red dot?

RED DOT AWARD

A couple of months ago I wrote about a company getting a “red dot award”. Up until a couple of months ago I had not ever heard of this red dot organization let alone it’s offering awards to textile manufacturing companies. To follow is the article I just read about Helly Hanson Company receiving their award for “best of the best award for product design”. See for yourself.

“Global technical ski brand, Helly Hansen, is proud to announce its Icon Jacket has won the Red Dot: Best of the Best Award for Product Design 2017.

This year’s competition was fierce with more than 5,500 submissions from 54 countries. All of the entries were individually assessed and evaluated by an independent and international jury of experts. Helly Hansen’s technical Icon Jacket came out on top and was awarded the highest Red Dot classification.

Part of Helly Hansen’s most successful line ever, the Winter 2017 Icon Jacket stood out from the crowd for its leading design quality, performance technologies and consumer driven features. This insulated jacket features the highly innovative, and a new iteration of, the H2Flow™ temperature regulation system. Depending on the conditions, the closed system channels and directs cold air along the user’s core, and is released through air ports on the inside of the jacket – just like an effective air conditioned sports car. The jacket’s system is 20 per cent more efficient in cooling athletes down, compared to a regular jacket.

Philip Tavell, Category Managing Director for Ski at Helly Hansen, comments on the award win, saying, “To win a Red Dot Award is amazing, but to win the ‘Best of the Best’ title is an outstanding achievement – as only 1.85% of all submissions this year achieved this result. Our proprietary technologies and consumer insights have been moulded into this high-end resort design, to produce this award-winning garment. It shows that our brand continues to innovate and deliver best in class products, designed and developed in cooperation with ski professionals around the world.”

The first thing that astonished me is the fact that there were 5500 submissions of jackets; that would mean ever company on the planet with the exception of Wiggy’s submitted every jacket that the make as well as samples of jackets they do not make in production for them the red dot people to receive 5500 samples. And then the experts from around the world evaluating each of these 5500 jackets; when did they start in the year 2000? And what are their credentials to be able to evaluate these 5500 garments? Actually I went to the Helly Hanson web site and could not find a specific jacket labeled as the icon jacket. I did find several with the icon designation and an almost explanation of the” h2flow” which references these air ports that somehow allows for temperature regulation. Much of the material used on the inside of the garment happens to be one form of Polartec or another. All of what I read fits into the category of mindless gobbley gook explanation. By the way I thought winter jackets were supposed to keep you warm.

What consumer insights (?), how is that possible when you are blind! Who were these ski professionals, racers, teachers, ski patrol and from around the world; wow!

The red dot people have absolutely zero knowledge of insulation however they do know that Polartec is insulation, which it isn’t. It is a material that will trap moisture as a vapor and then cause it to condense in the fabric structure which means that the moisture trapped in the fleece will now very efficiently absorb the heat from your body, but the red dot “experts” do not have a clue about that problem with fleece!

I believe some, maybe most companies will do anything they can to influence people to buy their products using as much erroneous or inflated language as they can think of (of course I really don’t think they think, for if they did they would actually try to make good products that do work).

All I can say is they at red dot are a joke and the helly hanson people are a part of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Will miracles ever cease?