sale will offer great discounts on our retail stock including down jackets, waterproof jackets, fleeces, base layers, walking boots, snow boots etc. 

Brands in addition to our own include Rab, Helly Hansen, Odlo, Patagonia, Páramo, AKU, Meindl, Merrell, Hitech etc etc

We also want to clear our stock of Hilltrek one-off Lomond Jackets and Trousers, one-off and test Ventile jackets, trousers and smocks, fleeces etc. So there will be some great buys to be had.

I’m afraid that it is a retail sale only and not offered over our website -you have to visit us in beautiful Aboyne!

‘If you can’t beat then join em’ step 2 -a second Hilltrek product is now available on Amazon.

Assynt Cotton Analogy Jacket

If you are an Amazon fan you now can buy both the Braemar Ventile Smock and the Assynt Cotton Analogy Jacket alongside an array of Paramo Clothing and other outdoor stuff in the Hilltrek store.

See www.amazon.co.uk and search for Hilltrek.

 See us next weekend at the 10th Galloway Country Fair in the stunning surroundings of Drumlanrig Castle near Dumfries.

Our stand will feature Naturally Paramo and Hilltrek Ventile and Cotton Analogy ranges as well as Tilley Hats, Teko socks, Anatom boots and much more.

We will have great deals over the weekend. See you there.

www.gallowaycountryfair.co.uk

We will be holding a sale at our shop in Aboyne starting Friday 23rd and continuing through to Saturday 29th.

 The sale will offer great discounts on our retail stock including down jackets, ski clothing, waterproof jackets, fleeces, base layers etc etc. Brands include Rab, Helly Hansen, Patagonia, Páramo and Hilltrek.

We want to clear our stock of Hilltrek one-off Lomond Jackets, one-off Ventile jackets, trousers and smocks, fleeces etc. So there will be some great buys to be had.

 I’m afraid that it is a retail sale only and not offered over our website -you have to visit us in beautiful Aboyne!

Don’t believe the big on-line traders – it is still possible to deliver from and to Scotland by Christmas. The big on-line guys use couriers -we use Royal Mail. The couriers use huge central depots which are a still trying to cope with the backlog caused by the weather chaos last week in central Scotland.. Royal Mail are delivering on-time from and to our area in the North East of Scotland.

The big on-line traders also do not know their Scottish geography – we are located in the North East of Scotland – far away chaos in theCentral belt. During last week we were delivering sucessfully to UK customers using Royal Mail and we had more snow!

If I was a cynical chap I might also think that some of those large online traders are either using the weather related problems last week in Central Scotland to ‘encourage’ customers to buy now rather than delay their purchase or, if they have large stores, ‘encourage’ shoppers to purchase in their stores rather than on-line.

We can still accept orders up 22nd to get delivery by the 24th – provided we have the item in stock.

Don’t miss our Páramo Premier Retailer Event starting next weekend……..

See new Páramo winter stock including lightweight Velez Adventure ladies waterproof trousers, Pájaro Waterproof Trousers and Torres Insulator Jacket.

We will also have some great deals during the week on Páramo and other brands of clothing, footwear and equipment.

We have been appointed a Páramo Partner, one of three in Scotland and twenty in the UK.

We are a small independant retailer short of space but long in experience of Nikwax Analogy and Páramo Directional Waterproofs. 

Incidently we reckon that we are the oldest Páramo Retailer still in existence, starting in 1994.  

Being short of space we cannot stock all Páramo’s products in all sizes and colours at all times. If a customer wants a garment which we do not have in stock, the Páramo Retailer Portal comes to rescue.

Since early September, many satisfacted customers have purchased garments through the portal and delivered home free of charge.

See the Paramo website for more details.

The July/August 2010  issue of Ethical Consumer Magazine includes a review of outdoor clothing and equipment.  The best buy and overall rated outdoor jacket was by Paramo.  They have an extract on the criteria used by ethical magazine on their site. The ethical score is out of 20 and Paramo scored 13.5 so the whole industry still has some work to do but it is clear some manufacturers have put the impact on the environment ahead of other commercial considerations.  The Trees for Life blog have a good summary on the history of Paramo and  ethical issues.

I was reading this Patagonia blog post on their review of the Outdoor Retailer trade show.  The no.1 one theme being picked up upon was ‘sustainability’.  As their brand ambassador put it

“sustainable business practices, like manufacturing with recycled materials, making products more durable, and trying to lessen their impact”

This is encouraging to read.  A lot of those guiding words are included in the values behind the Ventile fabrics.  A natural use of the properties of cotton used to protect us against the elements.