LET’S FACE IT.

When you hear a company representative review their own products, it’s met with skepticism. But at KUIU, it’s part of our mission as a company to ensure we’re staffed by hunters who are dedicated to pushing our products to the limit. Their feedback, alongside every customer review, is taken into consideration before anything goes through our development process.

While we work for a hunting company for a living, we believe that if we focus on our customers and what they need, the business side takes care of itself. So when KUIU set out to design Valo as its third camouflage offering, it was first and foremost about providing our customers with something they said they needed—it wasn’t about a sales number.

“The goal with Valo was the same as every KUIU project: create a solution. The challenge was to break up the human form and disappear in terrain that lacks cover and contrast. Valo does just that. By using the same proven camouflage principles that shaped our other patterns, we added the missing piece to the camouflage puzzle.” Brendan Burns, KUIU's Director of Conservation, Montana.

From a few of the hunters within the brand at KUIU, here’s their take on Valo:

WHAT WAS YOUR INITIAL IMPRESSION OF VALO?

“Valo adds a third dimension in concealment for KUIU. Exactly what our overall line was missing.”
- Brendan Burns

“It’s KUIU! It’s different, we’ve built the most effective pattern yet. We identified where we could improve and this is the answer.”
- Jason Widaman

“My thoughts went directly to the time and place I wanted to wear it—September through October in the high alpine basins of Utah and Wyoming hunting mule deer.”
- Kevin Wilkey

 

WHAT DO YOU THINK MAKES VALO UNIQUE?

“It changes with the light and the cover you are hunting in. It really takes on your surroundings. Not as high of contrast with all the right field colors.”
- Brendan Burns

“Valo is an authentic KUIU type macro pattern with a good balance of breakup and blending concealment. Complex colors were chosen to represent a dominant fall palette. As deciduous vegetation falls to the ground shadows are reduced and the terrain becomes lower contrast. In those environments lower contrast camo can limit close range movement detection and help with blending. Overall vegetation tone also gets lighter as it dries out or frost burns. The overall tone of Valo was designed to blend at a distance in these lighter color environments.”
- Shaun Ayers

“Its versatility, it’s the next step in the evolution of camo patterns.”
- Jason Widaman

“To me, the muted color palette and lighter earth tones are going to help blend into a far greater variety of terrain. The large macro pattern is going to help break up my outline at distance and up close.”
- Justin Shaffer

“The lighter colors and tones that seem to adapt and take on to whatever their surroundings are. I like that it has very little black—just enough to give the pattern depth.”
- Kevin Wilkey

 

IN WHAT TERRAINS WILL YOU USE VALO?

“It will be added equally to quite a few of my hunts. Specifically, it’s perfect for open broken country where I hunt elk in Montana. I can’t wait to use it in late season bighorn terrain and a bunch of areas in Alaska.”
- Brendan Burns

“Locally, I’ll use it in the oak woodland environment of California in early fall, across a lot of the southwest by late fall and winter. I’ll also use it in certain waterfowl habitat that’s dominated by tules, dead grass, and wheat fields.”
- Shaun Ayers

“From tree line to river bottom, this pattern is ideal for any hunter. It can be used from broken coniferous forests with grass, to open sagebrush flats, the grasslands of the Midwest, into late season deciduous trees of the East, and in the late fall and winter.”
- Jason Widaman

“I think it will be fantastic in any late-season terrain that’s covered in vegetation. Between Valo’s colors and the larger macro pattern, I can see myself wearing this in the foothills to the high alpine, and the transitions between.”
- Kevin Wilkey

 

TALK TO US ABOUT YOUR IMPRESSION OF THE VERSATILITY OF VALO.

“It really fills in the missing season of the patterns. You now have Alpine High contrast with Vias, Green based timber, spring green up, lush with Verde, and now Valo for everything else.”
- Brendan Burns

“Versatile across the terrains and seasons listed above, however it was never designed as an all-season camo pattern. It was designed to perform better than Vias and Verde in deciduous and seasonal vegetation after dry out or frost burn.”
- Shaun Ayers

“It has a unique blend of colors that naturally occur during the fall until the spring. It has the right amount of contrast and micro pattern to give breakup at close distance but not look dark at long distances. This pattern can be used in so many different terrains and seasons.”
- Jason Widaman

“With the color selection and layout of the pattern it blends just as well in a tree stand set up as it does on the ground. This makes it super versatile and adaptable to whatever terrain you find yourself in or preferred hunting style you use.”
- Justin Shaffer

“After the vegetation changes from green to dormant, Valo will be my go-to pattern.”
- Kevin Wilkey

 

WHAT HUNTS DID YOU USE VALO ON LAST SEASON?

