The Challenge of buying Adventure & Outdoor Apparel in Pakistan
passion for outdoors
With the rise of millennials in recent years, Pakistan’s youth has shown significant interest in the adventure and outdoor sports. Every now and then we get to see some young blood scaling the wilderness of Margallahs while the trend of wing shooting knows no boundaries when the season opens for small game hunting in Pakistan.
While the interest and passion is there, Pakistan’s domestic adventurers and hunters face the sheer challenge of acquiring proper outfit and gear for their adventures. Given that Pakistan is ranked 10th in the global textile producers.
The hiking & hunting clothing markets in Pakistan
Currently, for Adventure and Hunting Clothing, there are two market models in Pakistan. One is “Landa Clothing” and the other is “Imported clothing”. Both the models have its limitations as the former provides clothing that is used up to its capacity and sold as junk in the market.
The Landa Market
On the onset, Landa markets or Landa Bazaars are found in every city of Pakistan. It wouldn’t be an exaggerated statement to say that Landa Bazaars operate at par with rest of the markets especially when it comes to clothing. The famous of them are Itwar Bazaars or Sunday Markets that operates on Sundays only. Another famous market is Sher Shah market of Karachi which is a used-item whole sale market of Pakistan. Quetta has a good landa bazaar and similarly Peshawar has three such markets that are segmented into shoes, clothing and toys.
The branded market
The later is brand new clothing and offered for prices that are far beyond the buying power of average Pakistani hunter or adventure enthusiast. However, even if the Landa Clothing is cheap, it comes as one man’s trash to become other’s treasure with no fitting and durability. With imported clothing, one has the luxury of proper fit and durability, but it’s just fantasy to own due to its exuberant price. In Pakistan, the trend has taken a boom in the past decade. We have many retail outlets in Pakistan that offers hunting & hiking clothing from economical Chinese brands to high end branded clothing.
To name a few, below are some of the links to outdoor and adventure shops in Pakistan:
- Ascender.pk – hiking and trekking equipment in Islamabad
- Gown House – Hiking and hunting clothing in Rawalpindi
- GearUp.asia – Camping and fishing clothing and equipment in Islamabad
- Shimshal Adventure shop – Hiking and trekking equipment in Lahore
- Outdoor Adventure – Air Rifles and sports shooting accessories and equipment in Lahore
- Kohpemaa outdoors Gear shop – Hiking and trekking clothing in Lahore
Altimate Outdoors
To fill the void in between these two extremes, Altimate Outdoors, a Pakistani startup comes in. The founding members of the startup are avid outdoorsmen and know challenges of the outdoor clothing market they personally faced over the years. Hence, the idea of creating a domestic brand of Adventure and Hunting clothing in Pakistan is novel one. The foundation of the startup was built on the idea of designing adventure and hunting clothing in Pakistan that complies with international standards yet offered in domestic market for “realistic” prices. The catch is that 20% of manufacturing happens in Pakistan for international outdoor clothing brands which Pakistani customers then buy/ import at an exuberantly high prices as much as 300% of its original cost.
With this idea, standing now as the first domestic Adventure and Hunting clothing brand of Pakistan, Altimate Outdoors has now two major clothing categories; Trekking Traditions and Hunting Heritage. Given the name, its Trekking Traditions has a product line offering basic adventure clothing including waterproof jackets and trousers, quick dry walking and hiking trousers, snow gaiters, fleece balaclava and T-shirts, but down the line, they plan to offer a complete range of clothing for adventure sports. Similarly, the startup is also due to launch their Hunting Heritage before the opening season 2020 with a rich product line that includes Upland trousers, Upland Chaps, Hunting Vests and Hunting caps.
The designs of its products in both Trekking Traditions and Hunting Heritage comes from the field experiences of its founders while they have deployed a group athletes who test the quality and functionality of its products in real time and environment before they are offered in the market.
Nonetheless, reasonably and realistically priced, the idea of adventure and hunting clothing is not new in Pakistan but the business model of positioning itself in the middle of two extremes is a catchy one and seems to survive in the adventure and outdoor market of Pakistan.