GreenOutdoors

Portfolio Management Part 1: Updating Products

2011-04-26T09:21:00.586+01:00

Visit Portfolio Management Introduction -->

which products in your portfolio should be updated?

SME sportswear brands in relatively niche markets like 'Outdoor' may not have the resources to seasonally or even annually update all of their portfolio. In fact, perhaps with the exception of colour-way changes, it's unlikely that any single technical product will be revised each and every season. Fortunately for these small brands consumers don't expect or demand seasonal change in niche and performance sports products, in the way that is expected of fashion-following product markets. So for the SME, the inevitable question arises "which of our products should be updated over the forthcoming development season?"

Product updates (in red) and new additions (in blue) are added to the visual line plan at the start of the development season.

determining product success

In one in-house job I had, the decision to update products was invariably made by scanning through our sales figures and taking aim at products with flagging sales. This made me a little uneasy because I felt that sales figures shouldn't be one's only guide to the merits and failings of a product. Sales figures need to be seen in context, and only in that context can they be properly interpreted.

Of course, unless you're selling direct-to-market, sales figures (which reflect the stocking of your product by retailers) don't necessarily correlate with sell-through (consumer purchases of those products from the retailers). There's going to be an interesting interplay going on behind the figures on the shop floor and in the buying department at the retailer.

Failing product sales should be distinguished between those of relatively new products whose sales haven't reached the expected levels and those of established products whose sales have fallen below an acceptable level.

In the former case, perhaps buyers have warmed to the product quicker than the public and so after initial enthusiasm at the sales launch, poorer than expected first-season sell-through may result in short term loss of confidence by retail buyers. It may be that retail staff are failing to sell the advantages of the product.

In the latter case, when a product is well established, failing sales may merely be a result of the sales team having switched focus to selling the newer or more recently updated pieces in the portfolio. Perhaps sales have been "stolen" by newer products in the portfolio? This wouldn't reflect a failure in the overall design and/or marketing of that product, but may represent an instance where you may wish to discontinue it in favour of the better selling product that has stolen its sales (this topic will be covered at greater length in Portfolio Management Parts 2 and 3.)

The sales team are likely to know when product sales have been stolen by other products in the range. They will also be well placed to find out if sales dropped due to new competition bursting on to the market, splitting sales amongst a greater number of competitors.*

This last point brings us on to possibly the most pertinent objection to focusing on your own sales figures, one which was recently reiterated by Ian Cheshire on The Bottom Line program on BBC Radio 4**. Ian warns us that we should look at how the market did overall in our sector or product group before passing judgement. Without knowing your product's relative market share, a drop of 20% in sales might actually be a really good thing if the rest of the market dropped by 40% on average. Vice versa, if your sales went up 10%, but everyone else improved by 20%, then a product that at first glance seemed successful, actually is a relative failure.

Sales figures must be seen in context - their relative market share is more important than their net size.

So product success may appear as failure, and vice-versa, product failure may appear as success. Gaining the data to determine your product's relative market success would be very beneficial to gain a more objective evaluation of sales performance.

Having said all that, I need to add a few provisos here. Don't waste your efforts in trying to gather a heap of information about a product when you already know enough to make a good call. If a product feels 'old-hat' to you it will almost certainly benefit from updating. It can be difficult and/or costly to get sales information from your retailers and obtain wider market statistics. Efforts to research market share should reflect the importance to the brand of the product or product line in question (and beware the law of diminishing returns!)

Please keep in mind:

The search for knowledge and understanding is a never-ending one.
Information is a double edged sword - with too much of it you can be hit by 'analysis paralysis'.
Searching for reasons behind statistical events can be fruitless if there are none.

The optimal quantity of information before analysis paralysis will be in inverse proportion to the complexity of the decision making process (or analysis). Less information will ease the process of making a more complex decision.

be proactive

Updating products isn't all about rectifying weaknesses. It should also be about pro-actively looking for new opportunities (more on innovation in Portfolio Management Part 4.) It's complacent to just 'up keep' the portfolio. Whether they are cosmetic or profound innovations, making changes to the portfolio shows that a brand has life and energy and this is something that will captivate people's interest and imagination.

but...

Don't upset retailers by updating products too regularly - it will ultimately disappoint their existing customers if they find that their relatively new garment has just been superseded by a superior product so soon after their purchase. (For more discussion on this subject, see Portfolio Management Part 4.)

The question that naturally leads on from this topic is "how do you best go about updating products?" This isn't strictly a question about portfolio management so I'll try answering it in a future post.

*It occurs to me that it may be a very eye-opening exercise to get the design team to shadow a sales rep for one day to see how they go about selling different products in the portfolio.

** 24/02/2011 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006sz6t

Portfolio Management Part 0: An Introduction to the Issues

2011-04-25T19:53:00.916+01:00

I've been re-reading Kathryn Best's book 'Design Management', an extensive and inspirational read. The book broadly covers almost everything from design strategy, through design process, to design implementation. However, the book is about generic consumer product design, and perhaps as a result, one area of design management that has particular importance for sportswear design isn't touched on a great deal. This area is portfolio management. I intend to write about portfolio management over the next few days to help clarify my own ideas on the subject and provide an introduction to the subject for my friends studying on the Performance Sportswear Design course at Falmouth.

I'll be honest, some industry terminology can be very confusing. In particular, the grey area that might be Product Line Management, Product Life-cycle Management, Product Portfolio Management, Product and Portfolio Management, or New Product Portfolio Management! I won't try to impose a specific interpretation of these terms, instead I'll just stick to using portfolio management and use it as a generic term.

I will start off describing the concept of a 'product portfolio' and then get on with explaining how the product portfolio can be managed for competitive advantage within the constraints of an SME. Gaining competitive advantage is the underlying objective to portfolio management and is therefore an important issue for SME's in the sportswear business.

A Venn Diagram showing how PLM/PLcM/PILM/PPM/P&PM/NPPM/etc. intersect!