“I used Valo for spring bear in Montana, and for the fall elk, deer, and antelope hunts in Eastern Montana and Wyoming. It was my choice for Alaskan moose in late September and for guiding Bighorn Sheep in the late season. The versatility and effectiveness of Valo is perfect for the open-broken country I encountered.”
- Brendan Burns

“With most of my hunts shifted towards later season in 2020, Valo was my camo of choice to match the fall foliage. From the tundra of Alaska chasing Caribou, to Kodiak Island in November, I had more confidence covering open ground on a stalk. Valo also worked great in the oak woodlands of California and Oregon chasing Blacktail deer. Now that we are in the peak of waterfowl season Valo is getting put to work every weekend in the marsh, and is our new go to pattern here in California. Overall, with a solid year of field time I’m impressed, and the complexity of colors makes it even more versatile than I originally expected.”
- Shaun Ayers

“I wore Valo the entire season. From August archery hunting Antelope in the tall grass plains of Eastern Montana, then transitioning to elk season in the foothills of the mountains, sliding though the evergreens and sage. We were hit with early snow in October, I continued to choose Valo because of the lower contrast and lighter color pattern.”
- Jason Widaman

“I put Valo’s versatility to the test across a multitude of varying terrains and color spectrums. I hunted desert bighorn sheep in Sonora, Mexico, brown bears on the Alaska Peninsula, elk in the mountains of Utah, and whitetails in the hardwoods of the Midwest. Its adaptability to blend into any terrain was no doubt instrumental to my success last season.”
- Justin Shaffer

“My first experience seeing Valo in the wild was on my friend’s Colorado Bighorn Sheep hunt. I watched him slip through the open sage, with zero cover, and close the distance to 19-yards for a perfect shot. Seeing that unfold convinced me of the effectiveness of Valo. I used Valo the rest of the season, from Utah Archery Deer in August, to South Texas Deer and Javelina in January.”
- Kevin Wilkey

 

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE COLORS CHOSEN FOR VALO?

“They were chosen as complex colors that take on a different hue based on the surrounding vegetation. The dominant olive drab color is similar in tone to military solids used over the last century. The golden color was chosen to match dead grass. The brown has a slight reddish tone that blends well with desert rock, dirt, or color changing leaves. Overall it’s a fall palette well suited to dried-out vegetation.”
- Shaun Ayers

“Valo has complex colors that take on the appearance of their surroundings. I’m familiar with each of the colors, we’ve all experienced them in the field during the hunting season from August to April. It includes yellow-tan of the burnt grass and dead leaves. The grey and brown commonly found in brush and deciduous trees, the olive can look like an evergreen, sage. The black gives you the hint of depth and shadows.”
- Jason Widaman

“I think the lower-contrast, muted earthy tone choices of the tan, brown, yellow, grey and olive are going to help Valo take on the surrounding look of the terrain and mimic the vegetation helping you to blend in better than ever before.”
- Justin Shaffer

“The six colors chosen for Valo are spot-on for all types of dormant deciduous or herbaceous vegetation. The colors synched with the on-brand KUIU pattern is where Valo gets its versatility.”
- Kevin Wilkey

 

WHY, IN YOUR OPINION, IS THE ADDITION OF VALO PRODUCTS NECESSARY FOR YOUR HUNTING PURSUITS?

“As a bowhunter camo is important. Across the terrains, habitats, and seasons listed above Valo will help you move through the terrain and complete a stalk more effectively. That’s the defining reason we use camo.”
- Shaun Ayers

“Absolutely, current camo patterns on the market have had too many dark colors and high contrast for open terrain. They left you exposed, sticking out. Now Valo gives you the flexibility to hunt open terrain.”
- Jason Widaman

“It adds another dimension to your arsenal and fills the gap between what Verde and Vias have been and used for in the past. It’s more versatile in a wider variation of terrain and hunting scenarios. There’s no doubt that Verde and Vias still have their place but Valo rounds out everything you would need in your next camo pattern choice.”
- Justin Shaffer

“Wearing dark camo patterns in the high alpine peaks can leave you feeling exposed. Often, I have to go into full view of game, like sneaking past does, to get into position—Valo will give me an edge in those situations.”
- Kevin Wilkey