Helly Hansen Launches Multi-Year Partnership with Waypoint Outdoor to Accelerate USA Business

OSLO, NORWAY — 28 June, 2017

Helly Hansen, a leading technical outdoor brand, today announced that it has appointed Waypoint Outdoor as its exclusive U.S. nation-wide master sales representative for both the sportswear and work-wear wholesale businesses.

Waypoint has a successful track record in helping to build leading brands in the USA outdoor market. This partnership is designed to leverage Helly Hansen’s brand development, design and innovation strengths with Waypoint’s deep US outdoor experience and relationships to accelerate building Helly Hansen’s US specialty wholesale business to scale.

Bob Holding, partner at Waypoint Outdoor and former Senior Vice President at Arcteryx, will lead the Helly Hansen business for Waypoint. As part of the transition, Waypoint will enfold the existing Helly Hansen USA Sales Directors, their teams and independent agents into the Waypoint organization to become a nation-wide agency. The transition of the sales functions to Waypoint will take place on September 1, 2017, enabling Waypoint to prepare for the Fall Winter 2018 season.

Helly Hansen’s USA headquarters will remain in Sumner, WA, for the consumer facing activities of marketing, eCommerce, and customer service, as well as finance, supply chain and logistics.

New growth strategy

The new long-term growth strategy deployed in early 2015 is based on the ethos that, “Helly Hansen makes professional grade gear to help people stay and feel alive”, tapping into Helly Hansen’s deep 140-year Norwegian heritage.

Identified initiatives to deliver sustainable growth, improve productivity and re-focus the business, include:

— Developing a strong brand with a focus on core categories, countries and channels.

— Strengthening recognition as the brand that professionals use, trust and recommend to their peers and clients.

— Securing a position as the leader in providing technical performance products in the mountains and on the sea – led by Skiing and Sailing while also building a premium position in Mountain, Base-layer, Urban and Work-wear.

— Building a consumer-centric organisation investing in brand development and innovation funded by improved financial performance and a leaner supply chain.

Paul Stoneham, CEO of Helly Hansen said: “We are excited about partnering with Waypoint to develop a new go-to-market model that builds on the strengths of both organizations to accelerate Helly Hansen’s USA growth. Over the last twenty years, Waypoint Outdoor has repeatedly proven themselves to be a world class sales agency. This new long term partnership will leverage our international brand and product strengths with Waypoint’s deep customer experience to accelerate building Helly Hansen to scale in the USA.”

Jim Purdy, Founder at Waypoint Outdoor said: “Helly Hansen is one of the pioneers in our industry with over 140 years of product innovation, serving professionals and consumer alike. With its strong brand and award-winning products, we’re confident we can bring HH to a leadership position in the US. We could not be more motivated to be working with the HH team in the US and Norway. We also see this as a significant shift in the industry as we cut new ground as a National Sales Agency.”

Bob Holding, Partner at Waypoint Outdoor said: ”There’s a tremendous amount of change in the outdoor marketplace today. We know we can build the Helly Hansen business with a strategy around a specialty distribution, focused product initiatives and operational consistency. We believe Helly Hansen represents the opportunity to be the first European Brand to truly take a leadership position in apparel in the US outdoor market.”

For more information, please contact:

Norway: Mats Ektvedt, Corporate Communications AS +47 4142 3328 / mats.ektvedt@corpcom.no

USA: Ryan Hayter, Hayter PR +1-360-981-2929 / ryan@hayterpr.com

About Helly Hansen

Founded in Norway in 1877, Helly Hansen continues to develop professional-grade apparel that helps people stay and feel alive. Through insights drawn from living and working in the world’s harshest environments, the company has developed a long list of first-to-market innovations, including the first supple waterproof fabrics almost 140 years ago. Other breakthroughs include the first fleece fabrics in the 1960s, the first technical base layers in the 1970s, made with Lifa® Stay Dry Technology, and today’s award winning and patented H2Flow® temperature regulating system.

Helly Hansen is a leader in technical sailing and performance ski apparel, as well as premium workwear. Its ski uniforms are worn and trusted by more than 50,000 professionals and can be found on Olympians, National Teams, and at more than 200 ski resorts and mountain guiding operations around the world.

In 2016 Helly Hansen has continued to bolster its brand positioning with consumers via professional endorsements with Ski Professionals and Professional Sailors around the world. Highlights include renewing its strategic relationship with Vail Resorts, strengthening it’s position with national alpine teams through new partnerships with the Swedish Alpine Ski Team and the Finnish Alpine Ski Team, and the addition of new ski resort uniform partners in Canada. The brand also reinforced its position in Sailing through a new partnership with the US Sailing Team, which builds on existing relationships with the Norwegian Sailing Federation, Canadian National Sailing Team, the Japan Sailing Team, as well as with sailing icons such as Thomas Coville. The brand also enhanced its support and presence at key races and regattas, through a new relationship with Vendee Globe and continuation of it’s title sponsorship with National Offshore One Design (NOOD), North America’s largest regatta series.

The brand continues to win numerous awards for product performance including “Gear of The Year” from both Outside Magazine and Ski Magazine, the “Good Design Award” from the Chicago Athenaeum, “The Red Dot Design Award” and the German Design Council’s “German Design Award”.

Helly Hansen’s outerwear, base layers, sportswear and footwear are sold in more than 40 countries and trusted by outdoor professionals and enthusiasts around the world. To learn more about Helly Hansen’s latest collections, visit www.hellyhansen.com.

About Waypoint Outdoor

Established in 1997, Waypoint Outdoor is a Seattle based Outdoor Products sales and service company. Guided by the principles of excellence, passion, respect and giving back, it’s 21 team members have over 200+ years of Outdoor Industry experience working with brands such as Arcteryx, BOGS, Keen, Klean Kanteen, Leatherman, Nemo Equipment, O’Neill, Smartwool, Sole, Sunski, and Vasque. To learn more about Waypoint Outdoor, visit www.waypointoutdoor.com.