THE SCIENCE OF NOTHING

In 2008, Gore announced the development of OPTIFADE – the first-ever concealment pattern based on how prey sees its predators. Created with the assistance of experts in camouflage and animal vision, the new pattern accounts for the animals’ visual capacity as well as the engagement distances and angles of the hunters’ attack.

The traditional approach to hunting has been to smell, sound or appear as something familiar to prey – through scents, calls and camouflage patterns of sticks and leaves. OPTIFADE™ Concealment is the first concealment system designed around animal vision and not human eyesight.

What Ungulates See

Animal vision research indicates exactly how deer and other hoofed animals see, both spatially and colorimetrically.

• Human vision uses full range of colours. Ungulate vision uses shades of yellow, blue and gray only. Ungulates suffer from red-green colour-blindness.
• The human's field of view is 120°. The ungulate's field of view is 280° and a simple turn of the head expands its view to 360°.Ungulates have a wider field of vision.
• While we see 20/20, an ungulate sees around 20/40, making deer vision slightly blurrier than ours.

The Outake:  Mimicry patterns (like those on traditional camouflage) work at engagement distances of 20 metres or less, but fail at the longer distances game is typically encountered at.  Even high-definition sticks and leaves on mimicry patterns that appear photorealistic, block up into a mass of gray at standard hunting engagement ranges due to a principal known as isoluminence.

OPTIFADE™ Concealment incorporates a…

• Micro-pattern of small fragmented shapes that consider the way ungulates perceive colour and space, making you fade into the background – the same way a leopard's spots help it evade detection while poised to ambush.
• Macro-pattern of large fragmented shapes that break up the outline of the human body, making you unrecognisable as a predator – similar to the way a tiger's stripes break up the shape of its body as it stalks prey.

Unlike mimicry camouflage, OPTIFADE™ Concealment prevents your prey from recognising you as a predator – even if detected – making you NOTHING in their eyes.


Sitka produce gear in three Optifade colourations - Open Country and Forest for big game hunters and Marsh (available July 2012) for waterfowl hunters.  Click on each of the names above for more details on the specific patterns.

So, Open Country or Forest for deer stalking?

Open Country uses a horizontal flow and is optimised for use on the ground at distances of 30+ metres regardless of terrain and environmental colour.  Open Country clothing is weight conscious and durable with a trimmer fit for strenuous walking with short periods of being motionless. Forest colouration uses a vertical flow for elevated tree stand hunting and the clothing is consequently designed for more passive styles of hunting.

The right choice is based on angle of approach, engagement distance and terrain, not colour of the hunting environment (remember, deer don't see in colour like we do).  Open Country is the more versatile pattern and is a match for the spot and stalk style of New Zealand and Australian hunting that most of us enjoy so we have focused on these items.  If in doubt drop us a line letting us know about what, where and how you like to hunt and we will respond with a recommendation -click here to send us an email.

More on the Science of Optifade

Want to know even more?  Check out these clips.

About Deer & Ungulate Vision

About Optifade