Outdoor Shirts: Five Different Crowds, and Why Buying Across Them Fails

Campers, hikers, boaters, hunters and people who just like being outside are not the same audience — 275 designs split by which group they are actually for.

“The outdoors” is not one hobby. It is five groups of people who happen to use the same landscape, and who are politely uninterested in each other’s version of it.

That is the whole difficulty with buying an outdoors gift, and it is why a hiker handed a hunting shirt looks briefly confused before saying thank you. This page splits 275 designs from $19.99 by which group they are actually for.

Work out which one they are first

Most people who spend time outdoors do one or two of these things seriously and the rest occasionally. The serious one is the identity, and it is the one worth naming on a shirt. If you have heard them talk about gear, whatever the gear was for is the answer.

Camping — 57 designs

Campers are the group most likely to actually wear the shirt at the thing itself, because a campsite has no dress code and a fire ruins clothes anyway. That makes the practical rules matter more here than the joke does.

Astronaut Campfire S'mores · Bear Campfire Beer · Bigfoot Camp Cryptid · CAMP Life · Camper Is Rockin' Shoes · Campfire Club Green · Campfire Crew · Campfire In A Jar · Campfire Nights · Campfire Social Club · Campfire Social Club Cozy Ducks · Campfire in a Jar · Camping · Camping Badges Sisterhood · Camping Crew Campfire · Camping Ducks · Camping Heart Scene · Camping Heart White · Camping In Tents · Camping Is Always A Good Idea · Camping Is Intents · Camping Mode · Camping Raccoon · Camping Rhymes Alcohol · Camping Supplies · Camping Supplies · Camping Under Stars · Camping and Cornhole · Camping is In Tents · Camping is My Therapy · Campsite Landscape · Chug-a-Brewski Summer Camp · Fires Friends Fun Camping Crew · Happy Camper · I Campfire Camping · Less Hikes S'more Snacks · Let's Go Camping · Life is Better By The Campfire · Life is Better by the Campfire · Live Love Camp · Love Camping S'mores · Mountain Campfire Scene · Mountain Lake Camping · Mountain Lake Camping · Mountain Lake Camping · No City Lights Just Campfire Nights · Queen of the Camper · Queen of the Camper · Retired Camping Is My Job · Rustic Campfire Mountains · S'more Foolery Camping Opossum · Things I Do Camping · Things I Do In My Spare Time Camping · Weekend Forecast Mostly Drinking Camping · World's Okayest Camper · You Don't Have To Be Crazy To Camp

Buy something they will not mind losing to a spark.

Hiking and mountains — 54 designs

Hikers are the group that most often gets bought the wrong thing, because from the outside hiking looks like camping. It is not: a hiker is moving, and their relationship with weight and fabric is completely different from someone sitting by a fire.

Alta Mountain Nature · Climb Mount Everest · Climb Outdoor Adventure · Coloradical Mountain Design · Dam Straight Hiking · Fuji Mountain Landscape · Geometric Mountain Peak · Geometric Mountain Range · Get Over It Mountain · Goldie Moms Hiker Club · Great Dane Moms Hiker Club · Hike For Fries · Hike More Worry Less · Hike More Worry Less · Hiking & Dogs · Hiking Cheaper Than Therapy · Home Mountains · I Like Hiking & 3 People · Leave The Road Take The Trails · Leave The Road Take The Trails · Misty Mountain Path · Moonlit Mountain Lake · Mountain Bike Sunset Ride · Mountain Forest Sunset · Mountain Lake Sunset · Mountain Moon Landscape · Mountain Range Adventure · Mountain River Landscape · Mountain River Sunset · Mountain River Sunset · Mountains Quake Before Him · Mountains and 3 People · On Mountain Time · Out of Breath Hiking Society · Park City Mountain Badge · Retro Bear Mountain · Retro Mountain Landscape · Rocky Mountain National Park Landscape · Sloth Hiker Outdoors Adventure · Sloth Hiking Squad · Sloth Hiking Team · Step by Step Hiking · Take A Hike · Take Me to the Trees · Take a Hike · Take a Hike Mountain · Timpanogos Mountain Hiking · Took A Hike And Liked It · Trail Baddie · Tree Stump Hiking · Vibrant Mountain Landscape · Vibrant Mountain Nightscape · Whippet Moms Hiker Club

Cotton is the wrong fabric for walking in. This is a shirt for the pub afterwards, and worth saying so when you hand it over.

Boating, canoeing and the lake — 13 designs

Water people split again between the ones with an engine and the ones with a paddle, and they are quietly rude about each other. Worth knowing which one you are buying for.

Boat & Sky Beige · But did we Sink · Canoe Heartbeat · Hitch'd n' Haulin' · I'D RATHER BE KAYAKING · It's a Canoe Thing — Second Print · It's a Canoe Thing — Third Print · It's a Kayaking Thing You Wouldn't Understand · Just Add Water Kayak · Let's Cruise · Liberty Lake Weekend Club '76 · Things I Do Boating

Sun exposure on water is relentless, so darker prints hold up better than pale ones over a season.

Hunting — 9 designs

The smallest group here and the one to be most careful with, because hunting shirts read very differently to people outside the hobby. Fine for someone who hunts; a misfire for someone who merely likes the woods.

Born To Hunt Forced To Work · Buck Buck Moose · Camo Deer Head · Fishing Hunting Solves My Problems · Free Buck · Hunt Fish Run · Hunting Dad · Papa Hunting

If you are not certain they hunt, buy from one of the sections above instead.

Parks, places and travel — 16 designs

The quietest group: landscape and place designs, bought by people who like being outside without belonging to any particular sport. This is the safe choice when you know someone loves the outdoors but not what they actually do out there.

Acadia National Park · Airplane Moxie · Apparently I Like Traveling · Dueling Peaks National Park · Dune Sea National Park · Glacier National Park · Glacier National Park Emblem · Grand Canyon National Park · Happiness Is Being Outdoors · Howdy Desert Scene · Mt Rainier National Park · National Parks Word Art · Pine Tree Sunset View · Sunset Fish · Zion National Park Est 1919

These also work as souvenirs of a specific trip, which the activity designs do not.

Fishing has its own page

Anglers are the largest and most particular group of the lot, so they are covered separately in the fishing shirt guide rather than squeezed in here.

What actually matters on an outdoor shirt

• It will get ruined, and that is fine. These are worn to the campsite and the trailhead, not kept for best. Buy accordingly and do not spend up.
• Darker colours last a season longer. Sun, smoke and mud all work against pale prints.
• Cotton is for afterwards. Nobody hikes in a graphic tee if they are serious about it; this is the shirt for the drive home and the pub.
• Printed to order — allow two to three weeks, so buy before the season rather than during it.

The full range sits in the outdoors collection. For someone whose interest is one specific activity rather than the outdoors generally, the subject-specific line covers kayaking, hiking and canoeing individually.