Jonathan & Fletcher Textiles Research, French-Based Family Run Development And Design Outfit

Jonathan & Fletcher, a textiles research, development and design studio set in the heart of the French Alps helps brands to construct collections and products: design, modelling, prototyping, manufacturing monitoring and bespoke tailoring. Based in Annecy-le-Vieux in Glaisins and a member of the Outdoor Sports Valley, this family business is comprised of around 20 employees. Source has profiled the brand with Founder, Georges Pessey and his sons Jonathan & Gregory. Interview by Sandra Stavo-Debauge

How was Jonathan & Fletcher born?
Georges Pessey: As a freelance stylist at the start of the ‘80s, I submitted my sketches to brands like K-Way and Anzi Besson, the first ones to believe in me. After hearing “it’s great but too hard to make”, I created Jonathan & Fletcher in 1984 with the idea that we should be able to create and produce what we designed. Jonathan & Fletcher started with product development. Quite quickly, through our contacts, notably thanks to Cathy Breyton, we made some outfits for the KL (Kilometre lancé) with the discipline’s top guns, which led us into top-level ski competitions.

Nowadays J&F can create and develop a collection and/or a garment from A-Z with 5 fields of expertise and an integrated manufacturing workshop, which is our real strength. Our services are à la carte, according to our customer’s needs.

Apart from the workshop on site, what is the added value of Jonathan & Fletcher?
Jonathan Pessey: Adaptations to athletic movements, integrating innovation, a function for a specific use and design, that’s our focus. Our added value has always been having all the required services under one roof for the development and execution of a textiles collection with style, modelling, prototypes and manufacturing monitoring. These days Jonathan & Fletcher is has a multi-discipline focus and contains two activity centres that feed off each other: J&F Développement and J&F Racing specialised in making 100% personalised outfits for the national teams and professionals (in Olympic disciplines such as alpine skiing and freestyle, skicross, snowboard, luge, bobsleigh, skeleton). Producing performance-based products under one roof, like race suits, sets us apart from others. It’s an asset, our credibility is based on this, but we want to reenergize J&F Développement.

How is the management of Jonathan & Fletcher organised?
Georges: My sons, Jonathan and Gregory have worked with me for some years now. Destined to take over the business, they’ve accepted the baton and I’ve positioned myself as more of a consultant.

Jonathan: I’ve become the company’s manager and I’m in charge of J&F Racing. I work in close collaboration with Gregory who looks after J&F Développement. He manages the development side of our wider public and capsule collections as well as being involved in competitions.

Georges works on the consulting and networking side of things. He still works on competitions, and development. That’s his passion. He has a vision, an expertise that we need to make the right choices. His experience is a major asset for J&F!

The big brands have had faith in you for over 30 years so you’ve seen all the legends of skiing, action sports and the outdoors come and go?
Georges: Yes, Fusalp, Millet, Fila, Spyder, Salomon, Lestra, Rossignol all started their textiles with us and with the big stars of skiing, snowboarding and mountaineering like René Demaison, Eric Escoffier, Christophe Profit, climbing with Patrick Edlinger and nautical clothing with the navigator Philippe Jeantot…

Jonathan: J&F always took different paths, driven by curiosity and the challenge. We always got involved in extreme sports and the performance of individuals who set their sights on new horizons or who were pushing their limits. For example we made the first wingsuit and are associated with numerous world records in the world of speed, on land, snow and in the air.

And you were also pioneers in snowboard clothes?
Georges: We were there at the dawn of snowboarding with Look Snowboard, led by Jacques Gris with Bert Lamar, Antoine Massy and all the legends of snowboarding in the ‘80s. That was one of the best eras: it was so avant-garde with those anti-skiers who pushed us in other directions and concepts, it was magical!

Then we worked for Nidecker who had a strong textiles line. We started the technical collections of Simmer Style, a brand born of windsurfing that went really strongly down the snowboarding route. We worked on the entirety of Rossignol’s clothing range with snowboard lines such as the Ibex and then RS, as well as in skiing and the concepts of Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Emilio Pucci, the World Cup, it all came from here. We did a lot of work for the Quiksilver group. We’ve accompanied Sun Valley for around 15 years…

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10 years ago you contributed to the launch of Picture Organic Clothing, is that one of your big successes in boardsports?
Georges: In 2008 Jeremy, Julien and Vincent from Picture came into our office so convinced of their project that we decided to accompany them on the development side, the materials, making prototypes and monitoring manufacturing.

Jonathan: Now they have become totally autonomous. Mission complete! Picture is a wonderful business card for action sports.

Are you yourselves from a boardsports culture?
Jonathan: We live in la Clusaz, we live for it. I’m a snowboarder through and through. Gregory is a freestyle-freeride focused skier. Nowadays we can live from our passion and that’s an enormous privilege.

How do you perceive new technologies that come onto the market?
Gregory: It’s our job to be continually on the lookout for new things and to have a bit of a head start to advise our customers. We went into the digital age full throttle. Connected garments that are able to provide information through an app are creating a buzz, as are clothes that are interactive with the human body, that can auto-regulate body temperature for example. Our role is to find solutions to integrate these technologies into the garments. Having worked in complementary sectors such as summer sports, the army or medicine has also brought us a lot.

Jonathan: We are always mindful about the latest technologies and innovations in terms of conception, the materials as well as new assembly machines.

How do you see the future of the business?
Gregory: We would like to develop the J&F Développement side of things. Our goal is to take J&F to a premium label that levers our know-how and our 34 years of expertise to offer this to the brands we collaborate with. This label would be the guarantor of its design, of its technical attributes, its authenticity, good fit and impeccable technical developments for brands in the sports industry and the outdoors.

Georges: some brands are asking for this label. Now is the time…