What Spyder is doing to elevate the brand
We talked with Design Director J.J. Collier about the brand’s alignment with Gore-Tex, designing uniforms for the U.S. Ski Team, and the best part of his job.
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Between enhancing products with Gore-Tex technology and designing uniforms for the U.S. Ski Team, it’s safe to say Spyder has a lot going on these days. We caught up with J.J. Collier, design director for the brand to hear about the Colorado brand’s latest projects.
SNEWS: What’s new at SPYDER?
J.J. Collier: We’re so excited about our relationship with Gore-Tex. It’s repositioning our brand among the other top ski brands. It truly elevates our products to where we’ve never been before, and it feels great. Our goal is to offer a beautiful product, a sophisticated layer that helps people work hard on the way up and enjoy the way down all while being exposed to high altitude. We’re glad to provide our athletes, like accomplished big-mountain skier, Chris Davenport with the best technical style.
SNEWS: What inspired this incorporation with Gore-Tex?
JC: The key thing in this innovation is CEO Nick Adcock. Nick’s been with the company 9 months, and he’s a passionate, life-long skier. When he came to SPYDER, he identified this idea that we have all this heritage and a specific design DNA, but he wanted to be able to offer customers and partners what we consider the best in tech style. Gore-Tex has been an amazing and nimble partner. And it’s a feather in their cap as well as we are a player in the snow business.
SNEWS: Tell us about the Olympic uniforms. What type of input does the ski team have in the creation?
JC: There’s a lot going on, and we’re super excited about new innovation. We have direct communication and collaboration with the team. They give us feedback on what works and they bring ideas to us. It’s not just a sticker – it’s a real innovation collaboration.
SNEWS: Design Director sounds like such a cool job. What’s the best part of it?
JC: The work I get to do is so interesting. One minute I’m sitting down with ski patrollers and creating innovation with Gore-Tex. Next meeting I’m trying to figure out a new aesthetic to the women’s collection – what will be that precise trim or combo of materials for design.
