Outerwear Brands Go High-Tech

Outerwear Brands Go High-Tech With 65 inches of snow already on the ground in
Buffalo, N.Y., and other Great Lakes cities and
below-normal temperatures throughout most of the
U.S., retailers and outerwear manufacturers are
praising the polar vortex.
All this extreme weather calls for more highperformance attributes than ever, whether the
wearer is climbing the slopes or walking the city
streets. As a result, high-tech fabrics are now
penetrating all levels of the outerwear sector.
Sealed seams, water resistance, bullet-proof
coatings and antiodor properties are being
combined with a modern design aesthetic to appeal to today’s consumer looking for fashion with
function.
Brands are doing it from a position of strength. Thanks to last year’s harsh winter, outerwear sales
have been — and continue to be — strong. According to The NPD Group, sales of men’s outerwear
in the U.S. rose 7 percent to $4.5 billion in the 12 months ending in September, from $4.2 billion the
year before.
“Outerwear is one of the bright spots of the season — even coming off
a healthy 2013,” said Kevin Harter, vice president for men’s fashion
direction at Bloomingdale’s.
The key trend is warmth and performance without bulk. No consumer
wants to look like the Michelin man any more.
“Most state-of-the-art technologies started with extreme sports and
skiing. Now, everything is air-permeable and heat-induced
compression. I sound more like a scientist than a fashion director,”
Harter said with a laugh. “But we’re seeing brands like Stone Island,
Canada Goose, Herno and Moncler coming out with lighter and
warmer coats that look great. It’s a win-win for everybody.”
Karen Murray, president of the sportswear coalition of VF Corp., which
includes Nautica, has also experienced the technology revolution.
“Jackets are more technical than they ever have been. Over 90 percent
of our outerwear utilizes some type of performance features, such as
waterproof shells, laminate backing, mechanical stretch, sealed
seams, breathability.” There are pockets for gadgets and reflective
taping on some pieces, she said, but the primary message of the day
is that the chosen fabrics provide extra warmth and insulation without bulk.
She said high-tech features are “almost a point of entry” today. “Consumers expect it,” Murray said,
whether they’re spending $50 or $1,500 for an outerwear piece. “They don’t expect to get wet —
they want to be warm. Consumers want functional outerwear that is also fashionable, and it’s our
job to make sure our outerwear has a sense of style.”
To this end, Murray said that, for spring, Nautica will introduce a
new jacket, the Rainbreaker, which is waterproof, seam-sealed,
breathable and lightweight. It will be introduced at Nautica stores
and internationally.
“Technology is completely consuming everything, and the
expectation for technology is even more pronounced in outerwear,”
said Scott Branscum, executive vice president of sales,
merchandising and marketing at Cocona 37.5 Technology, a
company that makes a fiber that helps the body to maintain an ideal
core temperature. Before joining Cocona 37.5, he created
outerwear for Tumi, Massif and Eddie Bauer.
Branscum said that offering stretch, antimicrobials and waterrepellency gives retailers “something with which you can engage a
customer other than price point.”
Today’s young people have grown up with technology, and they
expect innovative features in their apparel. “If it doesn’t have
technology, it doesn’t get their attention,” Branscum said. “In the old days, Teflon was what you
used for water-repellency and Lycra was for stretch. That seems medieval now.”
Instead, cutting-edge companies such as Cocona 37.5 and Schoeller
Fabrics are working with manufacturers at all levels of the apparel industry
to push outerwear forward.
Schoeller, a 150-year-old Switzerland-based company, is widely viewed as
among the most innovative fabric producers. It provides fabrics for Theory,
Outlier, Isaora, Qor, Mission Workshop, Proof NYC, Aztech and Ninox,
among others.
Shannon Walton, a former professional skier who oversees marketing and
communications for Schoeller in the U.S., said that, while best known for its
stretch wovens, the brand also licenses its technologies to other companies
seeking performance features. Among the offerings are Solar+, which
absorbs the rays of the sun; Ecorepel, a water-repellent technology inspired
by a duck’s feathers; Energear, which allows the body’s energy to be
reflected back to the body; Active Silver, which reduces body odor; Cold
Black, which provides protection from UV rays; Nanosphere, which is waterand oil-resistant, and 3Xdry, which is water-repellent on the outside but
which absorbs and evaporates moisture on the inside.
Walton said Schoeller also has fabrics made with Kevlar, so they’re cut-proof and burn-proof.
Originally marketed to motorcycle racers, the fabric has found its way into more-mainstream
applications, as well.
She said that, this spring, Levi’s will use Scholler’s Ecorepel technology in its Commuter Collection,
targeted to the urban cyclist. The jeans manufacturer has previously used Nanosphere in the
Commuter line.
“The outdoor and ski industries have always loved Schoeller,” Walton said. “But now there’s more
interest in bringing technology from the mountain to fashion.” And when fashion brands use one of
these proprietary fabrics or finishes, they have “the opportunity to talk about the technology, which
means the price can be higher. Now, you don’t need Theory and The North Face: You can just wear
one or the other.”
That said, outdoor brands such as The North Face are not about to
give up their leading positions within the outdoors space and are
working more than ever in the mainstream fashion arena.
Joe Vernachio, the brand’s vice president of global products, said,
“Consumers are telling us we don’t just have to be tech-y. We also
have to be on trend. We’re no longer sitting in the outdoor space,
waiting for trends to come around. We’re bringing advanced
technology to the market ourselves.”
He said a commuter in Chicago in the middle of winter, for example,
has similar needs to someone climbing the Himalayas. And a
pedestrian in Manhattan in a cold rainstorm is no different than a
hiker in the Olympic Mountains. “They need the same benefits,” he
said.
