Outdoor clothing brand Polartec is celebrating 30 years of existance and textile innovation. Its Peaking Since ‘91 campaign celebrates the partners, products and people at the core of the outdoor lifestyle. The campaign honours the 1991 founding of the Polartec brand and the many milestones of an extensive history of fabric innovation, engaging partner brands and consumers, culminating with new innovations and collaborations planned for the second half of 2021.
The campaign includes an interactive timeline created in partnership with Outside, hosted on OutsideOnline.com. The site will feature archival content and imagery of industry-changing developments and iconic products from the past four decades, including the invention of technical PolarFleece in the decade preceding the Polartec brand.
Polartec President Steve Layton said, “The modern history of Polartec is one of transformation, from a traditional mill into a performance textile innovator. We’re excited to tell this story of how collaboration with our business partners resulted in iconic fabrics and garments that literally changed what we wear when we go outside. Peaking Since ’91 is as much about looking forward as it is backward. From inventing the process of turning post-consumer plastic into performance fabrics, to pioneering a new focus on circularity, sustainable science is the innovation force driving the next 30 years of Polartec.”
The anniversary also includes the Family Album Photo Contest, a promotion to crowd-source a visual history of those who have worn Polartec garments on their outdoor adventures. The Contest will be available through multiple media partnerships across the globe; entrants have the chance to win limited edition Polartec products through various design collaborations.
In Europe, renowned Italian designer Leo Colacicco, the force behind Italian fashion-brand LC23 has made two, exclusive special pieces for the lucky winners. Using Polartec fabrics, derived from 100% recycled content, the first is a range of limited-edition fleece jackets: LC23 X Polartec Peaking Since ’91. The second, final grand prize, comprises two LC23 X Polartec Peaking Since ’91 armchairs made of the offcuts from the limited-edition fleece.
In North America, Polartec has also partnered with online publisher of editorial music content, JamBase, where entrants have a chance to win any number of garments from partner brands or grand prizes that include VIP ticket packages to such iconic music festivals as High Sierra Music Festival, LOCKN’, Northwest String Summit, and Summer Camp Music Festival.
Polartec Marketing VP and Creative Director David Karstad added, “Polartec is as much a part of the outdoor lifestyle as backpacks and hiking boots. Peaking Since ’91 lets us reinforce this authenticity and connect with the generations of enthusiasts who’ve worn Polartec, no matter when they first discovered their stoke for nature.”
