The kit nobody photographs,
and everybody notices
A shoot is judged by its birds and remembered by its details. A beating line turned out in matching smocks with the estate’s name on the back tells a paying gun, without a word being said, that the day is run properly. It is also the cheapest piece of marketing an estate will ever buy — the coats are seen by every gun, every picker-up and every visitor, all season, for three or four seasons.
Kitting out the beating line, the pickers-up and the keepers in one colour with one badge. Usually a single order in spring or early summer, repeated every second or third year.
Members buying their own gilets and caps in the syndicate colours. Individual names make it kit people keep rather than kit that gets lost.
Country stores and gamekeeping suppliers who want their own line of workwear rather than reselling somebody else’s at a thinner margin.
Six garments cover
a whole shoot
| Garment | Who wears it | What it has to survive |
|---|---|---|
| Beaters smock | The beating line | Brambles, blackthorn, rain and a flask in the pocket. Pullover with a half zip, single big game pocket, drawcord hem, reinforced forearms. |
| Picking-up coat | Pickers-up and dog handlers | Standing still in the wet, then walking. Longer body, fully taped waterproof, big bellows pockets that take a dummy and a lead. |
| Keeper’s jacket | Head keeper and underkeepers | Worn every day, all year. Heavier build, more pockets, smarter finish — it is the uniform the estate is seen in. |
| Estate gilet | Everybody, all season | The piece people actually keep and wear off the shoot. Quilted or fleece, embroidered chest and back. |
| Over-trousers | Beaters and pickers-up | Pulled on over boots in a hurry. Full-length side zips, articulated knee, elasticated back. |
| Cap or beanie | Everybody | The cheapest branded item on the list and the one that gets worn in the pub afterwards. |
Five decisions that decide
whether it lasts three seasons
A beating smock lives in cover. Heavy ripstop, waxed cotton or a dense canvas — not the light shell that suits a gun standing at a peg. We will tell you honestly when a fabric you have picked is too light for the job, because the complaint comes back to us either way.
Forearms, elbows, shoulders and the hem. Overlays in Cordura or a doubled face fabric, bar-tacked at the corners. This is where a cheap smock fails first and it costs very little to prevent.
A flask, a pair of gloves, a slip lead, sandwiches, a dog whistle. Big bellows pockets with storm flaps, and one internal pocket that will keep a phone dry. Small neat pockets look better on a drawing and fail in the field.
Nobody wears a smock next to the skin in January. Cut it to go over a fleece and a jumper, and grade it generously. Our UK size chart shows the blocks and tolerances; for shoot kit we normally add ease over the standard jacket block.
Estate badge on the chest, name on the other side, larger badge across the back yoke if you want it seen from the far end of a drive. Stitched on a stabilised panel, clear of seams and pockets so it cannot pucker. We send a stitch-out on the real fabric before bulk.
From a phone call
to coats on the line
How many beaters, how many pickers-up, how many keepers, and what colour the estate uses. If there is an existing coat you like, send a photograph of it — or the coat itself if it can be spared.
Vector artwork is ideal, but a clean photograph of an existing embroidered badge or a cap is enough. We digitise it and send a proof showing thread colours against your actual fabric.
7–10 working days for the sample. Put it on the biggest beater you have and send it through a hedge before you approve it — that is a more useful test than measuring it on a table.
Send the list with the order. Each garment is stitched, bagged and labelled individually so they can be handed out rather than sorted through.
DDP to the estate office or the keeper’s yard. Freight, UK clearance and duty inside one landed price — and Pakistan-origin apparel currently carries a 0% preferential rate where the preference is correctly claimed.
What shoot captains ask us
What is the minimum for an estate order?
Can each coat have the wearer’s name on it?
Can you do high-visibility for the beating line?
How hard-wearing are the smocks?
When do we need to order for the season?
We only need twelve coats. Can you do that?
Kitting out a beating line?
Tell us the numbers, the colour and what the coats have to survive. We reply within 24 working hours with per-piece pricing, an embroidery proof and a delivery date against your first shoot day.