It’s for that reason he believes The North Face has a leg up. “From
a technical standpoint, it’s hard for fashion brands to keep up. Most
of our products are designed for specific activities, and we have
athletes in here all the time telling us what they need and what our
product needs to do.”
For example, Vernachio said, the company recently developed Fuse Form, a new fabric that
replaces polyester with nylon in the fill. This technology allows the firm to offer a garment that is
high performance, durable and packable but still light and functional. “That’s really hard for fashion
brands to do,” he said.
To grab its piece of the fashion pie, The North Face has a special urban collection that comprises
fits and features more suited to the streets than the mountains, “but the technology remains the
same,” he said.
“We treat an urban customer just the way we treat an athlete,” Vernachio added. “If you’re in a
cramped subway and you’re overheating in one of our jackets, you can just open the vents and
even stick your arms out. There’s a nod and a wink there to our technical roots.”
New brands such as Aztech and Ninox have created sophisticated outerwear by using luxury and
performance fabrics with a modern design aesthetic. Aztech, which launched this fall at Barneys
New York, employs suiting-grade wool, high-loft down and premium microfleece bonded with
cashmere to offer waterproof, breathable attributes. But their design makes the collection just as
much at home on the streets of New York.
The same is true at Ninox, a Boulder, Colo.-based brand that delivers “a
modern design aesthetic with updates on classic silhouettes.” The brand
uses organic cottons, Primaloft Gold microfiber insulation, and Schoeller’s
bonded wool and Nanosphere fabrics — and its jackets are all
manufactured in North America.
Ninox cofounder Allie Thielens said that, because the company is based in
Boulder, it is immersed in the outdoors, allowing for a different mind-set than
a competitor headquartered in New York or San Francisco. “This space is
growing, and men are realizing that they also want to spend on their casual
clothes, not just their suits,” she said.
Earlier this month, NuDown, a firm founded last year by Silicon Valley
entrepreneur Jeff Pickett, introduced NuTech, a proprietary technology that
uses compressed air as insulation. Wearers pump air into dynamic
chambers until the garment fits tightly to the body, providing warmth and
comfort.
“Our patented NuTech inflation technology gives outdoor devotees the
ability to control their body climate, depending on changing weather
conditions or their level of activity,” said Bob Hall, chief executive officer of
NuDown. “No need to drop off that extra layer in the base lodge or stop to
stow it in a backpack. This is on-the-go flexibility.” The collection will be
unveiled at the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market next year.
More-established manufacturers also continue to innovate in order to meet the demand of the new
technologically savvy consumer.
Rainforest turned to Italy for the development of a synthetic fiber called Thermoluxe, which replaces
down in a new range of jackets. Thermoluxe traps air and retains heat even in moist conditions, a
feat which down is unable to do, according to president Jack Wu. It’s also high-loft, lightweight and
water-repellent. Soft and round, the fiber clusters don’t poke through quilting as do down feathers,
and they are equal to the warmth of 60-fill down, according to the marketing materials from the
company.
“Consumers constantly complained that down fiber came out and through the fabric, so we worked
with an insulation mill in Italy to develop an alternative,” Wu said. “Today’s consumers are very
savvy. We need constantly to bring new, innovative products, not only in terms of styling but also
functionality in fabrics, insulation, accessories and so on. We see more men who only care about
the styling, functionality and fit.”
European brands are among the leaders in blending high fashion with high performance — just look
at Moncler, one of the fastest-growing luxury brands out there, based on its lightweight down
jackets, vests and other apparel.
Carlo Rivetti, president and creative director of Stone Island, based in Ravarino, Italy, said, “For
sure, consumers are looking for performance in their outerwear. Then, I think, they are looking for
quality more and more. Nowadays, people prefer to invest in a jacket as opposed to spending on a
jacket. People want items that last and that they can wear often in different situations.”
Stone Island answers this demand by presenting a “balance between new materials and classic
ones,” he said. “Research and new technologies allow us to create brand-new textiles as well as to
improve, modify and update the old ones. For instance, our Flowing Camo Reflex Mat from the
spring-summer ’15 collection is one of the evolutions of the very first Reflective Jacket, made in the
early Nineties. The fabric has a coating made of thousands of glass microspheres, but this season it
is opaque and printed with a ‘flowing’ vertical camouflage motif.”
In addition, he said the company will introduce for spring a high-tech fabric called Hyper Light
Membrana TC, a two-layer performance fabric made of a lightweight nylon, laminated to be
breathable and featuring a water- and wind-resistant membrane.
Italy-based Duvetica Industrie focuses on gray goose down for its jackets. But beyond that, the
brand offers an “urban sportswear” product that uses soft-to-the-touch lightweight fabrics, such as
coated wool, washable flannels and cotton-nylon blends as well as nylon ripstop, according to
Stefano Rovoletto, one of the owners.
Herno also offers ultralight down jackets, but it, too, has branched out into coated cotton raincoats
and peacoats with micro-geometric prints; parkas with laser-cut and welded stitching; bomber
jackets with windproof nylon sleeves, and a trench in cotton and polyurethane. The company’s “airtech transpiration project” has resulted in an assortment of slim-fitting, breathable, lightweight and
packable bombers that have mesh inserts in an impalpable fabric that is similar to parachute cloth.
The brand has also teamed up with Gore on a collection of field jackets, bombers, trenches and
raincoats that are waterproof, windproof, breathable and lightweight and employ the company’s
signature Gore-Tex and Windstopper technologies.