Having had huge success with their Good Companions range of outdoor gear, Blacks launched the Pal-O-Mine range in 1957, though as far as we can work out, it was limited to tents and sleeping bags.The Pal-O-Mine bag we have here in the collection looks very similar to the Blacks Icelandic (see elsewhere in collection) but has a mixture of down and curled feathers as a fill which made for a cheaper bag. Interestingly, Mick Tighe bought this one on e-Bay in 2011 for £4.00 – less than its original selling price. Thomas Black set up as a sailmaker in 1861 and soon progressed into tents and sleeping bags. The Icelandic sleeping bag, Good Companions and mountain tents were icons of the outdoor world in the 1950’s and 60’s. Takeovers and mergers with other outdoor companies such as Benjamin Edgington, Millets and Jackson and Warr in the 1990’s kept them as market leaders, though with the dawn of the new millenium things were not quite as rosy and in 2011 what had now become known as Blacks Leisure Group went into brief, 24 hour receivership, allowing new owners, JD group to take over, debt free. Blacks of Greenock continue to operate in 2012, though now under new management.