Picture Enters Urban/Commute Market With New ‘OUTLINE’ Clothing Range

Picture are stepping into the urban/commute market and we spoke with CEO Julien Durant to find out more about their motives and strategy to do so.

Why have you decided to enter the urban clothing market?
Picture has always been involved in urban clothing with a skate and chill dimension/style when the brand started. The brand has grown towards a very urban/outdoor dimension and with its outerwear technical skills, this was reason enough to bring this technology to the city, for an urban customer who is more and more oriented towards technical clothing. Today, we have adapted the collection with a much sleeker style that corresponds to the needs of the urban consumer with all the technologies of our mountain and outerwear ranges.

What can Picture bring to this market?
With Picture, we will be able to bring something very fresh and especially affordable. We are going to be able to use all our technologies linked to down, gluing, laser construction which will allow us to propose an urban technical garment to resist to all types of climates and temperatures and with a very sleek and sober design. This sobriety is the common point of all the urban brands, but the point of differentiation of Picture will be at the level of the proposed technologies and the eco-responsible dimension. There is practically no brand capable of producing urban clothing made of recycled materials, traceable down and an ethical dimension in the construction of the product and also in the DNA of the brand. We have a real card to play, because brands committed to sustainability and sobriety are almost non-existent.

Please can you tell us about your launch line.
For the launch of this range, we intend to rely on Parisian department stores such as the BHV and Galeries Lafayette to really support the launch of technical Picture products dedicated to an urban environment. We are going to focus on the eco-responsible dimension, with a key story revolving around circularity and products made from post-consumer materials and down that is completely traceable. The launch will take place in Paris and will then be relayed on all social networks and digital. What Picture will bring is the affordable side of the range, when this type of product are usually sold on the market between 550€ and 800€; we will position them between 300€ and 400€. So we have a real added value today, for an eco and affordable product.

Will sustainability be a key part of the offering?
As we said before, sustainability is the central element associated with technology: sleek design, completely eco-designed product and technically in line with what we are able to do on the touring/mountaineering ranges.

How will you be marketing Commute?
Behind the term “commuting”, in Latin countries, we often associate this word with “velotaff” or “bike-work”, but the range has really been built for uses around urban mobility, whatever they are: walking, running, cycling, public transport… The objective is really to associate all mobility activities around this range and not a divisive dimension based only on the bike.

Who will be your target retailers and why?
We will distinguish two categories of customers for this range: our outdoor customers located in the city (Montagne Nature & Style, Bergzeit, Espace Montagne…) and our urban customers, i.e. department stores (Selfridges, Galeries Lafayette…) which will allow us to target the urban community that is looking for high-performance, technical and eco-friendly products. Online will not be neglected either, since we also plan a big online activation with key retailers of outoor (Bergfreunde, Bergzeit, Blue Tomato, Snow Leader…) which are key but have also taken the commuting position in their offer creation.

Why should retailers carry your new line?
For the first time, we will find an eco-responsible, technical and affordable commuting range on the market. Sleek design will be the common feature of the whole offer. On the other hand, few people are able to bring a level of technicality and technology in line with such a high level of eco-responsibility and a sleek design. In this sense, we are convinced that this line has great chances of success. We want to position it next to brands like Arc’teryx Veilance with a target consumer between 25 and 40 years old, who has a smaller budget than the 40+ year old consumer that Veilance targets, and finally we want to stop where Arc’teryx starts.