It's not all lost

When it comes to shooting kit, Felix Petit learns that British brands are still thriving

Working last month at the Royal Highland Show, the announcement of the collapse of Hunter, best-known for its wellies, into administration was hot news. Hunter, the Edinburgh-based company established in 1856 as the North British Rubber Company, was held up the world over as a bastion of Britishness and a byword for quality. Following the news, Anna Murphy, fashion director at The Times, said that she had spent the earnings from her first job on a pair: “They equated to permanence, to being in and of the land, and not just any old land but this particular one.”

Hunter attributed its debts of over £110m to pandemic-related supply chain problems, Brexit and inflation, as well as a plummet in demand due to unseasonably warm weather in its largest market, the USA. Anecdotal whisperings around middle England, however, suggest it might have been down to their offshoring of production to China and the resultant tumble in quality. Split rubber soles and soggy socks may have had their traditional customer base fleeing the rising flood of shoddy production and seeking refuge on the higher, drier ground across the Channel with Le Chameau and Aigle. It’s quite clear, these days, that if you step out on to the shooting field, you’ll see French wellies, Italian guns and Japanese cars, so what happened?

Sustained success