(Thanks to Tarquin and Wikimedia Commons for this image.)

what is a product portfolio?

A product portfolio is the complete range of products that a company sells. This can be divided into 'product lines' and 'product ranges'. There are various definitions for these two terms, but I think a logical way of delineating between product lines and product ranges is to define product lines as a company's internal organisation of teams, resources, projects, processes, activities, manufacturing, etc. around product categories, whereas product ranges are product groupings, for different markets or for different marketing purposes.

Any individual product will be produced in one product line, but can be sold in several product ranges. A company may operate several brands. Product lines may encompass products in any number of brands owned by the same company, but product ranges won't be shared between brands (unless there is an unusual co-branding set-up!)

The way products are grouped between lines and between ranges will vary between companies. The set of examples I've used in my diagrams below are; by fabric, by production, by product type, and by segment / end-use. These are some of the more obvious suggestions I could make, but within reason, all-sorts of criteria could be used. For example, product value positioning, or size and fit, or even product colour!

In some circumstances a product line may be entirely devoted to a product range (see the second diagram below,) but often they do not. Inside a company, people working on the production side of things will tend to be working on particular product lines while sales and marketing people will tend to be focused on particular product ranges. The design team has to work on products all the way across the portfolio and in doing so manage the product line/product range matrix - this is portfolio management.

Examples are shown of how product lines and product ranges are used to conveniently group teams, resources, projects, processes, activities, manufacturing, etc. around defined product categories. Meanwhile, product ranges are used to conveniently locate products within sell-able product groups for the purpose of clear marketing, especially in presenting products to different market segments. I've suggested four ways of grouping products which can be applied to either product lines or product ranges.

There is often a natural alignment of Product lines with product ranges. In this example there are no product lines or product ranges defined by any criteria of production.
(N.B. I've chosen a random selection of products just to represent how product types may be scattered across the matrix.)

However, product lines will sometimes differ from product ranges, in this example only the expedition line matches an expedition range.

A 'line plan' document is created (using product data management software or, more typically for SME's, MS Excel) for the product management and buying teams to manage product statuses and associated fabric inventories. This lists all the products in the portfolio, organised by product line. To help design team visualise the product line a 'visual line plan' may be produced (I've sketched up a diagram below).

Likewise, there will be sales and marketing documents corresponding to the different ranges, and for the complete product portfolio of an individual brand the 'work book'.

portfolio management

Arguably, the ultimate goal of the business is to maximise competitive advantage across your product ranges throughout your various market segments, while trying to optimise your production processes across your various product lines. As I've suggested before, the design team have to reconcile these two objectives. This is the essence of good portfolio management.

In a set of articles across the next few posts I will be addressing key issues in portfolio management. These are as follows:

Which products in your portfolio should be updated?
When should products be dropped?
Introducing a new range and the split sales dilemma...
How and when should you launch innovative products? (I will write about investing in design innovation in a separate article soon!)
How can you manage colour throughout the portfolio?
What influences might require a change in your product-line/product-range matrix?
How can we maintain consistency and freshness across the portfolio while making rapid proactive and reactive changes to individual products?

Teamwork and creativity

2008-02-11T17:52:00.002Z

"we stay in our companies because we love working in a team" Professor Lynda Gratton

The In Business program on BBC Radio 4 this week talked about building good teams. Creativity, it seems, can be something built into the structure of corporations, thanks to the types of teams that they employ.

Mark Squires, director of Social Communications, Nokia, told how he had been set free to meet everyone in the whole company in his first two weeks of employment there, before settling in whichever department he felt most comfortable in. This extraordinary personality driven system of employment has some distinct advantages.

Although in the first two weeks he felt a bit lost, subsequently communication was made a lot easier for Squires as he would communicate to people he had got to know personally, throughout the corporation. And he didn't need to pluck up courage to speak to head management because from the start they were on first name terms. After the two weeks he had decided to make his home in one department because he found he fitted in well there.

Fitting in well isn't always the best strategy for creativity. Think tanks are best inpersonal affairs. You might be asked whether socialising over tea and buscuits prior to deliberations is best. But the answer would be no - people will have started making character judgements of each other and this clouds rational problemsolving and genuinely independent thought, as people may start siding with one person or siding against another. Obviously with corporations you are dealing with a different time span and such strategy to avoid people developing preconceptions and couldn't possibly work in a team over any great length of time.

The next interesting fact came from Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management Practise at the London Business School. Apparently research has shown that mixed sex teams are more creative and productive than single sex teams, though I guess this shouldn't come as a surprise.

Gratton has studied Goldman Sacks and Google to see how they get the best out of team work. All strong corporate teams, she found, had three things in common amongst members. Firstly all members were willing to cooperate together, all had differing ideas, and all shared a common mission - a problem that all members were excited to solve. Google alow their employees 20% of their time outside of their own teams, working on other projects inside the company that spark their interest. This way they get some extra-motivated team members coming along 1 day a week to add some fresh ideas that may have been born in completly different parts of the company.

Cooperative mode!

Gratton says; "people are naturally co-operative, and what's happened in organisations is we've put an overlay of competition that completely destroys the humanness of being in a team and the pleasure of working... We stay in our companies because we love working in a team, and we leave them because we hate working in that team."

Talking about Nokia's success in the massive Chinese market, Gratton says that they employed an international team of passionate users, rather than a chinese team because they would bring the greatest diversity of ideas and mind sets ideas to the table, which encouraged the most creative thinking and creative thinking creates the best product.

Innovation doesn't come from the experts, says Gratton. It is when you have a clash of ideas. When someone from another part of the company comes along and has a completely different way of thinking about a problem and can suggest a different solution. In this light, one can see that the way Mark Squire was introduced to the company makes a huge amount of sense.

Accelerated Evolution: Analogous with Design?

2008-01-25T14:43:00.000Z

This blog entry is about an idea I came up with while reading the New Scientist magazine. I had earlier been pondering the consequences of economic slow-down and this analogy appear to me, which has given me some insight. This inspiration came when reading a response to a December article, written in the letters column of the magazine.

