Swedish brand involved sponsored athletes in development to improve the product.
The nice Swedish people at Haglöfs have landed an award for a new jacket at this week's ISPO European winter outdoor trade show gathering in sunny München.
The garment in question is the new for winter 2012 – you'll see it in the shops in September – Vassi Jacket, a three-layer Gore-Tex Pro Shell, all-mountain, ski jacket with some interesting features.
Named after a 400-million year old mountain calledVassitjåkka, the jacket was developed by Haglöfs with skiers Per Jonsson and Asbjørn Eggebø Næss and has been cut so that body armour can be worn under it if desired.
There are stretch panels in the lower back too, which sounds pointless until you consider that you can zip out the integral snow-skirt and then zip-in the matching Vassi pants to creat an all-in-one all-mountain, ski ensemble.
The hood will fit over a helmet too and there's a built-in google, oops, google wipe and other snow sports-friendly features to boot.
Haglöfs is particularly proud of the part their sponsored athletes, or 'Haglöfs Friends' have played in the design process with their top boss, Nicholas Warchalowski, saying:
“We have been working to extend the collaboration with our Haglöfs Friends for some time, aiming to incorporate their experience, thoughts and ideas into our product development process. The award is conformation that this strategy has been successful.”
Oddly the purple colour scheme – we'll try and rip the image out of the work book PDF – has a distinct 90s Berghaus vibe going on, partly thanks to the voluminous old skool lower pockets. Properly back to the future. Or maybe forwards to the past...
When available in the UK in September 2012, the Vassi Jacket will retail for £500 and the matching pants a cool £375.
More about the current Haglöfs range at www.haglofs.se.
