JOBE Impact Vests 2021 Preview

Retail Buyers Guide: Impact Vests 2021 Retail Buyer’s Guide
Brand: Jobe
Interviewee: William Doornekamp

Markets

How has Covid impacted the wakeboard business? Are your designing crash jackets for a wake market segment, eg boat / wake park / surf / skate? Or is the same design being sold over the whole market. Which market is giving you the most growth? Which market is giving you the most direction in terms of the design and look of your crash jackets?
It’s no secret that COVID has turned out to be a good thing for watersports and the wakeboard part of our business is no exception. People all around the world were getting out on their local lakes and were standing sideways! Naturally, our vest sales profited from this as well.

From our entry model nylon vests to our high-end Fragment vest, everything is designed with a boating target audience in mind. This is also the market which we see growing with boating sales reaching an all time high due to COVID.

Fragment Vest Men

Style / Look

What style is your brand aiming for, what is the process of determining what your crash jackets look like?
Our style is being based on our Mix ‘n Match philosophy. This means that we create a look for our whole collection and this makes that there’s always a matching product. So if you want a new wakesurfer or wakeboard, there’s always a vest and wetsuit to match.

Fit / Feel / Protection

What trends are you seeing in terms of fit, feel and protection in your crash jackets? What do you think your customers want and what has worked well for you in terms or fit, feel, protection? For example do end users want a thicker more protected crash jacket at a wake park (as they fall onto solid features at 20mph) or do people want as flexible as possible?
Most important will always remain the fit, when you’re out on the water you want a vest which fits good. Because a good vest with a good fit will always do justice to the experience. This is something which is true to all boardsports markets right, can’t go snowboarding with botos which don’t fit comfortably. So we continue to focus on fit with our “Perfect Fit Technology” creating the perfect fit, no matter your body type.

Tech / USP

What technology or materials are using in your crash jackets to give you a unique selling point?
Perfect fit: First is our Perfect Fit technology, for this we worked together with TNO (one of the biggest research institutions). By gathering data through them, we created a fitting in our high-end vest collection which is unparalleled.

Supreme Stretch Fabric: Our Supreme Stretch Fabric is something which you can also find in our high-end vests like the Unify and Fragment. This softer neoprene offers a great flex and due to this flex it will last longer as well, making for a high-performance and durable vest.

Fragment Vest Women

Team Riders

How do your team riders influence your soft good offering? Do they have signature soft goods, do they help with design, do you suggest ideas to you, etc?
Although we don’t have a signature line with our riders, we do use their input a lot and have them test the gear. For 2021, we also worked with our top rider Tony Lacconi for our softgood range. Tony is a regular face one the world podiums and now that he’s also riding our softgoods, we are already having him test new stuff and gathering input from him. Next to his own experience, Tony trains a lot of people which makes it a great touchpoint with consumers to gather their input and thoughts.

Best Sellers
Fragment Vest Men

The Jobe Fragment vest offers the best of both worlds in terms of comfort and safety. The separated panels in combination with the soft and flexible supreme stretch fabric gives you freedom of movement while the 50N ISO certification makes sure you will stay afloat at all times. These vests are designed with our perfect fit philosophy in mind.

Unify Vest

The Jobe Unify Life Vest is a 50 newton ISO certified life vest with all the comfort and convenience of a pro-level competition vest. It features soft PVC foam, flexible panels for a great range of motion enhancing your ability to move freely. With sizes to fit everyone, including plus sizes you’ll have no trouble finding a perfect vest.

Unify Vest

Fragment Vest Women