A short history lesson about Sprayway back in the day

Given the fuss over a certain colourful outdoor jacket re-appearing on the back of a famous Mancunian this week, it feels only right to apply some balance by reminding people Sprayway jackets were just as popular ’round are way’ back in the day. Yes I’m talking about the Berghaus Trango which was definitely a big hitter on the streets, terraces and warehouse parties of Manchester when the word gorp meant something totally, totally different. Thanks to the Liam Gallagher’s seal of approval and weirdly Lidl too, you’d think that this iconic smother meant Berghaus was the only brand to be seen in during those hedonistic times. But I’m here to tell you there was something else…. a brand that was born slap bang in the middle of Manchester and was equally as popular as the Goretex gear made by our Bergy brethren up in the North East.

Currently celebrating their 50th birthday, Sprayway started life off above a launderette in Chorlton, Manchester by two mates John and Simon. Driven by the lack of decent waterproof apparel available to go sailing in they did a very Mancunian thing by deciding to make their own gear and to make it totally brilliant. A success from day one, such was the quality of Sprayway products that their gear soon began to appear in the mountains too which led them in the direction of the wider outdoors and eventually to the iconic status they now enjoy today. Being based in Manchester their combination of cool designs, colourful palettes and waterproof technology meant they also gained a legion of fans amongst an incredibly fashion conscious inner city youth. Nothing says ‘I’ve made it’ more in Manchester than bowling around in a jacket that looks like you can’t afford and was made for month long expeditions in Annapurna rather than strobe lit all-nighters in the hills of Lancashire.

From Moss Side to Moston during the late 80s and onwards a Sprayway jacket became shorthand for you being a real deal, clued up ‘geezer’ in Manchester. If Berghaus was Stone Island then Sprayway was C.P. Company, a more subtle, nuanced and quite often more expensive choice for the jacket connoisseur. Which is is perhaps why the green jacket owned by Noel that Liam talks so passionately about wanting before he’d finally ‘made it’ was definitely maybe a Sprayway. Speaking of ‘passion’ when Sprayway held a sale at their Manchester HQ back in the early 90s there was an actual riot which involved the sale being quickly closed down and a large amount of police TAG vans arriving on the scene. So maybe the appreciation wasn’t that subtle after all?

Below is just a very small selection of big jacket bangers I’ve selected from the Sprayway Aladdin’s cave or an archive. All of which I’m sure you’ll agree look just as amazing today as they did when they were first released. Though this beauty is my person favourite and if anyone has one in an XL I’ll happily trade you one of my vital organs for it.

See what Sprayway have planned for the next 50 years HERE.