Graham Tiso opened his outdoor shop in Rodney Street, Edinburgh, in 1962, along with his wife, Maude. A much expanded company, now run by their sons, is still going strong as we write in 2017. We don’t think Tiso’s ever actually manufactured any outdoor gear but we do know they had a lot made for them, often bearing the label which you can see opposite “Made to Graham Tiso specification.” The anorak we have here in the collection is one of those specified items and while we don’t know for sure we suspect it was made by another Edinburgh based company, Adventure Equipment, in the 1980’s. It’s a pretty basic, pull over the head design, made from neoprene which guaranteed high sweat levels. There was a growing market in the 1980’s with lots of Local Education Authority(LEA’s) Outdoor Centres, Outward Bound Schools, Scout Groups and in this case, Mountain Rescue Teams since it once belongd to Anne Wakeling who was a member of the Cairngorm Team. She hardly ever wore it since she is quite small and the anorak is rather large. It seems there was a one size fits all policy at the time!