Uncompromising Design- Water Bottles

Water bottles and the materials they are made of have been making headlines for the last several months. Nalgene had been the Kleenex of water bottles until the BPA news. SIGG, another Swiss based company, has probably profited the most from water drinkers looking for BPA-free drinking bottles.SIGG bottles have a very clean design and shape. It's bottles have even been inducted into the Museum of Modern Art.

There is a new BPA-free bottle coming out later this summer that has a very interesting design called the KOR ONE from KOR Water. As you can see it has a very sleek design that is almost "imac-esque".
The company describes the KOR ONE as:

A healthy and sustainable lifestyle should be celebrated. Water was meant to be seen. Why then do almost all reusable bottles make hydration such a humbling experience? The KOR ONE suffers no compromises. Made from health-safe materials and designed with intuitive, surprising features, the KOR ONE takes sustainable hydration to another level.

Another company with a clean uncompromising design.

via- The Goat

Greatest Athlete of All-Time?

Yesterday, Tiger Woods added another major championship to his mantel. Over the weekend there was much talk of his position in history as the greatest golfer ever. The volume was turned way up after he defeated Rocco Mediate.

This morning two sports writers from the UK Mirror didn't debate Tiger's position in golf, but whether he's the best athlete in all of sport today. While one reporter debated that Tiger was the best in all of sport, rivaled only by tennis's Roger Federer, the other had a list 5-

Call me a purist but the guys that I’m championing as being greater than Mr Woods are competitors in sports that are in no way flash and (with one exception) all considered minority sports.

They’re done for the love of the sport and the endeavour to achieve perfection rather than the money, fame and plaudits that attract people to more mainstream sports.

So in no particular order, the five sportsmen I think are greater than Tiger Woods at their given sports are: Phil Taylor (darts), Shaun White (snowboarding), Ronnie O’Sullivan (snooker), Bode Miller (Alpine skiing) and Ben Ainslie (sailing).

These are definitely 5 athletes who are dominant in their respective sports, but the flying tomato and Bode standout as all round athletes. Maybe Tiger, Federer, White, O'Sullivan, Ainslie and Bode should go head to head in the Superstars competition, to settle the score.

Our money of course would be on Bode. Bode won the competition in 2002 against some of the NFL's and baseball's top athletes.

KJUS and the City- Day 2 and 3

Our second day in the city began with a quick morning meeting where we met up with Casey Puckett one last time before he headed back to Aspen. We did some more fine tuning and measurements for his uniform.

After breakfast we met with our friends at PrimaLoft. They were in town for a fashion show that their PR agency was putting on for the media. PrimaLoft is a great partner and we use their insulation in the majority of our outerwear. We work very closely with our partners to make the best skiwear possible. This coming season many of the fabrics used in our collection feature fabrics that we developed in tandem with our fabric supplier Toray. With PrimaLoft this year, we introduced the first ski sweater on the market that uses PrimaLoft yarn. We used a 50/50 merino and PrimaLoft blend for the Arolid sweater-

After lunch with the PrimaLoft team they headed to the fashion show and we headed to Paragon Sports. They are now the last ski shop left in the city. They have been growing their KJUS offering. The store is a"maze"ing the way it winds in and around the building. The skiwear section of the shop is the swimwear section in the summer- down and to the right from the main entrance. The majority of the store is separated by brand with many shop in shop set ups. We were there exploring the possibility of putting a KJUS one in next fall.

Day three was media day. Silvia Wespi, head of Communications and Sponsorships for KJUS and I had a day of appointments with media. We met with Men's Journal, BestLife, Self, Vogue, and National Geographic Adventure. Media tours like these are generally pretty informal. Generall you meet at editors' desks, in the waiting room, or if you are lucky in a conference room. Making appointments can be tricky because the magazines are scattered through out the city. There are some big publishing house where a number of magazines are in the same building, like Vogue and Self, which is great if you can hit a number of them in a row. However, sometimes you end up returning to the same building in the same day. Here's a map that shows you were many of the New York media are located:

View Larger Map

We had some very possitive appointments, and hopefully you'll see KJUS in some of their pages later this year.

All in all it was a very busy and productive trip. We'll be back in New York in July for the SIA media event.

KJUS and the City- Day 1

Two weeks ago we ventured into New York City for a number of meetings, including some time with Bode, Casey Puckett, one of our suppliers, a retailer, and some media. We had said we'd be posting updates via Twitter, but had some technical difficulties. What follows is the first of two posts on the trip.

On the first day we met with Bode in his agent Lowell Taub at the offices of CAA Sports. We discussed the season, his feedback on the product he'd worn all season, and went over preliminary designs for his 09/10 uniform. After lunch we interviewed Bode for a story to run in next year's KJUS World Magazine.

After Bode, we met with Casey. His shoulder is on the mend and he is very motivated for next season. We discussed the possibility of expanding the Ski with Casey program (keep an eye here for updates) and did a fitting for his race uniform. Skier cross athletes are not allowed to wear tight one piece suits like the alpine racers. Last season, Casey essentially raced in gear "off the rack". This year he'll be racing in what might be consider "off the hook" or Casey might consider "so KJUS". This winter Casey stopped in at our head office in Cham and met with designers to work on a race uniform for this season.
Pants are the toughest to get a good fit for. Above Casey was testing out one of the prototypes that were brought in for him to try on. After trying on pants of various materials, we found one that Casey felt would give him the best performance. Roman Stepek, KJUS Director of Design and Development was on hand to take measurements and preparations for the next round of prototypes.Once Casey's fitting was complete we headed back to our hotel and prepare for the evening, which included a reception for Bode, by his other sponsor SuperFund. SuperFund was kind enough to invite us to their event where they invited about 150 avid skiers and Bode fans from the New York area to meet Bode. The event was a lot of fun as everyone was really passionate about skiing and excited to meet Bode.

