What Goes Into Making Your Jacket?
By Jamie Marr
You often walk into a local outdoor shop and are confronted by dozens of different apparel types and colours. Yet, do you know how much thought, detail and attention has gone into getting that garment into the store?
I recently had the privilege to be involved with a new Kiwi designed outdoor apparel brand, Inselberg. I met Jarlath, the co-founder and CEO at the Remarkables Ice and Mixed Festival. Jarlath is a passionate kiwi who wants to design great clothing for all outdoor environments. It’s been some time since a new outdoor clothing brand has been designed in New Zealand, so I showed interest in being involved and that’s where our story begins.
Since beginning in the outdoor industry in 2015, I’ve been lucky to work in numerous roles and job styles in the New Zealand outdoor industry; ski patrolling, alpine search and rescue, guiding and instruction. And I hoped my experiences and input would benefit a new brand like Inselberg.
They sent me a few items of clothing to begin with and I was blown away by the quality of the construction and feel of the fabrics. The company goes to great lengths to buy great quality fabrics from Japan, which are then transported to factories in China for manufacturing, firstly through a factory that develops the initial prototypes.
I was stoked to have some free, great quality apparel that I could thrash and use over the coming months and years.
I then got a message asking if I would like to join Jarlath in China to help test and develop a new hard shell product—the Axiom. At the time I was rock guiding in Arapiles, so it came as a surprise offer, but I was excited to be thought of for such an amazing opportunity.
My partner and I flew to China, greeted by a sleepy Jarlath at 2am. We watched a busy motorway in Shanghai as we headed to our hotel for some much needed rest. After setting up our Chinese phone apps we were set—we could buy food, rent bikes and taxis and incorporate ourselves into one of the larger cities on earth.
We then visited the Shanghai office, where employees had been working over time to build a prototype of the new Axiom jacket. I was excited to put it on and see what they had created. It has some great features like double zip pit zips, pockets that won’t get in the way of backpack straps, a thoughtful hood design for ultimate customisation and large grips for opening zips with gloves on.
All this was great! But now I needed to climb in it, and see if it would actually work. So we fly to Beijing and head to Baihe, a beautiful valley 1.5 hours north of Beijing and filled with beautiful never-ending granite walls. This place is truly incredible and only 20 minutes from the Great Wall of China.
The jacket felt good to put on, but as I started to climb I felt some pinch points. We used chalk on the jacket to show areas of tightness, and filmed what the jacket looked like while climbing. Usually I don’t wear a hard-shell rock climbing, but I will be testing it further this coming Canadian winter!
Jarlath and the team were happy to hear there were improvements to be made—we needed to be critical of how this jacket would work for the alpine user group. I had never been a part of designing anything before, and I admire the thought and lengths this new, up and coming business is taking to create better quality products for their customers.
The jacket is also made of a four-layer fabric. Jarlath asked me to 'beat it up'. So I tried scuffing the arms on the sharp rock—nothing—I was surprised there were no tears. And to this day, no signs of damage on the jacket.
I liked that the business involved us in product development in China to show transparency in how their products are made, the factories are far from sweatshops—actually very modern buildings with technical equipment and a thriving atmosphere.
The Axiom shell will be available later this year.
Editor's Note: The process of athlete inspired design and rigorous field testing of outdoor products is a hallmark of the outdoor industry and something we really like to see. This is part of the relationship between Macpac and New Zealand Alpine Team for example, where another New Zealand company tests it's products and seeks feedback from active New Zealand climbers. This gives us outdoor enthusiasts better products to use and is one of the reasons Black Diamond and The North Face have such strong athlete teams.