Tech Rep
Tech Rep
The North Face Kishtwar jacket
A new feature in SGB Outdoor where we ask a sales- or tech-rep to explain to us the USPs, the customers, the
very essence of a technical outdoor product. The second column in the series looks at The North Face’s award- winning Kishtwar jacket, which lit up the recent ispo show in Munich. Gus Hudgins, a regional rep in the central England and North Wales area for The North Face, tells all…
SGB: Tell us about the Kishtwar – where does it sit with other The North Face products?
Gus Hudgins: The first thing to recognise is the category which it comes from, the Summit Series, which is set aside from the mainstream range, and is a very end-user specific range. The key thing that also relates to the Kishtwar is that it uses the best fabric we can get our hands on. For example, if it’s a Gore-TEX shell it’s not a Performance shell, it’s a Gore-TEX Pro shell, that kind of thing. I think that’s one of the reasons why it got the award at ispo, because it’s one of these exclusive fabrics. We always try to push forward with breaking new fabrics and trying new things. That’s one of the advantages of being a large company.
The fabric that the Kishtwar is made from is the Polartec Power Shield Pro, a fabric we have exclusively this season. The key thing about it is, unlike, say Gore Windstopper Softshell, which is totally windproof and waterproof but not necessarily breathable compared to say a non- membrane softshell, this is actually waterproof to five metres, but has a rating of 3 CFM (cubic feet per minute – a measure of ‘windproofness’, and conversely, breathability). That means it is almost windproof, but not quite fully, so you have the benefit of breathability.
SGB: As well as the sexy new fabric, what are the key USPs of the Kishtwar?
GH: With the Summit Series as a category, from 2008 we made an effort to make product that was more end-user specific. Being an American company, in the UK we’ve had criticisms levelled at us that our products are not UK specific; for
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example, map pockets – in the UK, we love to carry maps in our map pockets, not necessarily bits of maps that we need, but the whole thing! So one of the things we’ve done with most of the Summit Series product is to make the pockets map compatible. The other thing that used to be levelled at us as a criticism was that the jacket, as an American cut, were very short – in the UK they were seen as too short. So we’ve increased the length slightly now, but not enough to inhibit while walking uphill, skiing or climbing. Also on the Kishtwar, we have updated the shock cords, the hood pulls. Previously, they were just the hanging tab style, on the end of a shock cord. Now they are updated for 2010 and it’s a loop of cord, so it’s easier to adjust if you’re all gloved up.
SGB: Who is the customer for the Kishtwar?
GH: For me, it’s aimed at top-end snowsports. I know a lot of our people have been wearing it to ski tour in the Lake District and they’ve loved it. It gives the right kind of protection because the fabric is waterproof but it’s not seam-sealed, and it gives that breathability benefit.
SGB: What’s the RRP?
GH: £240. Part of that price is this amazing fabric. Rather than sticking to what’s already out there, we’ve stepped it up to the next level. That’s never cheap.
SGB: How are you raising end-user awareness of these?
GH: As a sales rep, one of the things I don’t think we did well in the past is product-related POS
material. So one of the things we used when we presented this to retailers recently is a POS package they can pick what they want to use from. So we have three or four Summit Series key styles on POS material, one of which is of course the Kishtwar. There are also swing tags that go on the product in-store.
The Kishtwar will also be advertised in specialist press.
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