Rural Range: Tough by Nature

In association with Hunters Element

Hunters Element has spent the past five years designing, testing and honing a range of high-performance, technical rural apparel that embodies the best of our legendary technical hunting gear, while delivering game changing levels of comfort, performance and durability in rural workgrade gear. Just like our hunt gear it’s been born in, designed for, and thoroughly tested in NZ’s rugged wilds. Just like farmers, it’s Tough By Nature.

By Farmers, for farmers 

Farmers work phenomenally hard, days are long, there are always problems to solve. Your gear shouldn’t be one of those problems. This range has been carefully developed over several years, with farmers, for farmers. Many of our longstanding hunting friends and customers are also farmers. BJ Holdsworth - of Waikohu Station - is one of those. As a pro-team hunter he rates HE gear as the highest performance, longest lasting he’s ever found, and has worn it for years when working on the farm. Talking to BJ and other farmers uncovered key insights that fuelled our innovation, particularly the primary painpoint with the rural work wear the’ve been using for years: it’s uncomfortable, doesn’t perform in tough and variable conditions, and simply doesn’t last.  We saw a gap we knew we could fill. 

How have we gone about it? 

We knew that all the tech innovations we’d developed over 20 years to create the world’s highest performance, longest lasting and most sustainably innovative hunting kit would be just as relevant in rural wear. We set about refining our hunt offering to make it purpose engineered for the unique demands of rural life, involving people like BJ in the design process and constantly testing with them along the way. We were clear that: 

• It has to be ultra durable: the gear needs to cope with a thrashing day-in day-out, and carry on performing for years 

• It has to be 100% stormproof. The cows still need milking and fences still need fixing in howling southerlies and torrential rain. 

• It has to withstand AgChem wear and tear. Our Hydrafuse Nyosteel Nylon outer was developed specifically for this. 

• And perhaps most importantly, it has to be comfortable or it just won’t get used. Throwing it on early in the morning and thrashing it all day means its got to feel good. It has to flex with the wearer, and breath like nothing ever before seen.

What have we produced? 

We’ve created multiple series, purpose engineered for specific rural needs, all founded on our head-to-toe Integrated Layering System (base, mid, insulation, and outer layers). 

Outer: 

• BEST: The Stormtough series is the hero; the ultimate tough as nails jacket, bib and overtrou engineered rural tough. Designed for all day comfort, 100% storm protection and 3x more breathability than anything currently on the market, this is the pinnacle in rural rainwear 

• BETTER: The Cascade Series: Tough, heavy-duty herringbone nylon rainwear series for farm-to-hunt versatility. 

• GOOD: The Quad Series: The ultimate in super packable everyday rural rainwear. Not only do the jacket and pants pack into their own pockets but they also still keep you super dry. Designed to go with you everywhere, on the side-by-side, the horse or the quad. Women’s range available.

Mid & Insulation: 

• Ranger Bush Coat: the bush coat reinvented to be the ultimate rural mid/outer

• Permafrost and Forge: water resistant, ripstop tough puffers with phenomenal insulation power

• Railsplitter Pro: A hard faced windstopper fleece, feature spec’d for rural needs, like the 500D nylon in hard wearing spots, and the bungee pocket to stash the farm radio 

Base: 

• Core+ Series: The ultimate base layer for cold weather conditions. Optimal temperatures between -5C and 10C. Thermal GridTech waffling retains warmth, while wicking away moisture, to keep your core temp comfortable and safe. 

Everyday workwear: 

• The Workman Series: Shorts, stubbies, and fleece all designed to be tough yet comfortable everyday workgrade kit. 

• Warratah pants: The ultimate rural workgrade pants, developed off our legendary Spur hunt pants. With the addition of a waterproof membrane on bum and knees, they’re the perfectly engineered for all weather thrashing, 24/7/365. 

• Muster boots & Peak Socks: we’ve taken everything we’ve learned from hunting (bad feet, bad day) and blended it into the perfect rural footwear combo. Made from NZ strong wool, our peak socks are made to deliver lasting comfort, while our Muster boots are medium/heavy duty rural work boots engineered off our Lima platform for farm to hunt versatility.