Mike
Parsons

Mike Parsons is known for helping people understand the real story behind outdoor gear, mountain innovation and the human problems that push equipment forward. His perspective comes from more than five decades in the outdoor industry, including his work as a manufacturer behind Karrimor and later Original Mountain Marathon, where clothing, packs and equipment had to perform in conditions where failure mattered.

Mike’s view of innovation is practical rather than abstract. He sees breakthrough ideas beginning with the people at the leading edge: climbers, expedition teams, factory workers and problem-solvers trying to overcome something that stops them from going further, staying warmer, moving faster or making a process work. That lens shaped his manufacturing career and later informed a decade of part-time teaching on innovation at Lancaster University Management School, where he worked alongside an academic colleague and won recognition for innovative teaching.

His authority on outdoor clothing is grounded in first principles, not marketing language. Having manufactured technical garments and written Keeping Dry and Staying Warm, Mike explains why gear alone does not keep people safe or comfortable. People still need to understand heat loss, layering, moisture, cold and, increasingly, how to stay cool in hot conditions.

Mike has supplied equipment to around 250 expeditions worldwide, including Chris Bonington’s 1970 Annapurna and 1975 Southwest Face of Everest expeditions. His research has also explored mountaineering history in depth, including a three-year project reconstructing the clothing worn by George Mallory on Everest in 1924. He has travelled to 52 countries to climb, ski, cycle and explore, and is now writing a hybrid memoir that combines personal experience with the history of a defining 50-year period in mountaineering and outdoor innovation.

As a podcast guest, Mike brings first-hand stories, practical judgement and a rare long view on adventure, equipment, innovation and what people learn when they attempt difficult things.

Invisible on Everest: Innovation and the Gear Makers

Winner: Design History Society Prize (2003-4)
Runner-up: Wadsworth Prize for best book in business history (2003)

Keeping Dry and Staying Warm.

An accolade from Don Gladstone of People Work, the leading training person in the outdoor industry.

"In my forty years working in the outdoor industry, predominantly in product training and customer care, I've never read such a detailed well researched book. I can only hope individuals and companies within and indeed, beyond the industry, adopt the book as a foundation to their learning and understanding.” - Don Gladstone