The letter was concerning confusion over the concept of accelerated evolution, and is central to my idea. There are two forces that make up evolution: reproductive mutation, countered by another, what may be called “selection pressure”.

New Scientist reader, Richard Smithson, was replying to an article by David Holzman which had claimed that human evolution has accelerated over the past 40,000yrs. Smithson responds: “[Holzman] evidently means an increase in the frequency of mutations. He claims that this “contradicts the widely held notion that our technological and medical advances have removed most of the selection pressures acting upon us.”

Smithson goes on to point out that there is no contradiction. “In fact, a reduction in selection pressures can lead to a large number of mutations, because more individuals with “non-optimal” genotypes succeed in breeding. When the greatest selection pressures are applied, most members of a species fail to reproduce, leading to a reduction in genetic variability. It could be argued that it is under these conditions (for example following a major extinction) that evolution is most rapid.”

So, as Smithson points out, there are two forces, which are apparently inversely correlated. The rate of variation and pressure of selection.

Looking back at product launches at ISPO over the last few years, there've undoubtedly been some unusually wacky developments. Great fun, yes, but concepts that will remain marginal – only keeping small cult followings. Things like riverboards (www.bansheeriverboards.com), and the Airboard inflatable snow-sleds (www.airboard.com/flash.htm). With recession threatening Europe, and a gloomy reality in the US, how well will such products do?

The 5 "C"s of Consumer Confidence: A Diagram

The optimistic times that bought such products to life, can be seen as a time when the negative “pressure of selection” dropped as consumer confidence got to the level of “cocky”. The result is great variation and innovation. Now we are facing the possibility of both global recession and moreover, nasty consequences from global warming. The pressure of selection is surely at a high.

Whatever your take on the meaning of accelerated evolution, we've seen a proliferation of new design and new brands. And as a recession hits these newbies will be put to the toughest test: prosper in a harsh economic climate, or die.

I predict fewer Airboards, fewer hard-shell soft-shell hybrids, fewer soft-switches and integrated iPods, fewer gizmos and "additional features", and a leaning towards more durable product. When the going gets tough, the tough get going...

Volvo Eco Design Awards 2008, Part Two

2008-01-16T22:48:00.000Z

The other brands featured amongst the apparel finalists included Swiss ski brand Zimtstern - which I thought was the name of a German Christmas biscuit! Their nominated design is a jacket featuring a Schoeller® dynatech outer shell - a quasi-microporous membrane (a hydrophilic PU based membrane with pores that open and close depending on prevailing temperatures and humidity.)

Apparently "Zimtstern cooperated with Switzerland-based bluesign technology AG for the DLX line. The bluesign standard is an independent international quality standard focusing on environmental, health and safety standards." Isn't “focusing on environmental, health and safety standards” a bit vague?

If you're curious to find out more, Blue Sign can be found here:

www.bluesign.com/

Meanwhile Patagonia is aiming at making 53% of its Autumn '08 range recyclable (by existing recycling techniques.) I wonder if this percentage couldn't have been closer to 100% if Patagonia hadn't suddenly introduced a huge footwear range a few seasons back. If Patagonia were profoundly serious about being green wouldn't they chosen not to make life harder for themselves, increasing the workload required to take these measures.

Like many other Brands in the Industry, including many British brands, Patagonia have recently been keen to introduce more styles and more ranges. For a designer this is a positive trend (more work for us), but for environmental and quality reasons, this isn't the right approach. Instead we should be looking at improving the quality of the product, its durability and functionality (which will encourage less regular purchasing) and aim at reducing environmental impact at every level. To counter reduced purchasing and increased production costs obviously the product's price will need to rise. Brands here in the UK have pushed consumer expectation of price, so they expect luxury every time, meanwhile the performance has started to stagnate, if not already drop.

While some marketting may boasts !00% recycled this or 100% free of that, the one thing you can be sure of is that you're only being fed a fraction of the story.

Patagonia's submission, the Women's Powder Bowl Jacket and Pants are made of 100% recycled Polyester fibre. The greeness only goes so far - the colour of the jacket - white or light grey (the photo is unclear) and sky blue - will mean it will need regular washes. I don't only disagree with the colour on practical terms, but the whites of 2004 are uncomfortably fresh in my memory.

Last but not least is Klättermusen. Their Einride jacket has previously featured in Outdoor Friedrichshafen's “Outdoor Industry Award” in 2006. Why it qualifies for this competition – given that the designs are supposed to be new – I don't know.

The Einride uses what they call Eta-proof cotton, what most of us know as cotton ventile. Not only is the cotton more wear-resistant than most nylons, the cotton they use is organically produced. As a whole ( Klättermusen pride themselves on using the toughest, most reliable trim of any outwear in the industry) the jacket feels nearly bomb-proof, so undoubtedly will take a long time before it needs throwing out.

So I have little doubt that the Einride is the most environmentally friendly design amongst all the finalists. It is shame Klättermusen aren't more successful, because if they were maybe more brands would adopt their admirable environmental philosophy.

Volvo Eco Design Awards 2008, Part One

2008-01-16T14:28:00.000Z

Winter ISPO '08 features the well-meaning but largely uninspiring Volvo Eco Design Awards. I took a look at the contenders for this year's award in the apparel category.

Rather than giving a showcase of world saving designs, this year it's a line-up mainly consisting of products utilising green materials, many of which were first presented to the industry by manufacturers at last years winter ISPO - so little news.

