Percy, a ceramicist, director & trail runner based in Manchester, can be found crafting handmade ceramics in the studio or exploring the hills of mid-England with his dog and a pair of trail running boots.
Follow Percy on Instagram @percydean
I’m a filmmaker & photographer, I run a lot, probably too much for my body. I also like to make ceramic vessels inspired by what I encounter in the hills.
Manchester is dark and it rains all the time, it sucks I hate the dark, but running and being able to access the hills in bad weather makes it a little less depressing. In the summer I’m a home-bird, I love the solace of my garden and the trails close to my home in the south of the city. Running is my favourite form of transportation, to get somewhere under your own power quickly, or to be able to access the inhospitable mountains in the winter and make it out of there just gives you a feeling of empowerment that can’t be replicated.
I’m wearing some old 90’s Zero Restriction GORE-TEX Golf trousers… Love the fit and detailing on them so much. They make me feel like I’m John Daly in St Andrews in 1995. I’ve got a Palace GORE-TEX cord hat that I really buzz off too. I love 100% of all the GORE-TEX collars they do.
I got the trousers from a vintage golf emporium called Pluto Of St Andrews, any time I’m with a good dog on a windswept links course in Scotland I need them with me. The hat I got from my friends at Palace. I’d love to be sat on a kerb again in London post- skate session with a plastic bag full of street beers with that crew once again like we all used to.
I think people aspire to be somewhere else, I think researching and owning functional clothing brings the person slowly closer to those environments where these garments perform at their best. Eventually, it will sneak up on them and they will find themselves in those worlds that they thought were inaccessible to them for various reasons. Time, fear, work, in-experience… In a busy life, each of those excuses can turn a plan to go out into a reason to stay in the city. I think becoming obsessed with this clothing can open up a world that we as humans need. We need to touch and feel and breathe places that aren’t in a city. It means so much.
I think after being cold and soaked in the winter hills for so many years running, my view of comfort now differs from most. Comfort to me just means that it doesn’t hurt. The cut shouldn’t ride up or gather; the areas like the neck and cuffs should be easily accessible and quickly adjusted. Breathable is hard to get when climbing mountain paths; if it keeps the rain out, then most of the time, it will keep the heat in and so you’ll be soaked to the skin anyway. I just want a jacket to hold up to those times when you stop movement, when you eat an energy bar or take a moment to absorb what’s around you. To feel secure and strong.
I’ve been injured quite a lot this year; think all I’ve done over the years from skating to martial arts to now running is starting to catch up with my body. I’m looking forward to putting the niggling strains behind me and embracing the coming winter. To remain enthusiastic about the dark and wet and embrace its beauty… I think it's so hard to do this in the cities that we all live in, but if we suck it up and get a little will power together, the hills and fields where true winter beauty lives aren’t that far away.
