advertising in the outdoor industry

ADVERTISING IS WHAT COUNTS IN THE OUTDOOR INDUSTRY NOT PERFORMANCE

My supplier of insulation, Climashield, and I were talking about my last commentary and I told him that I was of the opinion that Gore’s advertising was key to their sales.

He told me that the reason outerwear marketing companies are on board the Primaloft train was for the same reason. He has been told by several of these companies that they save money by being on the coat tails of each of these companies advertising campaigns.

The fact that the components do not perform in the field or any place else for that matter is irrelevant. If Gore says their product works that is good enough for the marketing company, the same holds true for Primaloft, Outlast and probably a dozen more companies that make outlandish claims about what they are selling.

It all amounts to one thing and one thing only; how much noise can I make with my advertising dollars and take the marketing companies alone on my back. I wonder what would happen if the marketing companies such as The North Face, Columbia, etc. actually had their own facility for manufacturing it might be different.

This all amounts to the marketing companies being paid in directly with advertising dollars to then specify to the factories that manufacture their products to buy these materials or they could buy the materials and ship them to the factories.

Climashield is as you know the best insulating medium in the world but they do not buy manufacturers with advertising dollars so they will use the Climashield. They just say correctly so that the Climashield is the best product on the market when it comes to insulations and for that reason alone you should use the Climashield, because it actually works to keep people warm. My opinion is that the companies that use the other insulations matter of factly do not care if they did they would use Climashield. That alone is a reason to buy Wiggy’s outerwear because it actually works to keep people warm.

This past weekend I saw the “how it is made” program and they were at a Nike factory. The number of components required making a running or hiking shoe is substantial. The pieces are small and must be die cut. And then placed the parts on sewing machine tables where they are held in place on dowels so the parts do not move around. There are 50 to 100 parts for each shoe. Mostly what I see is a cosmetic adaptation versus a functional use. Is it any wonder why these shoes are made in a country that pays $5.00 a day to the workers?

I believe these shoe companies are more interested in cosmetics i.e. how the footwear looks versus how well the footwear actually works. Using less components will make a more solid shoe. Just like my sleeping bags, less parts better bag.

So the best thing to do if you are a new business is to hook onto the advertising train so you too will be able to hood wink the unsuspecting public.