In clothing we have a Merino and Modal t-shirt that allows people with hyper sensitive skin to wear Merino. Modal may be made of nature materials but this material has been so highly processed I seriously doubt it has good environmental credentials. I won't criticise Ortovox - I'm sure the product will easily be sold to many female customers given the Modal's very gentle hand - and it sounds like they've joined the 1% for the planet sceme which is a step in the right direction.

http://www.ispo-sportsdesign.com/award/product.Ortovox-Merino-Sensitive.465.html

With what initially appeared to be offering a new innovative fabric, Finisterre submitted their Storm Track jacket. They are a small Cornwall based surf brand who, as it happens, also donate 1% for the planet.

http://www.ispo-sportsdesign.com/award/product.Finisterre-Biomimetic-Waterproof---Storm-Track.457.html

Mentioning a lack of seam tapes in the text (yet claiming waterproofness) rang alarm bells, and further research (visiting their website: http://www.finisterreuk.com/) proved my suspicions right. Finisterre have obviously got a license for Paramo's "analogy" technology (well - a particular combination of fabrics). More-over most of the design seems to be lifted straight off a Paramo Design, so it seems like they have a license for that too - look at the video clip on the product web page for a step by step presentation - remind you of something you've seen before?

It features a hanging drop-tail - two drop-tail hems, the inner of which houses the cinch cord. This reduces water run-off running straight onto the user's outer leg-wear. The hood is helmet compatible (since when have surfer's worn helmets?) The volume minimisation mechanism is what I'd call a "neck cinch-cord" system - like that found on the Alpha SV jacket from Arcteryx. Unlike the SV and many other hood designs, it doesn't have a transverse cord (again - my own terminology) running around the head like a head band. I'll will write up a critique of such neck cinch-cord systems some time soon.

So it seems no major novelty here. Further research unveiled this academic-style text presentation by the jacket's designer, Thomas Podkolinski:

http://www.extra.rdg.ac.uk/eng/BIONIS/Meetings_Newsletters/Meetings/Successful%20biomimetics%202090907%20presentations/BIONIS%20-%20Designing%20Evolution.pdf
[Warning - PDF jump]

The news for me is that Podkolinski believes that gravity-enduced "internal" dranage is key to better performance in this type of "soft-shell". I quote; "directionality increased the rate of moisture movement away from the body and enabled us to achieve the same level of waterproofness but with less fibres and so less weight. The only payoff [sic] being that this waterproofness was only achieved in one direction of drainage."

The designer claims to be now experimenting with mapping the direction of the brushing of the inner fleece with fibres aligned to channel moisture down and out. This development will no doubt necessitate changes in design, such as using a set-in sleeve rather than their raglan sleeve and perhaps a modification to their interesting hanging drop-tail design.

Katie Stevens, a Masters graduate at the University of Leeds' Performance Textiles Working Group, did a study of different "soft shells" including a Paramo jacket (likewise featuring the Analogy fabrics). She came to the conclusion that, under the conditions she had tested the various jackets in, Paramo's jacket was slightly inferior to the Pertex and pile system used on a Buffalo jacket. But Buffalo's design is significantly warmer.

Her theory was that drop outer fabrics allowed air flow in wind that improved the time it takes to dry the inner fleece out. Paramo's design has no so called "differential cut" between outer and lining fabrics (obviously featuring a more voluminous outer shell than liner). The silhouette of the Finisterre design looks a little more tailored than the Paramo designs I've seen up close, and is definitely appears less roomy than a Buffalo design.

This would suggest that the analogy system may be under performing Buffalo designs by design (the implication of fabrics rather than the fabrics themselves) and may therefore more benefit from internal drainage measures than would otherwise be the case with loose designs like Buffalo's.

Mark Taylor (again at Leeds) explained to me that many shell garments with membranes benefit from water "run-off" on their inside of the garment, and that Keela's PU laminated or coated jackets specifically aims to do this (marketed as a “Dual Protection System”). Mark talked about an un- commercialised waterproof system (well - more a moisture transfer system) that totally relies on internal run-off - he'd nick-named SpinkTex after it's creator Andrew Spink. Here is a diagram of his patent filed in 2000:

About this patent Read this patentWaterproof/breatheable garment construction Andrew David Spink
[Warning PDF jump!]

Relying on condensation running off to keep humidity at bay will only efficiently work when the temperature gradient is high (cold outside & a warm user) and when it isn't very humid outside. Only in these conditions will condensation quickly form on the inside of the outer fabric before humidity gets to high in the microclimate around the user – a situation that would lead to perceptible sweating (beads of sweat on the skin) and likely subsequent overheating or chilling depending on the further exertions of the user. Perhaps more on this subject soon too.

Part two of the Volvo Eco Design Awards to come shortly...

Outdoor Trade & Industry Feature

2008-01-15T16:16:00.002Z

Corrections:

The original article I wrote erroneously appeared critical of Peter Lumley and Outdoor Trade & Industry. I have great admiration for Peter and his work and am greatly saddened and apologetic that my comments had appeared defamatory.

I wish to clarify that the language used was supposed to merely express disappointment that my second edit had failed to reach Peter before the article went to press. I had no gripes with OT & I, nor Peter, only a sadness that things hadn't turned out the way I'd hoped due to a difficult schedule and my own misunderstanding of the schedule.

My comments were not meant as criticisms of either the magazine's content, nor of Peter, nor OT&I's conduct. On failing to clarify that the "vague[ness]" & "inaccuracy" were not due to OT&I's fault, it sounded like an attack on Peter and the magazine's reputation. This was in no way intended.

My sincere apologies to Peter & the Outdoor Trade & Industry team.

I wrote the following for Peter Lumley of Outdoor Trade & Industry, an earlier draft of which went into publication:

In the past month or so Oliver Nissen has finished a work placement for the Performance Sportswear Design course at the University of Derby. Studying under the supervision of Charles Ross, his aim is a masters degree. From a young age he has been an avid skier and it runs in the family. Oliver's great grandparents were early British ski tourists, members of the Alpine Club in the 1880s and had an Alpine peak named after them for a wedding present.

12 years ago Oliver swapped over to snowboarding and later qualified as a snowboard instructor in Canada, but an injury ended this career route. An interest in ski-touring (but using a snowboard!) has led to his quest for lighter high performance equipment. Ambitious trips to Patagonia and the Khibins in Russia, involving both ski-touring and snow-kiting, require careful selection of gear and clothing.

