Ariat's clothing range reviewed by a young forester

As well as getting on with running a business and being the running joke in the local pub, I’ve been trialling some workwear for Ariat Clothing which I’ve certainly put through its paces. First up is the blue hoodie, which is strong, durable and I’m yet to rip off the front pocket. A handy little extra you’ll find with this garment is a small pocket that’s perfect for your car keys and the accumulation of copious amounts of sawdust while disking firewood.

I have to be honest in all of this in that I feel a little uncomfortable wearing designer clothes at work. I can usually be found in oil-stained high-viz-clad cheap Primark attire and my blue hoodie looked a bit at odds with my Primark-clad workforce. It was a little like the boy who gets a new sweater for Christmas who then gets a stern reprimand for getting it muddy. However, it wasn’t long before my beautiful new blue Ariat hoodie blended in seamlessly with my other soiled garments on the back seat of the pickup. Conclusion: I like it. Comfortable, strong, warm, but not too hot. Probably a little too fashionable for the woods, but you’d look the dog's bollocks on a building site with a little high-viz waistcoat on top.

WANT MORE DANNY?

• Our young forester finds himself hounded by the press over 'Sycamore Gap felling'
• 'Grant funding officers .... aka Grant Muppets’: Danny takes on 'Kermit the Frog'
• 'This was a job to turn boys to men': Danny goes planting with 'the Dirty Dozen'

Certainly a great choice for a first date.

Then there’s the Ariat brown shirt. Again, I’m not really a shirt type of bloke and I don’t know anyone under 50 years old who is. As it was a free trial I tucked it into my trousers and headed into the woods, chainsaw in hand, looking for all the world like Steve Irwin. Instead of a crocodile, I rolled my Husqvarna around a hemlock in a breathable-collared fashion, being able to button up to the neck, thereby preventing sawdust from venturing down the inside of the garment and irritating the waistline. In order to prevent a red card from the forestry manager (and to keep my street cred intact) I went back to the high viz.

Overall, it’s a very nice working-man’s shirt. Was I ever to return to British Colonial India in the late 1800s  to hunt tiger and elephant, then the Ariat brown shirt would be my shirt of choice.

For more on Ariat's range, visit here.