Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 22, 1993 TAG: 9303220414
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
NEW TREBARK CAMO ANOTHER WAY TO VANISH
Fifteen years ago, when a hunter wanted clothing to blend with his surroundings, his choice pretty well was limited to the the green-, brown- and tan-splotched military camouflage that Granddad wore during World War II.Jim Crumley changed that in 1980 when he introduced Trebark camo, which was designed to look like tree trunks rather than jungle leaves.
Now, depending on whose count you use, there are as many as 400 camouflage patterns on the market. And Crumley, who started the proliferation, is adding to the list.
In time for spring gobbler season, Trebark is out with what Crumley is calling Trebark Universal Camo System, which is expected to succinctly be known as Trebark Universal. It features a multi-tree-trunk pattern with seven earth-tone colors, some in the shape of green and brown leaves.
The original Trebark had three colors and was totally a bark pattern. Trebark II, introduced in 1990, had four colors, including the green leaves of a vine pattern. Both continue to be sold.
"The Trebark Universal has received the very best initial reception of anything we've done," said Crumley, whose headquarters are at Buck Mountain Road and U.S. 220 south of Roanoke. "The garment makers love it. Now we will find out if the consumers like it."
If you think all this sounds more like high fashion than hunting, you won't get any argument from Crumley, an avid hunter.
"The camouflage market basically has turned into a fashion industry. Fashions are something that changes every year."
The trick, said Crumley, is to produce designs that looks attractive - something the garment industry calls good shelf appeal - yet disappears when you are out in the woods trying to fool a gobbler or buck.
"That was the hard part for me to come to grips with," said Crumley. `I don't care if it is pretty. I want it to work. I want it to confuse a turkey when he looks at it."
Turkeys aren't the only thing that can get confused. Joining Trebark since the mid-1980s has been an army of copycat patterns, with brand names like Realtree, Mossy Oak, Cattails, Hide'N Pine, Bushlan, Mirage, Predator, Mask, Treeline, Pinetree Hunter. There are so many a hunter could select a different garb every day of the season without running out of options.
All this started with an idea Crumley began to market in a 12-by-12-foot basement space of his home in Northern Virginia, where he worked for the Alexandria school system. Military camouflage is for foreign combat, he decided. A hunter is going to be in a tree stand or sitting against a tree; therefore, he needs to look more like a horizontal tree trunk that a vertical glob of jungle green.
A Virginia Tech graduate and native of Bristol, Crumley moved his business to the Roanoke Valley in the early '80s, where he and his wife, Sherry, are the best known and biggest in the hunter camo industry.
He gets a chuckle out of the claims of some of his competitors. One currently is using advertisements in outdoor magazines to say the "revolution in hunter concealment" began with him.
"That is kind of a low jab, but you can't do much about it. Personally I don't care for it, but I am pretty thick-skinned about it now. Sherry gets more upset than I do."
Some days, it can appear that Crumley doesn't get respect even in his own company. At the February National Wild Turkey Federation convention in Louisville, Ky., where Sherry conducted a hunting seminar, someone asked Jim, " `You are the guy married to the lady with the camouflage company, aren't you?' "
"I don't get upset with what other people are saying. The important thing is to come up with a better product and have everybody chasing you," said Crumley.
Trebark's next introduction will be a camo fabric impregnated with an insect repellant. A hunter will be able to sit on an early fall deer stand or be in the spring turkey woods without being eaten alive by insects, Crumley said.
That should keep the competition chasing for at least another couple of years, he figures.