EVOC’s Jan Sallawitz On Their 10 Year Anniversary

SOURCE talks with Jan Sallawitz, EVOC Head of Marketing about how the company has evolved over the last 10 years, what they are doing to keep their customers passionate about the sports EVOC cover and how they intend to celebrate 10 years of the brand.  

Tell us how EVOC was first conceived.
When the company was founded 10 years ago, the initial reaction of the so-called industry specialists was unanimous: No one needs a protection backpack, as there’s enough packs on the market already. From the start, we strongly believed in our idea though and with the fact that EVOC was initiated by athletes to solve problems of passionate sport speople, EVOC never lacked authenticity or credibility. From a very early stage, we managed to translate our demands in terms of functionality and quality into our products. This immediately convinced the media and end-consumers, when the industry wasn’t supportive yet.

How has the company’s mission statement changed over 10 years?
Actually not much. “Quality made“ is still our main lead and within everything we do we always ask ourselves: “Is it premium?“. From our initial three products we now run a product range of almost 100 products in 2018 in the categories BIKE, SNOW, TRAVEL, PROTECTION WEAR, PHOTO and ACCESSORIES. We are still aiming to be the leader of sports oriented bags and backpacks with a special focus on protection.

How has the management team evolved?
EVOC is still privately owned by the founders Holger Feist and Bernd Stucke. The management board additionally includes Kilian Eller for Sales Marketing and me for Marketing.

What have been the biggest milestones historically?
Commercially the biggest milestone was definitely the start of the collaboration with our German distribution partner Bikeaction. From there on, we were lucky to be able to add some of the leading distribution companies in other markets in the following years. Being finalists at the ISPO Brand New Award in 2009 helped a lot to gain some major media attention and momentum.

Where do you see the future of EVOC and the action sports business in general?
We want to continue doing things how we want to. High end products that transport our passion for sports and travelling. With our versatile portfolio, we have a lot of opportunities and want to concentrate on those things that EVOC stands for and develop ourselves further. The action sports business seems to be faced by some big transformations at large. The competition shifted and it’s not industry internal anymore. To still reach the youth market, be relevant and have a share is the new struggle (smartphones and fitness studios cost a lot of money!). So here the challenge for our industry is to keep up by creating passion and motivation to live our sports. The world of retail is quickly changing in regards to e-commerce and that continuously creates new challenges for bricks and mortar. Here we want to identify retail winners and focus on strengthening them. Our EVOC Retail Program (EPS) is a big step for us in this direction.

What are the most exciting opportunities and also the biggest threats?
The transition of from a start-up to a “proper“ company has various aspects. You are being taken more seriously and have to live up to higher expectations at the same time. We are in the lucky position to have an outstandingly great team of people working for EVOC, having the capabilities to bring our little company to the next level and really share the same spirit and passion for what we do. And we want to keep it this way.

Tell us how you plan to celebrate 10 years of EVOC – any product releases lined up to celebrate 10 years?
Most definitely! We are celebrating “10YRS of sports travelling” and “10YRS of back protection technology”. As EVOC has a lot to offer for winter and summer enthusiasts, we had our official 10 years kick-off at the Eurobike in July. There we introduced our 2019 Spring/Summer collection including the NEO 16l back protector backpack with the AIRSHIELD protector, a revolutionary protection technology, as well as the new MULTICOLOUR edition with new bike travel products. People will continue talking about our 10YRS anniversary booth party for a long time.

The trade show was also the starting point for an international campaign that involves distributors, retail and end-consumers. The motto “What’s your best trail?” will activate consumers to participate in a multi-channel raffle, where they can win an unforgettable bike trip and other great things. Selected EVOC program store partners worldwide will support the call for action by implementing the campaign through e.g. 10YRS POS material and at the same time incentivize their staff. Accompanied by a multi-facetted Social Media and PR campaign.