Rohan is a British designer and supplier of outdoor and lightweight travel clothing and footwear that has 50 stores and an annual turnover of £30 million. Their products are designed in

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of Milton Keynes urban area, its urban area was 264,349. The River Great Ouse forms t ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

and manufactured internationally.Rohan Website
Retrieved 1 March 2014

History

The company was founded in 1972 by research chemist Paul Howcroft and his wife Sarah who had met in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. They were both in their early twenties at the time, their start up capital was £70 and they operated from a small house in Skipton,

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, having chosen that location because of its proximity to West Yorkshire textile mills. Their first product was a pair of quick-drying mountaineering salopettes. In 1978, one of their jacket designs was worn by the Austrian climber Peter Habeler on the first climb to the summit of

Mount Everest Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at it ...

without bottled oxygen. Soon afterwards the lightweight travel range was launched including Rohan Bags that are still in production today. The Howcrofts lost control of the company in the wake of Black Wednesday after a period of decline in the 1980s,Rohan at Telegraph Fashion
Retrieved 1 March 2014 and from 1988 it was owned by Clarks until a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management- and/or leveraged buyouts became noted phenomena of 19 ...

. In 1993 Paul Howcroft was killed aged 42 in a recreational motoring accident after the couple had separated.Rohan evolution of outdoor gear chronology at Compass
Retrieved 1 March 2014 The Cann Trust and Colin Fisher took control of the company in 2007 and set about improving the product range and simplifying the management structure. The company was hit by the recession and made an operating loss in 2009 of £400,000, but that had been turned into a £384,000 operating profit two years later with a turnover of £17.9m. In 2016, Rohan Designs Ltd was acquired, in a move to enhance its sports and outdoor business, by H. Young Holdings. The H. Young Group is active in two sectors: automotive and sports and leisure – where it also owns Madison, Animal and Leeda In November 2020, two of Rohan's 56 stores were permanently closed - partly as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic. The shops in Leeds and Tunbridge Wells had been trading for 21 and 15 years respectively. In April 2021 a further store became victim of the pandemic with the closure of the Brighton store which at that point had been trading in the area for the past 3 years. In September 2022, the Truro store also closed permanently, having opened as a stand-alone branch back in 2017.

Products

The company has introduced fabrics not previously used for clothing tailored to their own designs. Products include trousers and shirts made from

mosquito Mosquitoes, the Culicidae, are a Family (biology), family of small Diptera, flies consisting of 3,600 species. The word ''mosquito'' (formed by ''Musca (fly), mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish and Portuguese for ''little fly''. Mos ...

repellent and UV protection fabrics, thermal fleeces, hats, socks and shoes. The company also introduced a system for rating the suitability of their clothing for different climate zones. The clothing has been rated for its practicality rather than stylishness. Rohan review
at ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' fashionadvice. Retrieved 1 March 2014

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rohan (Clothing) Outdoor clothing brands British brands Clothing companies of the United Kingdom