Tech Tuesday (a day late): PrimaLoft

It's the time of season when all our sales reps are out visiting each of our KJUS dealers and conducting clinics to better educate the sales staffs on our brand, products, and partners. Last season, Dermizax, waterproof breathable technology used in KJUS jackets and pants was the hot topic and one of our most viewed posts is on the topic. This season it seems to be PrimaLoft. Yesterday, we conducted a clinic in Wellesley, MA at St. Moritz ski shop and before the clinic even began, one of the associates there began asking me about PrimaLoft.

PrimaLoft was developed by Albany International in the 80's for the US Army. The Army needed an insulation that was effective in cold wet environments for outerwear and sleeping bags. Since then PrimaLoft has become the insulation of choice for numerous outdoor and ski companies for gloves, sleeping bags, jackets, boots, vests, etc. Additionally, PrimaLoft has a burgeoning business in the bedding market, due to its soft feel and hypoallergenic properties.



KJUS uses PrimaLoft in many of its pieces. PrimaLoft is a great insulation because it has a nice loft like down, is as warm as down, but retains its insulation properties when wet and dries quickly unlike down. PrimaLoft also is very compressible and is windproof. The combination of these properties allows us to develop garments with exceptional warmth, but with little bulk.

One of the highlights of our clinics is the "PrimaLoft Challenge". In this demonstration we ask a sales associate to come up front and hold out both hands and close their eyes. We then place a swatch of PrimaLoft in their hand. Without fail, the only way the associate can differentiate which hand the swatch has been placed in is by a warming sensation in that hand. The test demonstrates how lightweight the insulation is and how warm it is. You can take the test yourself or try it on friends by requesting a Challenge Kit from PrimaLoft.

It is very easy to tell if a jacket is made with PrimaLoft. Just grab the fabric of jacket and you'll notice that in a garment with PrimaLoft the fibers have a silky and almost oily feel as they easily slide between your fingers. It's sometimes faster than checking for a hang tag.

Recently, PrimaLoft introduced a new product, PrimaLoft Yarn, to be used in sweaters, socks, scarves, and blankets. PrimaLoft Yarn fibers are half the size of Cashmere and 40% smaller than Merino for a super soft yarns with performance properties.

This season, we introduced the Ladies Arolid sweater using the Merino wool blend PrimaLoft Yarn. It's a 50/50 blend of PrimaLoft and Merino that dries faster and wicks better than pure Merino. Today, PrimaLoft announced the launch of a website dedicated to PrimaLoft Yarn. One of the coolest aspects of the site is the video demonstrations of the manufacturing of the yarn.

Besides the Arolid sweater (pictured) some of the popular pieces in this season's KJUS Collection with PrimaLoft include the Ladies ELVES, VIPER, and FORMULA jackets, BARROW and FORCE insulators, and SEQUENCE pants. The STAR, EXCEL, and PIKES jackets and BARROW and FORCE insulators are the more popular KJUS men's pieces with PrimaLoft insulation.

You can view all the KJUS pieces with PrimaLoft and all the colors they are available in at www.kjus.com.

When will it be in stores?

It's been some time since our last post. It's summer time and we're a winter sports brand, so we enjoy the warm weather the best we can before our busy fall season. This is not to say that we've been sitting on our hands. We've been busy preparing for the season- creating marketing materials,developing ads, and readying the warehouse.

You know the season is not far away when the phone calls, emails, and wall posts start inquiring about when the new collection will be available. The first shipments of jackets and pants recently arrived in our warehouse and we anticipate to have all our goods in by the end of the month. This means that our dealers should have KJUS in stock by mid September or early October.

The first pieces to come in were some that we ordered early because we knew there would be great demand for them. For the men this is the Pikes jacket and for the ladies it's the Viper.

These are the top two jackets in our Authentic line for 08/09 and both feature stretch fabrics, waterproof zippers, Dermizax EV waterproof breathable technology, Schoeller PCM climate control, and PrimaLoft insulation.

The Pikes also happens to be the jacket of choice for Bode Miller and Team America for the 08/09 World Cup Season. This season you will be able to purchase the team uniform from our retail partners like Gorsuch Ltd.

Speaking of Bode, he was recently the focus of a cover story in New Hampshire Magazine: Being Bode: Young Man of the Mountain. In the story they mention his upcoming BodeBash that will take place at his homestead in Franconia, NH, August 23-24. The weekend event consists of an afternoon of tennis, an evening "growers dinner", and a day of golf. Register here

If you happen to be closest to the pin you might win a KJUS Pikes jacket.

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.