Oliver has shown Trade and Industry one result of his work placement which involved some time in Poland. The sample Baltoro Jacket (shown) was specifically tailored to fit over an XL multi-sport helmet, as is used by the designer - “I've got a huge bonce!” says Oliver. But otherwise the jacket is a large sized sample weighing in at 715 grams (without using a coated fabric). In production, a large sized jacket will weigh an estimated 880grams when the Tundra Dry fabric is used – which is excellent considering that it contains approximately 380 grams of diamond grade down.

Designing and pattern cutting to achieve a sample production of the Baltoro meant a spell working in Warsaw, Poland. Says Oliver Nissen “The PSD course has nurtured many successful designers including many of the UK's Outdoor apparel designers, and others have had successful careers abroad. Whether or not a designer is employed by a UK brand or not, working abroad is usually a significant part of the job.” “I took my work placement with Warmth Unlimited and the Tundra Sleepingbags operation run by Chris Allen. This helped to further my knowledge of down product, which had been a focal area for a previous project on the course, and I'm a firm believer in the merits of using natural fibres and materials in sportswear. Down is not only a sustainable material, but its long life makes it an ecologically sound choice.”

Another spur for Oliver was Chris Allen's perspective on ethical product and material sourcing. The down used by Tundra, Chris stresses, is harvested from bird's nests, not directly from the birds. This “Ethical Down” is sustainable and cruelty free, unlike down from the meat industry where birds are force fed and typically live for 4 to 6 weeks. During the Sars scare there were images broadcast of live birds being jet washed for down collection – think about it!

Having a manufacturer closer to home was a further attraction for Oliver, “Poland offers so much when considered against the prevailing environment which is associated with the far East production chain. I can say that not only is the quality of Polish production and QC of the highest order, but the Warsaw factory is one of the most friendly environments in which I have worked.”

He spent two months designing and pattern cutting in Poland and says “I feel I have found a home from home, and really look forward to returning some day.” “What I helped bring to the mix was a fresh British design perspective that compliments traditional and dependable Polish product. The result is a product with a UK performance sensibility – light weight but loaded with sound but uncomplicated features, plus a clean modern yet conservative aesthetic.” With a masters degree the Spring objective, the next stage for Oliver is to “settle into working with an employer who can help nurture my aims and profit from my skills.”

Mid-market Buying Decisions

2008-01-04T17:49:00.000Z

For most of the sports I partake in, I buy high-end gear. I'm a bit of a gear freak, what d'you expect?! But this winter I've had a little experience purchasing, or rather thinking, a little different.

I've needed to upgrade some of my snowboard clothing. In the past I've often bought expensive Goretex, Event, or soft-shell jackets and pants. However many of the pants have been trashed by violent falls, and the abrasion of repeatedly sitting on frozen or semi frozen surfaces – commonplace when snowboarding. It is usually the seat or knees that go first, but also around the ankle area too.

Wanting to keep my surviving technical pants in a good condition for those special occasions (ski-tours / climbing etc.) I decided to head to the shops to check out ski pants. Ones I'll comfortably wear (i.e. without embarrassment) but not feel too precious about destroying (or ones that won't get destroyed in the first place).

I went through some usual buying decisions, and retrospectively have written them down. Looking at these, I've come to realise that several factors have changed my decision process:

Different Consumer Need:
I'm not a high end user, so my needs aren't too technical. But my activity maybe niche thus requiring specific features. I don't expect fireworks and special performance at a price like this, so I expect the product to do reliably do what it claims to do. “Fireworks” without durability doesn't represent my need, and is more common with “exclusive” high-end brands who cater for posers!

Novel product concepts are a purchase risk for consumer (and brand), but a concept that appears to be good value maybe a risk worth taking. The product should leave a good impression, gimmicky brands aren't strong brands and a bad concept will stain a brand's reputation.

Different Consumer Expectation:
It isn't low-market – where I would accept a level of risk taking when purchasing. If in some way the product claims higher performance than high-end product, or some how looks flashier, then I may suspect that short cuts are being made elsewhere – less tangible properties, like manufacturing quality or durability of materials.

Some consumers will not be aware of the product or brand's status within the wider market. As an educated consumer (familiar with competition products and the claims made for them), my expectations of a mid-market product are lowered - if it is significantly cheaper than an equivalent product then there must be a catch.

Product Competition:
Premier brands target niche consumer categories more and tend to have much greater focus on a specific user-need. Lacking selling points to differentiate the product, decision factors may be purely on fit, or more superficial factors such as colour and styling.

Information Economics:
Without fabric brand labels like Goretex, Polartec etc, I have to take the performance of the garment more on trust than I would do with a higher end brand. In outdoor, mid-market brands feature less in gear tests, which exacerbates this situation. Good specialist retailers may endow the consumer with greater confidence in the product as will comparison next to .

Knowing products well, I can confidently buy reduced price high-end brands for the same price or less than mid-market products in specialist stores.

So in the end I went to TK Maxx and bought some snowboard pants by Holden, which I knew to be of high quality due to industry knowledge. They were very stylish, felt well made and had nice details.

Perhaps this begs the question... if I didn't have that product knowledge, might I still have risked making an uneducated choice at TK Maxx?

Yes, I think I would. Partly thanks to the power of branding (there is trust in large, so called “reputable” brands), but also because the virtuous feeling you get when you grab a bargain means you rarely feel buyers remorse afterwards. In my past experience I've made just as many bad purchasing decisions at specialist retailers as I have done at discount stores. It is up to specialist retailers to give consumers both great confidence in the products they sell, and a trustworthy and pleasant service and after-service.

Interesting thermal conductivity chart

2007-12-10T13:39:00.000Z

The conductivity chart is at the bottom. Check out cotton wool compared to Eiderdown! And asbestos!

http://www.ogdenmfg.com/pdf/tech9.pdf

If you look at this chart and also the heat specificity chart above and check out how wool and oak compare to rubber and then to aluminium and then steel and you can see why some of the replica Mallory equipment proved to be popular with Graham Hoyland and Alan Hinkes.

