The Hunter boot brand was for a long time the default wellington boot choice among the shooting community, but over recent years it has become less and less of a feature of the country wardrobe, its place taken by other brands such as Aigle, Le Chameau and Muckboot.
After several changes of ownership in the nineties and early noughties, the brand set its cap at the fashion footwear sector where it has been a huge success, becoming the high street label for patterned and coloured wellies. Now, those behind the brand are set upon conquering the clothing market and in 2014 Hunter will launch a new range of outerwear. It is pretty clear what has inspired this move. The astonishing and continuing success of Barbour has led the venture capitalists, who now own the Hunter name, to dig deep and summon a veritable roll call of fashionistas to aid its cause, most prominent among those that it has signed up being Stella McCartney’s husband, Alasdhair Willis.
Willis, whose relative obscurity in relation to his more famous wife has led insiders at the company to christen the pair, Big and Little Mac, will not have come cheap and no doubt lashings of money will be used to create a ‘vibe’ around whatever it is he comes up with. But as they aim at a slice of Barbour’s £150 million turnover, they would do well to note that Britain’s premier country brand has never felt it necessary to lash out on big name designers nor indeed surround themselves with any of the ephemera that goes with the fashion business. And, just as crucially, Barbour has never deserted the country pursuits sector, which even to this day informs more or less everything it produces.