WHITEFISH, Mont. — November 4, 2020 — FORLOH, the first hunting brand to manufacture high-end technical apparel that is 100-percent made in the USA, will also be the first to pioneer hunting outerwear equipped with RECCO®, a technology that makes the user easier to locate in the event of an emergency. Starting this month, RECCO reflectors will come integrated into all of FORLOH’s AllClima Rain and SoftShell Jackets.
While this rapid-response rescue technology has been used for years in winter sports gear — such as ski and snowboard jackets and boots — FORLOH is the first hunting brand to adopt the technology for use in the hunting market.
FORLOH’s integration of this search technology comes as RECCO is working with search-and-rescue teams in the U.S. and around the world to expand use of the RECCO SAR helicopter detector that allows helicopters to rapidly search for people on the ground across vast areas. By pioneering this technology in the hunting industry, FORLOH is working with RECCO to help increase the margin of safety for consumers.
“The very nature of hunting means the hunter is attempting to go undetected to their prey, which means hunters are extremely difficult to find in the event of an emergency or accident,” said Andy Techmanski, founder and CEO of FORLOH. “Given RECCO’s push to expand this technology with the helicopter operations of search-and-rescue teams, we were amazed to learn that it hasn’t yet been integrated into hunting apparel, and we jumped at that chance. Being prepared is one of the basic requirements when planning any hunt, and the integration of RECCO reflectors into our gear gives our customers and their families back home an added margin of safety and additional peace of mind.”
RECCO technology is a patented technology that allows professional rescuers to perform rapid searches for missing people in the outdoors year-round. It is a two-part system. Rescuers use RECCO detectors to locate a RECCO reflector which is carried by the user, integrated into clothing or other gear.
The RECCO reflector is a passive transponder embedded into a garment and enables someone to be more quickly found in the event that they get lost or injured while outdoors.
The newly introduced RECCO SAR helicopter detector is a larger detector unit. It is mounted under a helicopter and enables rescue teams to vastly reduce the amount of time it takes to search large areas.
In the last two years, as its new helicopter-based detector unit has come into use, RECCO has worked to get that technology into use with five search-and-rescue teams in North America, including Two Bear Air, a philanthropy-funded organization that provides aviation support for search and rescue teams in Montana, Idaho and eastern Washington. In Europe, a dozen search and rescue teams are using it, and RECCO is working to facilitate its adoption by more SAR teams in North America and globally. Along with western Montana, SAR teams in Salt Lake City and Seattle, as well as Vancouver and Canmore in western Canada, are equipped with helicopter-based detector units. More than 90 SAR teams in North America and hundreds worldwide already are equipped with the hand-held RECCO units.
“Working with FORLOH, we are excited to enter the hunting market, a completely new segment for us, and to help make hunters searchable with the help of RECCO technology,” said Fredrik Steinwall, CEO at RECCO.
Posted November 4, 2020
Source: FORLOH