Feeling Down

2007-12-06T22:17:00.000Z

I've just come back from Warsaw, Poland, where I have been working at a manufacturer who specializes in Down equipment. Day in day out I've been travelling to work and back wearing a variety of down jackets and body warmers. Temperatures there were usually around minus 3 degrees in the morning, but I experienced minus 7 with a fair bit of wind chill ontop.

This has been an excellent opportunity to gain greater understanding of the properties of down and the design and construction of down garments. Not least because my attention hasn't been consumed by my surroundings e.g. shaded valleys and snowy high peaks, where I've previously used down clothing (this is what I call the dog-walker effect*).

Notably, what down lacks over other insulation systems (at least, in its human utilisised form) is a system of shape regulation – it conforms to the effects of gravity and it undergoes “fibre migration”. This is why down-proof fabrics, stitch-through quilting and “boxwall” type garment construction has been developed.

What was most noticeable on all jackets was the other ways (apart from gravity) which cause down to relocate and or congregate. Here I will talk about the largest of these factors: compression & “pump”.

Compression

The armpits and the insides of elbows are both significant spots where body heat is lost. And by an unfortunate coincidence both these areas are also the insides of joints. Even the jentle swinging of the arms while walking eventually relocates down around the medial and latteral sides. The posterior elbow point is fairly thin (often with the bony end pressing the outer and inner fabrics together) while the anterior inside of the joint is completely down-free. Under the armpit the top and sides of the shoulder collect down squeezed out by the compression and passing movement of the arms.

Pump

If we do prevent down relocating in these areas, we may encounter another problem. Where down is compressed, but doesn't relocate, a natural pump is formed. The relative air impermeability of the dense woven fabric and the lofting/expanding power of the down creates a slow but strong suction that draws air in and when compressed again blows it out again. If this is just air redistributed around the inside of the clothing there isn't a problem, but if it is being drawn in and out of seams and through the outer fabric, then the wearer will have body-warmed air being steadily replaced by cold outside air as they move.

* Thanks to Charles Ross for this idea. I'll feature it in a future post. Charles, please remind me who you attributed the dog-walker comment to?

Scary news about arctic ice receding

2007-10-04T18:03:00.000+01:00

The ecologist has got some bad news for us all...

http://www.theecologist.org/archive_detail.asp?content_id=1093

Bell in a China shop (a bell helmet that is!)

2007-10-01T14:48:00.001+01:00

OK, that was a terrible and tortuous pun! But Bell and other cycle helmet brands may struggle to sell in the Chinese market as they're designed to fit more European head shapes.

Issue 2622 of New Scientist magazine (23 September 2007, page 27) features an article about a new project to model the average shapes of Chinese heads.

"The back of the Chinese head is a bit flatter, and from the top they are rounder," said Johan Molenbroek from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. He claims this deters many Chinese people from wearing cycle helmets and other protective headwear designed for the European shape of head.

The project is called SizeChina and can be visited here:

http://www.sizechina.com/html/intro.html

PVC in Good Taste?

2007-10-01T14:18:00.001+01:00

Science Daily has published a story taken from the American Chemical Society about flavour 'emissions' by plastic pipes. Apparently cPVC (chlorinated polyvinyl chloride) is the least flavoursome - a good thing! But one wonders the safety of a product made from a material (PVC) that is already being phased out of many sectors because of environmental concern.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070823141100.htm

Lexan's polycarbonate plastic is also of a concern because it leaches bisphenol A which causes in utero neural and behavioural defects in lab animals.

However the US's National Toxicology Program Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction found the risks to the general adult population to be of "negligible concern for adverse reproductive effects following exposures."

http://cerhr.niehs.nih.gov/chemicals/bisphenol/draftBPA_MtgSumm080807.pdf

We will see how US & EU legislature comes to bear on all of this.

Mammut celebrate 25 years of softshell

2007-08-28T18:00:00.001+01:00

This summer Mammut (CH) celebrate a quater of a century of "softshell" technology. Twenty five years ago the swiss brand colaborated with local fabric specialists, Schoeller to produce the first "softshell" garments; climbing trousers.
Mammut's "Qogir" softshell jacket won the Performance Award at this year's Winter ISPO Award. Another enterprising Swiss mill, knit specialists Eschler, have produced a ceramic "microdot" infused polyurethane coating that offers protection for the jacket's shoulders and elbows.

Polyurethane and ceramic abrasion protection technology has only become commercial recently, with a number of fabric manufacturers and coatings people producing superior abrasion resistant materials for high end apparel and gear (namely backpacks & hold-alls). A new company to come to the fore is Superfabric.

Water-saving plumbing

2007-08-28T16:56:00.000+01:00

This is a great water saving idea (apparently it has been around for a while over in Japan.) It isn't too different from the shared utility plumbing used in the villages of the Khumbu, although the system there we know as a "stream"!

http://www.instructables.com/id/E5ZCR9KF5HVTEEB/

Names are a nuisance

2007-08-21T01:33:00.000+01:00

I've always been a bit poor with names. Now I've got a better idea why - they're an annoying distraction for my brain. As a result I prefer pronouns!

Read more here:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070817205522.htm

Fair Trade Winter Clothing

2007-08-21T00:18:00.000+01:00

Fair Trade products generally aren't all that exciting in my experience. We've yet to really see much high end product explicitly labelled fair trade outside of FMCG.

However if you look around on the internet hard enough, you may find something inspirational enough to separate you from some of your cash in the run up to winter.

Nice Trade Craft alpaca scarf & gloves:

http://www.traidcraftshop.co.uk/products/detail.asp?productCode=ST25896

And a UK brand selling Bolivian produced T-shirts and thermal fleeces, the newcomer, El Alto:

http://www.elalto.co.uk/

Verdant Computing green PC suppliers

2007-08-20T23:44:00.000+01:00

Computing is one of the least served areas for the green consumer. However this might be set to change (before legislation forces it to!)

