Obviously, part of our effort has to do with making an attractive product, and one that evokes the high quality that we build into every piece that we make.  The reality is that most color decisions in the retail environment are made looking at products at arm's length, under a cavernous, artificially illuminated interior space.  In the case of packs, it seems that many people want them to match those nifty camo shirts, pants, belts, boots, and socks that they're waiting to break out when the season rolls around again.

We encourage you to think a little more broadly about camouflage.  In our products, we try to offer options that are clear alternatives: one biased toward an open-space environment, and one biased toward a darker background.  But as you can see in the photos on this page, these aren't hard and fast rules.  The webbing used on our packs has as much impact on the visual effect as does the camouflage it's matched with; the trim highlights colors in the pattern.  Many of our products are trimmed with the "Coyote Brown" color that the US Marine Corps uses for most of its accessories.  This new alternative to Olive Drab is a nice bronze color, and it blends well with the color of dirt pretty much anywhere in the world.  The light green trimming that we use on our open space-patterned packs is chosen to blend with sage, Russian olive, and other dry-country foliage.  But the camo patterns and webbing colors aren't really limiting.  We don't think that you have to care about what shape the leaves are in your pattern, and the one that works best might be counter-intuitive.  For example, since large swaths of the West have burned in recent years, the forests are filled with lots of browns and blacks, which makes a pack in Realtree Hardwoods Gray a good choice in many western forests.  On the other hand, Advantage Max1 seems to be winning the fashion war out here, but don't think of it just for hunting in the badlands of the West.  Check out the picture below on the left, of Max1 in the Canadian Taiga.  And if you think you've gotta have a sage pattern to become invisible in the brush, take a look at the Hardwoods pack on the right!  Both of these pictures were taken on days with high overcast, so the sun's light is diffused by clouds.

We don't push anybody's brand in particular, and there are ever-widening options becoming available.  In fact, you can look forward to seeing Eberlestock's own UNICAM™ in the near future, a pattern that we've developed based on requests from our customers in the special operations community.  We think that, for the hunter, camouflage should be something fun, and it's not something to get too worked up about.  What will really matter out there is your fieldcraft...  If your head's in the game, and you happen to be wearing blue jeans, it probably won't matter all that much to your quarry!