Quiksilver Mens Outerwear 2023/24 Preview

Retail Buyers Guide: Men‘s Outerwear 2023/24 Retail Buyer‘s Guide
Brand: Quiksilver
Interviewee: Mathieu Clément – EMEA Snow Product Manager

What is the overall theme behind your 2023/24 outerwear range? From which big trends do you take your inspiration?

The approach of riding mountains is changing in both ski and snowboarding, as the Boardshort Company, ‘Surf the mountain’ is our unique way of looking at the terrain no matter what the board is, exemplified by our world class roster of athletes. That’s what guided us during the creative process.

We are not only talking about performance but about having fun, sharing with friends, connecting and respecting nature. In fact, we are infusing our Made Better initiative across the whole range, from basics to high-end technical products, without forgetting our unique style that brought us to the mountains over 35 years ago.

We will continue to build credibility within the snow world with our Highline Pro and Highline collections, supported by the GOATs Travis Rice and Sammy Carlson, and high-end technologies such as Gore-Tex Pro or Primaloft Active Evolve insulation.

And, as a highlight for FW23/24, with the help of our dream team riders, Miles Fallon and Austen Sweetin, we bring power to our High Altitude collection. Inspired by mid-late 90s Quiksilver archives, this collection pays tribute to this era with comfy oversized silhouettes, bold color blocking, curvy pipings and surf inspired details. But, be sure that our guys won’t spend too much time at staring in the rear view with those silhouettes!

What new fits / silhouettes are coming out in 2023/24? What pant and jacket styles are most important in your range?

We see on the market that wider styles are now established back as a standard, on vintage trend and more traditional designs. We don’t forget to take that pass. In fact, our freeride silhouettes had been slightly adjusted to bring more comfort and style, and the High Altitude is clearly taking the Wide direction with our new regular fit. Our Steeze Anorak and the Snow Down Pant family are good example of this initiative.

What new colours / prints are you introducing?

With the experience of the difficult years we faced, we tried to avoid having too much different color stories. Design had been focused on two strong palettes apart of our High Altitude. First one will play hearty tones, to bring a surfy spirit to the range with Laurel Wreath, Pale Khaki, Marsala, Cub. A new Tie Dye Black will be endorsed by Sammy Carlson. Kind of an off-print combined with Pale Khaki details which create a super nice silhouette. Can’t wait to see this outfit shredding Mt Hood aera!

The second one plays more pop colors with a nice Brittany Blue and some pop of Grenadine.

On our High Altitude range, we have a mix of a vibrant Green Olive, some pop of Regal Orchid and more forward Nimbus Cloud silhouettes.

Any *NEW* technical stories with regards to fabrics and materials?

Would like to talk more on strong efforts we have put on our sustainable journey this season. As everyone in this industry, we know that we are not perfect, we learn from past experiences to do things better. Sustainability used to be a trend, a topic on which brands talk about as a marketing story, on which we need to bring novelties every year. We know all now that we need to be consistent, focused, if we want to have a true impact.

Before going somewhere, we need to understand correctly where we are standing for. For that we put in place calculation tool to correctly measure the amount of recycled content in our products (in weight). To be able to pilot during the development process, be more transparent with our consumers and, set targets for the future.

We are working for an industry that see approx. 40 billion tons of textile going to landfill every year. In parallel, we are mainly using recycled plastic bottles…

We understand that we are today part of the problem and so, we are working hard to find solutions to establish Quiksilver as an actor of the circular economy.

For that, starting from SS23 with our Boardshort and then on FW 23/24 snow products, we implement textile recycled polyester on our volume driver products. In parallel of product development in 2022, we deep dived in our supply chain to understand how we could contribute other than just being a “sustainability consumer”: by connecting supply chain partners, we launched pilots of production waste collection and hope to be able to scale projects soon. Some work is also done to increase knowledge about how to facilitate product end-of-life management to support design from the very beginning of the creative process.

What are your top marketing stories for 2023/24? This will help us to put some focus in the right place.

High Altitude and Highline Pro will be our two main marketing stories for next winter.

Outerwear Hero products:.

Our High Altitude range will be showcased with the High Altitude Gore-Tex Jacket and Pant. This unisex silhouette is a direct ticket to the 90’s and combine more than actual technologies. In fact, using a 100% recycled shell with the new e-PE PFC Free Gore-Tex lamination, we play style and responsibility with no compromise.

Sammy loves his signature jacket introduced last year, the HLPRO Sammy Carlson 3L Gore-Tex JK. So, we are bringing a nice new Laurel Wreath green this season. Using a 100% Recycled 3L Gore-Tex performance shell, this streetwear look jacket support the legendary Sammy’s riding style when he plays on the deepest lines. Go check is new YUP movie to see how this jacket is not scared of deep snow!

Travis Rice will support the new ULTRALIGHT GORE-TEX Jk. A crazy mix of lightness and warmth which use durable lightweight Gore-tex Performance ripstop shell and the Primaloft Active Evolve lining. Primaloft scientists have leveraged biomimicry by creating variant knit constructions which facilitate breathability and thermal performance. The result is a versatile performance piece that provides the benefits of layering, without the layers! The team had been so impressed by this concept that we’ve created an additional more affordable take-down style in the line.