Lasse Kjus is aware of a factor or two about harsh climate. The previous Olympic and World Cup champion Norwegian alpine skier spent most of his life battling the weather all over the world from Lillehammer to Nagano, Salt Lake Metropolis and in all places in between.
Unable to discover a ski jacket that was as snug, stretchy and insulated as he felt in his race go well with, Kjus launched KJUS in 2000. After being the primary model to introduce a stretch ski jacket to market in 2002, KJUS spent a decade manufacturing extremely engineered materials and merchandise centered on temperature administration, so wearers weren’t zipping and unzipping their jackets.
Leveraging its knowhow and expertise from the ski slopes, KJUS transitioned into golf by launching its first product line of premium rain gear headlined by the Professional 3L jacket in 2013.
“We figured that if we may maintain a skier shielded from excessive wind, rain, snow, chilly components they usually’re extremely snug they usually can transfer, we will additionally try this in golf,” KJUS President Brooke Mackenzie stated.
A Pure Transition
From the skin, transitioning from ski-focused merchandise to golf looks like a little bit of a stretch. The previous is completed at excessive speeds in a number of the coldest, wettest and windiest environments on the planet, whereas golf is often performed in additional temperate climates and at a snail’s tempo as compared.
However the similarities between the 2 actions, particularly because it pertains to how a skier and golfer strikes, made the growth of KJUS’ merchandise a no brainer. Whereas Mackenzie stated KJUS receives requests to get into biking, tennis and horseback using, creating cold- and hot-weather gear for golf made essentially the most sense resulting from three important components.
Whether or not you’re dashing down from a mountaintop within the Swiss Alps or are establishing an strategy shot on a flat golf course in Florida, unencumbered motion, particularly together with your arms, is a necessity. Providing safety with out hindrance for each skier and golfer is without doubt one of the major causes KJUS acquired into golf.
Whereas snowboarding is completed in chilly temperatures with snow and ice aplenty, golf could be performed in various locales with unpredictable components, particularly in its homeland of Scotland, so various temperature patterns and extremes are current in each actions.
Lastly, fluctuating physique temperatures throughout every exercise was one more reason it made sense for KJUS to go from snowboarding to golf. The physique heats up whereas snowboarding down a mountain and cools on the raise trip again up whereas, in golf, one heats up throughout a swing or whereas strolling to their shot, however cools whereas ready their flip or sitting in a cart.
Scorching n Chilly
Not solely has KJUS transitioned from ski to golf however the model constructed on defending wearers from cold-weather extremes has expanded into hot-weather gear. Whether or not it’s with its half-zip or polo, KJUS warm-weather merchandise take moisture-wicking properties to the following stage.
The fiber construction aggressively pulls water off the pores and skin’s floor and pumps it to the outside the place it shortly evaporates, leaving the wearer dry and comfy. The model’s VaporTemp expertise is particularly positioned on the product to additional speed up the physique’s pure capability to evaporate perspiration whereas regulating physique warmth. Pure minerals woven into the material convert infrared and visual mild into power near your physique which will increase your tissue’s switch of oxygen.
A few of its newest merchandise function collagen via KJUS Moisture Renewal expertise that retains pores and skin hydrated and gentle amid harsh situations.
“We’ve actually branched out throughout all temperatures,” Mackenzie stated. “The aim is to maintain you feeling superb irrespective of how sizzling or how chilly it’s whilst you keep on the excellent temperature inside.”
Acushnet Acquisition
After proudly defending skiers and golfers from Mom Nature for practically 20 years, KJUS obtained an enormous enhance in help and validation, particularly within the golf business, due to its acquisition by Acushnet in July 2019.
The mother or father firm of golf business titans together with Titleist, FootJoy and Scotty Cameron wasn’t impressed solely with KJUS’ success because it launched however its dedication to creating modern, performance-driven merchandise to help golfers.
Letting KJUS proceed to construct its identification and high-end merchandise, Acushnet hasn’t modified a lot on the consumer-facing facet however has taken over a lot of the back-end logistics together with authorized and finance.
“They’ve supported us and allowed us to develop however, on the identical time, allowed us sufficient room to remain distinctive to who we’re,” Mackenzie stated. “It’s been an unimaginable partnership.”
Shortly after the acquisition, the golf business witnessed its best growth since Tiger Woods rose to prominence within the late Nineteen Nineties on account of the COVID-19 pandemic. With tens of millions looking for secure, outside actions at a time of stay-at-home mandates and social distancing, golf grew to become the go-to social and bodily exercise.
Fairly than making an attempt to only trip the wave, KJUS used the peak of the pandemic to strategically set itself up for achievement post-COVID.
“It was sort of a good time for us to sit down again and take into consideration what we would like this new chapter with Acushnet to seem like,” Mackenzie stated.
The model, which put a ton of time and power into analysis and improvement, relocated its headquarters from Europe to Boulder, Colo. Clearly extra of a hotbed for winter sports activities, the placement close to the Rocky Mountains nonetheless offers KJUS ample attain on the golf facet of the enterprise with easy accessibility to each U.S. coasts in addition to the Midwest and South.
With merchandise accessible in additional than 20 nations, a satellite tv for pc workplace in Risch-Rotkreuz, Switzerland, and showrooms throughout the globe, KJUS continues to function an modern and premium attire ski and golf model whose precedence is to guard the wearer no matter no matter Mom Nature throws at them from the slope to the course.
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