Camouflage has changed a lot since a Virginia turkey and deer hunter named Jim Crumley noticed that the forests where he hunted didn’t look anything like the green and brown blobs of clothing generally known as “military camo” or “woodland green.”

If you’re new to the hunting game, you may not even remember the old design. Picture a jigsaw puzzle with alternating brown and green blotches. Crumley’s view through the hunting woods was dominated by the gray bark of hardwood trees. The school teacher bought a set of gray work clothes and dabbed on brown dye in irregular vertical lines to better match the woods.

The customized clothing worked so well that Crumley’s friends began asking him to make hunting clothes for them. In 1980, Crumley came out with the first line of camouflage designed specifically for hunters. He called it Trebark. It spun off a huge industry with hunters intent on gaining an edge against sharp-eyed and increasingly wary game from six-ounce mourning doves to 2,000-pound moose.

On opening day of dove season, I ate lunch with a group of about 100 West Texas hunters. At least half of them were dressed in camo. A casual inventory revealed 16 different camouflage patterns. There may have been more. Some patterns are subtle variations and difficult to discern from one another without close inspection.

One of the biggest sporting goods retailers claims more than 50 camouflage patterns in stock. At this year’s archery trade show, a RealTree camouflage employee made the rounds and counted nearly 100 patterns.

If you watch outdoors television, you already know that RealTree and Mossy Oak are the big players in this market. Industry insiders say the two southern-based companies control 90 percent of camouflage sales. Both companies have their own television hunting shows and advertise heavily with other popular shows.

“I like to say that we can take you from cradle to grave,” quips RealTree marketing coordinator Dodd Clifton. “I mean that literally. You can buy RealTree diaper covers for babies, and one of the country’s largest casket manufacturers offers caskets that are lined with camo as well as caskets wrapped on the outside with a camouflage pattern.”

Clifton says the biggest story in modern camouflage is the huge variety of fabrics that allow clothing to be made in every conceivable material weight, as well as fabrics that keep the sportsman dry, warm, safe and even odor free.

While most camouflage is patterned after the same dappled hardwoods that Jim Crumley first noticed nearly 30 years ago, Texas has its own unique patterns made by companies like Bushlan, Brush County and Carrollton-based Game Guard.

Rather than hardwood forests, the Texas-Southwest patterns are designed to blend with mesquite, cactus and muted brush. Texas-based camo tends to be lighter in color than the deep-forest patterns, and sportsmen outside the state are taking notice.

“We’ve shipped our products to every state in the union,” said Game Guard president Craig Smith. “It’s selling very well. Many of the other patterns are so dark, it’s hard to tell them apart. Retailers report that our product has the best shelf appeal. Once hunters see it in the field, they realize that it works well in a variety of backgrounds.”

Game Guard was the first company to market clothing in micro fiber, a lightweight polyester material that’s ideal for Texas doves or other hot weather hunting.

What’s the next big thing in camouflage? Probably more three-dimensional designs featuring some sort of leaf that stands out from the main clothing. Clifton says the technology is available to make clothes with photo sensitive dyes – patterns that change colors, chameleon-style, as the light intensity changes.

“The cost is prohibitive right now,” he says. “It might be practical in the future.”

The idea behind camouflage is to break up the human outline by blending with the natural background. All of the modern patterns accomplish that goal. The best advice, says Smith, is to use a camouflage pattern that looks right for the area where you hunt.