Starting this spring, you鈥檒l be seeing a lot more of the Goat. On April 3, easily recognizable big-horned logo will expand its habitat on to hundreds of new products made by the e-retailer.
The company unveiled its proprietary line Wednesday at its headquarters in Park City, Utah. The launch included Backcountry.com-branded shirts and rain jackets, camp gear, like tents and sleeping bags, and a sneak peek of backcountry ski gear, launching next fall. The first 26 styles鈥攕pring and summer apparel, including聽raincoats for men and women鈥攚ill launch next week. This initial launch also includes urban-inspired, casual pieces, from twill travel trousers to the classic V-neck knit dress, aimed at outdoors people听补苍诲 travelers looking for low-maintenance apparel.
Altogether, the Backcountry.com聽logo will appear on about聽180 styles across five lines鈥攃amp, travel, apparel, snow, and mountain bike鈥攚ithin the next year. All the gear will be designed in the company's聽Park City headquarters.
鈥淲e think that after 22 years working with a loyal customer base, we understand what they want,鈥 says Backcountry.com CEO Jonathan Nielsen. Backcountry.com is known for its聽stable of 450-odd 鈥済earheads,鈥 online sales specialists who can devote meticulous attention to customers' needs.
Backcountry.com follows in the footsteps of REI, which sells both its own branded products, as well as聽tents, sleeping bags, and apparel of hundreds of partner brands. The main difference between the approach of the two companies is that Backcountry.com is also聽co-labbing gear with brand partners.聽The co-labbed products make up just a fraction of the Backcountry.com brand offerings, but they will occupy an important marketing position for the e-retailer. 鈥淲e wanted to co-lab with partners we considered best-in-class,鈥 says聽Diana Seung, vice president of merchandising. 鈥淲e aren鈥檛 trying to undersell our brand partners鈥攚e want to create something ground-breaking with them.鈥澛燜or example, there will be proprietary ski gloves made by Black Diamond that are co-designed with聽Backcountry.com, ski bibs from Flylow, ski socks from Smartwool, and DPS skis. These聽products will have both the Backcountry.com goat听补苍诲 the logo聽of the聽brand partner.
They'll also have a design tweak that separates the co-lab from the original product. The Flylow bibs, for example,聽have a proprietary pair of straps from which to hang skins while the user is skiing back down.聽The DPS skis are a modified version of the brand鈥檚 popular Tour1 Wailer 106. According to DPS founder Stephan Drake, the Backcountry.com co-lab edition incorporates some of the damping elements from the company鈥檚 Alchemist line for a smoother ride on hard, choppy snow, making for聽a particularly versatile backcountry ski. 鈥淭he co-lab makes sense for us being neighbors in the Wasatch,鈥 says Drake. He points out that Backcountry.com excels at pointing customers toward the most appropriate gear for their needs. 聽
As聽for the Backcountry.com-branded gear that's designed in house, the company is aiming to increase聽revenue鈥攏ow it'll be able to pocket the entire margin on its gear, instead of paying out a cut to vendors like the North Face or Big Agnes.聽