Chameleon Clothing is Ideal for Lightweight Hiking

By Steve Wood
Published on March 1, 1982
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PHOTO: CAMELEON CLOTHING
Cameleon Clothes are perfect for the ultralight backpacker.

“In today’s world, it seems that each new product is designed to serve a single function,” notes Rock Ridgeway, of a firm called AtOM SEED (Synergetic Environmental Ecological Devices) System. “Instead of having thousands of such items, we ought to develop tools with multiple uses.”

That’s the concept behind the “Cameleon,” a garment and living device that Rock first imagined while on a trek in Colorado.

“With 45 pounds of inspiration on my back, I began to ponder ways that I could lighten my load,” he recalls. “A mental inventory brought me to the realization that I was carrying a pack, poncho, tent, parka, and sleeping bag all made of nylon. It seemed to me that a single, more efficient, shape could fulfill all the functions served by that gear with less bulk and weight.”

He began working on the idea.

“After three years of trial and error, the first Cameleon — a meter-per-side hexagon of cloth with a tube, of the same material, in its center — was developed. By folding it, zipping it, buttoning it, and/or gathering its drawstrings, the user can adapt the fabric shape to serve one purpose after another . . . almost ,as quickly as the reptile it’s named after can change its hue. For example while on an outdoor expedition, you could wear one Cameleon as a shirt, a second as a pair of pants, a third as a cape and carry a fourth as a backpack. Then — when you arrive at your campsite — your shirt becomes your pillow, your pants evolve into a sleeping bag, your cape is transformed into a drop-cloth and your backpack unfolds into a tent.”

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