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Community Openness

From a vision to crowdfunded, award-winning products

Written by Chris Westen

In this picture: The Open One Series being tested in #Japow.

Photo by: Niseko Photography
-7°C
240cm
Niseko, Japan

The Open One Series, crowdfunded by an incredible group of backers, turned into actual products.

Now, awarded the ISPO Award Gold Winner and an iF Design Award for the product design.

When we started to develop our second generation of products, we had a clear vision in mind:

1. Create the ultimate snowboard and ski outerwear. With a specific focus on ski touring and splitboarding.

2. Make it from the most environmentally friendly, highly functional materials.

3. Produce in a factory that cares about the people who produce our garments. In safe and clean facilities, with fair salaries.

4. Deliver it directly, making our highly functional, sustainable products more affordable.

As part of our pursuit towards full openness, we’d like to take you back into the process of the creation of the Open One Series.

In this picture: Production at Maxport Limited

After the success of The Open One, crowdfunded back in 2016, we received a lot of requests to create more products. To create the best possible result, we decided to work together on the design with the teams of Tara Latham from Sugarhouse Creative and Sophie Poelman from Studioalida.

They used their technical work experience from companies like Arc’teryx, Black Diamond and Salewa to help us create this top-level product.

As the functionality is key, we first focused on the fit of our products. Together with pattern maker Tytti Torpala, we worked on an engineered fit, allowing for optimal movability on the mountain, both up- and downhill.

In the meanwhile, the designers worked out the overall clean, minimal look and technical details, before we handed the designs over to Maxport Ltd. A factory that produces the highest level outerwear.

The Maxport Ltd. team helped us to overcome technical challenges, like the flap construction on our pocket zippers. With their expertise, they created these outstanding, even award-winning, new products.

 

Tara Latham explain the Open One Series

In this picture: Flurina field testing the Open One Series

Photo by: Angelo Brack

Of course, we had to use the most environmentally friendly material available. Like The Open One, we decided to use the shell material of Sympatex, the best performing sustainable material on the market, at the moment.

Why, you may ask:

– The fabric is 100% recycled and what makes it unique is that even the membrane is 100% recyclable. This allows for an easier and more efficient recycling process after use.

– PTFE-free and PFC free, causing no health hazard.

– 100% Oeko-Tex® Standard 100 Certificate.

– Bluesign® certified membrane.

– Compliant with mRSL according to ZDHC.

– DWR, free from fluorocarbon.

Of course, we didn’t stop at looking for the right material at the shell fabric. Also for the trims, we only work with the most sustainable and highest quality companies in the world. Partners which care about the environment.

Most of our accessories are produced by Rudholm, a company which cares about producing greener products. This means that they think about the design, the manufacturing, the materials, the distribution and its recycling capabilities.

With that in mind, they are always striving to find new ways to reduce the impact on the environment. Rudholm cares about their workforce and they are fully committed to their well-being, by ensuring they are treated with respect and the working conditions are safe and healthy.

Therefore Rudholm works closely with Oeko-tex®, REACh, Bluesign®, SEDEX®, BSCI and SAC/Higg.

 

“ While most people were spending their time at the beach, these heroes were already dreaming of powder days. ”

Our cuff tabs are specially developed by Universal Trim Supply (UTS), which is also a Bluesign® and Oekotex® partner.

We wanted a very strong and durable cuff tab and we enlarged it to improve the functionality. These tabs are customised to our needs and they do exactly the job for which they are designed.

The final and crucial part of realising the Open One Series was done by 196 backers on Kickstarter, in the summer of 2017. While most people were spending their time at the beach, these heroes were already dreaming of powder days. Because of their support, we were able to take the Open One Series into production.

These 196 backers are the true and real deserved winners of the ISPO and iF Design Award. They believed that the way we ride powder today determines if we can still ride powder tomorrow.

As the founders of Open Wear, we’d like to thank all involved for their continuous support and believe in our project. A final special thanks to Emilie Barnasconi, who found the time to push us and helped apply for these awards.

Chris & Martijn
Founders of Open Wear

Martijn & Chris at the ISPO Awards

Martijn & Chris at the ISPO Awards

“ We’d like to thank all involved for their continuous support and believe in our project. ”

Elias

Congrats!

Laurenz

The awards are very well-deserved!

David

Can't wait to rock my fresh jacket this winter! :)
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