Visit: http://www.verdantcomputing.com/

2007-08-20T23:28:00.000+01:00

The German Fraunhofer Institute have developed "entire electronic systems" capable of operating on their thermoelectric generator (TEG) technology. TEG extracts elecrical energy from temperature differential (e.g. the temperature differential between the inside and outside of a down jacket.)

Shown above is a wireless transmitter powered by the heat differential between a man's hand and the ambient room temperature. Only 200 millivolts is required to drive the device which is just about what such a limited differential of just a few degrees (Celsius) can provide. Single processor units in modern handhelds alone require about 1W to operate so 2mW is a long way off.

For more information visit:
http://www.fraunhofer.de/fhg/EN/press/pi/2007/08/Researchnews82007Topic1.jsp

The amazing price of it all

2007-08-20T21:01:00.000+01:00

Shameless September Ladymags: 'Elle' Vs. 'Vogue'

This is quite an eye opener. I must do the same for a typical "mountain magazine" and a couple of bike magazines. I think a mountain bike magazine could easily top $1,183,357, but I'm sure it wouldn't cover the price of a big Rothko painting.

Personal branding: why you shouldn't call yourself an expert

2007-08-20T15:36:00.000+01:00

This is an interesting article in terms of both marketing and personal presentation (in the Dale Carnegie form.)

Third party endorsement and "social proof" aren't new concepts to me, but it is interesting to read that so many people are trying to short cut around these necessary steps to achieve popularity and acclaim.

http://www.doshdosh.com/personal-branding-and-the-expert-status/

On the subject of endorsement, this is the umpteenth time I've had someone endorse Robert Cialdini's Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

Web Links

2007-08-20T14:49:00.000+01:00

Here I post some links to articles I've found on a wider range of subjects.

Free Blog Counter

Bicycle commuter market (re)emerges

2007-08-19T22:45:00.001+01:00

A number of products have appeared that specifically aim at the commuter cyclist and seem to mark the strong re-emergence of the bicycle-commuter market.

First and foremost amongst these products are USB-charged LED bike lights. Surely for your city worker to plug into his desktop computer when he sits down at his desk in the morning!

The B-Smart USB light. Nice in theory, but in my experience those quick-release mounts really don't clasp handlebars tight enough for the kind of jolts endured when cycling London's pock-marked roads.

On the subject of lights, Reelight is a retake of the dynamo concept, but one that relys on a nifty relatively easy to system involving neodium magnets attached to the spokes of the wheels.

See: http://www.reelight.com/

Free Blog Counter

Aerogels

2007-08-19T17:07:00.001+01:00

Aerogel is often hailed as the greatest insulation in the world. While it is a remarkable insulator, it isn't remotely flexible (as the 'gel' part of the name would suggest) it's crumbly, has low strength, and is almost unworkable for garment applications. Having handled the stuff, I can only describe it as horrid to the touch - a horridness that's half way between the dry feel of that green foamy stuff they use in Church flower pots and the 'my skin is about to be permanently contaminated' feel of glass loft insulation!

Anyway, the news is that a Nasa off-shoot have made a strong flexible aerogel batting which has seen high-altitude testing.

Aerogel's make great brickstands!

In 2006 Anne Parmenter, a British mountaineer, climbed Everest using boots with aerogel insoles, and used a sleeping mats (which Oliver haven't hit the market yet) containing the material. She has been quoted saying “The only problem I had was that my feet were too hot, which is a great problem to have as a mountaineer.”

Visit by clicking the link:

http://www.aerogel.com/everest/everest.html

Incidentally, the brand of footbed that currently features this technology also produce face masks, heat exchanging face masks!

PolarWrap website: http://www.polarwrap.com/index.html

In the mid noughties The North Face produced a very odd looking heat exchanger mask. A boxy unit little unit was fixed to the front of a neoprene-like mask. The PolarWrap Heat Exchanger Mask looks like an improvement.

The Exchanger Mask not only keeps one's breath warm, but also moist. Both extreme cold and (more over) high altitude increase the danger of dehydration. Much of this is lost in the breath, so if the marketing is correct and heat exchanging masks really do lower moisture lost from breath this will be welcomed by high altitude climbers.

UPDATE May 2011:
The Aerogel sleeping mat from Pacific Outdoor Equipment did come to market, but then silently disappeared. A comprehensive test report was written up for BackpackGearTest.org:

http://www.backpackgeartest.org/reviews/Sleep%20Gear/Pads%20and%20Air%20Mattresses/POE%20Hyper%20High%20Mountain%20Sleeping%20Pad/Test%20Report%20by%20Edward%20Ripley-Duggan/

Greener bike oil

2007-07-31T01:26:00.000+01:00

Greener Bike Oil

Nothing could seem greener these days than riding a bicycle. Especially when you are panting away and feel like your lungs are filtering out of the particulates emitted by neighbouring motor vehicles. But even bikes give off 'emissions'. I go through a small bottle of bike oil every year and my bikes would probably appreciate it if I went through more, so what is it that is dripping off my bikes and that I tiresomely wash from my hands?

Well bike oil isn't just sump oil as it used to be. Well, like so many "outdoor" things, so often oil now contain magical PTFE! Polytetrafluoroethylene is a chemical found in so many products, but now regarded with increasing suspicion due to both the carcinogenic chemical precursor materials used in its manufacture (PFOAs) and the bio-accumulative effects of the particle and its unknown life cycle.

PTFE is used across so many applications because it is so inert - it is hard to stick things to it (water runs off a proofed jacket, eggs don't stick to the non-stick frying pan, etc.) And because it is so inert we don't know what happens when, like all things it comes to an end?
In the context of bike oils the useful life of PTFE is to lubricate, to prevent surfaces from reacting to one another (in the form of friction), and (theoretically) to aid the shedding of water from oil treated parts. But oil isn't immune from gravity and much of it is lost on the road or trail, as well as during the bike washing processes. Because it isn't reactive it doesn't transform or breakdown with chemical and UV exposure.