Bode is the one in the way back with baseball cap on.We had some mannequins on hand in Bode's 08/09 Uniform

After the reception the KJUS team went to dinner while Bode, Casey and friends went to POP Burger. We all met up later that night... and that story is for another time.

So Long Jim McKay

On Saturday legendary sportscaster Jim McKay passed away. Growing up I had a love hate relationship with McKay. Loved him because I knew skiing would be on shortly, but before I could catch a glimpse of the Hannekahm start house I had to watch the agony of defeat- which was painful as an aspiring ski jumper.

Each weekend McKay brought ski racing and other sports not regularly seen on network TV into living rooms across the country. Whether it was cliff diving or slalom racing McKay always had great insight and brought great perspective to sport.

These days, about the only time we see alpine racing on television is during the Olympics, and McKay covered many of these as well. As the games made their way into the latter half of the fortnight, the bags under McKay's eyes got deeper than the ruts in an Olympic slalom course. But as tired as he may have looked he always reported in a calm in gentle manner.

Thanks Jim for bringing racing into our homes for so many years.

Minimums...

Stumbled upon a post today on Patagonia's blog, The Cleanest Line about how supply and demand effect size runs available in the apparel industry.

When it comes time to build our clothing, factories are more inclined to work with the larger companies who offer far more lucrative contracts. To make working with a smaller company like Patagonia worth their while, factories impose minimums--thus ensuring that the costs of building our unique, labor-intensive products are covered. Because of our smaller financial punch, we often don't have the demand to meet the minimums required by the factory. This is especially true with less-popular larger and smaller sizes.

We are a much, much smaller than Patagonia, but the points made apply to us as well. Our skiwear is very technical and labor-intensive. It takes about 500-700 minutes to build one of our ski jackets. Unfortunately, these ingredients sometimes culminate in not only fewer sizes on either end of the spectrum, but also some styles and color ways that were initially part of the collection not brought to market. This season some of our warm olive and nightshade styles were victims of this.

No need to fret however, there are plenty of other exciting designs and colors coming this fall. For example the ladies Formula Jacket- available in sizes 4-16:

2070- The end of skiing in the Alps as we know it...

Datline: Davos January 20, 2070

The Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research Davos released a report predicting the end of skiing in the Alps by 2070. According to the press release, they aren't sure if we have crossed the Rubicon yet. The current research they said is likely influenced by human behavior from the 1980s- a 20 year trickle down. As such, it would likely take another twenty years to see if any changes in behavior would have any effect in reversing the trend... or we maybe we've crossed the Rubicon. Let's hope not.

Read the full press release- http://www.snowboardclub.co.uk/news-6986.html

The Rolls Royce RR4

Yesterday the Telegraph had a story on the new Rolls Royce RR4. The listed some minor details on the car and posted the image above. At first glance it is quite a departure from what is traditionally expected from Rolls Royce. But if you actually look closer you can see details that are inherently Rolls. Ian Cameron, the chief designer, said:

"The RR4 has a more informal presence than the Phantom, with a greater emphasis on driving. This is expressed through its slightly smaller dimensions and more organic form, yet with powerful, purposeful proportions. It is a true and uncompromising Rolls-Royce in every sense."

Looking over our 08/09 collection that will be out this fall, there are some pieces that might not be immediately recognizable as "KJUS". But as Mr. Cameron suggested about the RR4- they are true and uncompromising KJUS in every sense.

And like the RR4 sketch above sometimes it's hard to tell in reality what it'll actually look like-

According to Edmunds.com the RR4 will be priced between $250,000 and $280,000 and will be available in 2010. The men's Prime, a 4-way stretch down jacket with 4-way stretch lining and ultrasonic welded baffles will retail for $1,790 and be available in October of this year.

Melges 24 Worlds Update

In yesterday's race Lasse finished 32nd, moving him up to 96th overall. Race four is underway with winds freshening to 20 mph. Follow live text updates at http://www.melges24worlds2008.com/

The Off Season

Memorial Day weekend marks the beginning on Summer for many of us. All but a few ski resorts have shuttered for the season and we focus on other outdoor activities.

The majority of us at KJUS are avid golfers. Our CEO Didi Serena handicap is in the single digits. Others of us aspire to lower our handicaps by as much. Both Casey Puckett and Bode Miller enjoy getting out on the course. Bode recently competed in the World Ski & Golf Championships where we put on the Team America race suit before lacing up the spikes (soft of course).

His team, Team Kitzbuhel, took the title. Bode won the ski and he finished 10th overall in his class.

Another sport enjoyed by a number of us at KJUS is sailing. As a Swiss company, we can no longer the excuse of a land locked country to not sail- thanks to the America's Cup success of Alinghi. In the US, our brand manager races weekly on Casco Bay. But the big sailor in our midst, is Lasse. As we reported this winter he sails a Melges 24. This week he is competing in the Melges 24 World Championships in Porto Cervo, Italy. Wind has been an issue since racing started last week, and Lasse seems to have had some issues himself as he currently sits in 99th spot of 105 boats. There's still lots of racing left, so lets hope he gets good wind and strong starts in the following races and moves up some places.

View other images from the racing action at http://www.outsideimages.co.nz/