One should expect it to mix with the environments top cleaning and lubricating fluid - water. Of course, water gets absorbed by most living things, often themselves being eaten by those at the top of the food chain - Big critters like human beings. What it does inside us isn't easily answered, a fact that takes little intelligence to understand why. But there is alarming anecdotal evidence for what it might do.

So in steps Green Oil a new branded bicycle oil. It promises that, unlike other oils, it is not harmful, not an irritant, and not dangerous for the environment. :)

Now how about some green bicycle parts and frames?

Free Blog Counter

Fogarty "Best Night's Sleep" Wool Duvet & Pillows

2007-07-18T00:37:00.001+01:00

TEST PERIOD: 3 Months
USE: 8hrs approx' most nights
QUICK READ: Wow... I'm a 100% certified wool convert now!

I heard about this product at the Survival Conference in Leeds. This is the most sciencey event in my calendar, and it was the science behind this woolen duvet that sold me the product, I simply had to give it a try. Woolmark tests had shown users had a lower heart rate using this product over others containing more conventional bedding insulation.

Presenting (and being a great salesman) on the day was Kevin Smithbone, a boffin from Fogarty. He talked about performance bedding materials, a subject he knows a lot about given his companies collaboration with Wool Mark doing sleep trials of large variety of different duvets and pillows. Of course his presentation was unlike those typical of the Survival, especially as the subject was much more about comfort than preservation of life.

Of course comfort has a huge bearing on performance clothing or sleeping-bags, but unlike performance sports-gear, bedding materials don't have a strict requirement to be light weight. In fact the first thing that I noticed about my new bedding as I pulled it from its packaging was its greater weight. I had been warned, in fact Kevin had mentioned that duvets too light will easier sit in the form of ripples across the bed, allowing drafts to go straight to the sleeper inside. Aside from drape, the duvet is dense but compressible, while the pillow is denser still and has only compressed over time to the optimum thickness for my head over about a week - but it did get there. I guess you can't expect memory pillow like performance from 'old technology' like this.

The weight of the duvet didn't take long to adjust to, in fact I now positively associate it with security - I've been bitten less by mosquitoes this year. Presumably they've been unable to find a way in under the covers! This leads on to the most remarkable factor about the duvet and pillow.

Let me paint the scene, I live on the top floor directly (no loft space) under a flat lead roof. I live very near the River Thames so it gets quite humid on a hot still evening and after a sunny day my bedroom is baking hot. So as you can imagine I'm used to sleeping under a duvet cover alone during the hot summer months. Of course, I've given the clue away already - I haven't stripped my duvet cover of duvet yet this year, there just has been no need to do so.

Perhaps this is no big deal for you? Perhaps you're not fussed about the need you have to kick off layers of bed-cover to prevent overheating? But if you are honest, I think you'd say that you don't like it, but it is just one of those things you've come to accept as something you've got to live with. Just like the fact that when settling down to sleep you need to turn the pillow over because the side you're on is burning your ears. Just like the fact that mosquitoes can bite right through your duvet cover!

Well now you can virtually eliminate kicking off your duvet as the thermometer climbs. You can rid yourself of the need to forever turn your pillow over. And perhaps, like me, you'll get bitten less by mosquitoes as the summer passes by?

Winter testing and aftercare trials to come :)

Check the best prices out for "Best Night's Sleep" Wool Duvet & Pillows here.

Free Blog Counter

Reviews

2007-07-18T00:30:00.000+01:00

This is where I review products. Every post will be edited when new information about the product comes to pass. So a positive review after a six week test period could have a serious modification should the product finally expire years before expected.

Free Blog Counter

News + Previews + Trends

2007-07-18T00:18:00.000+01:00

News + Previews + Trends is here to help keep you in touch with important developments in the outdoor trade, cycle, and product design.

Well News is what it says on the tin, a collection of news that has caught my eye. Previews will feature new product announcements, and new technologies that promise to come over the horizon in the not too distant future. Trends is a more vague concept that will usually be in the form of musings rather than referencing any particular piece of news or product announcement.

IF YOU WANT TO SEE A CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF ALL ARTICLES IN THIS CATEGORY CLICK HERE:
"NEWS + PREVIEWS + TRENDS"

Free Blog Counter

Design + Performance Theory

2007-07-18T00:00:00.000+01:00

Design + Performance Theory lists ideas that I have had, or have revisited, on the subject of design philosophy and more specifically, design principles related to outdoor sport products and the end user. This is as diverse as; the ethics of sourcing, product performance factors, and the limitations of testing... all the way across to; fashion criminality, aesthetics, and the variability of nations' dress sense.

I hope it will all be food for thought...

Free Blog Counter

Welcome to the Site :)

2007-07-17T20:44:00.003+01:00

My name is Oliver Nissen and this is my new weblog/website that I hope will interest anyone passionate about the clothing they use to partake in outdoor sports and cycling.

Green Outdoors features opinions, commentary and advice about general outdoor sport products, which may mean I occasionally talk about sports as diverse as cycling, snowboarding and canoeing.

You'll find in this blog philosophical musings on outdoor sports apparel (and maybe the occasional snippet on equipment too) of the sort I don't think you'll find anywhere else. Something free of marketing spin and eager to challenge the status quo. I don't promise anything too deep, but as I've been writing much of this material, most of my preconceptions about my "dream outdoor wardrobe" have changed, and perhaps I'll get you too thinking differently about your clothing.

I am representative of many younger consumers ("Generation Y") in that I like to partake in a very wide variety of sports. Thus I won't solely focus on the traditional (and trade) concept of outdoor sports, but include information relevant to a wide variety of sports. That being said, because I'm a bit of a geek there's precious little banter about what is cool - much of the focus is on technical aspects performance clothing.

PSD MA Derby

Back to the blog... I have split it into five categories...

Design + Performance
News + Previews + Trends
Reviews
Web Links

Click on the above to go to the relevant pages. I hope you enjoy :)

Free Blog Counter