I’m Jewish and grew up eating pierogies stuffed with mashed potatoes that my dad would make at home. The first time I went to New York City he also took me to a Polish restaurant and we ordered heaps of these delicious dumplings. They’re hands down one of my favorite foods and I have to admit I never expected to ski in a fleece jacket by the same name. 

But sitting in my closet right now is one of my favorite midlayers, the Pierogi Jacket made by Flylow, the Lake Tahoe, California, apparel company co-founded by Dan Abrams and Greg Steen. Abrams is Jewish, too, which is why the word pierogi shows up in his catalog, but you have to admit it takes real chutzpah to name a jacket after a dumpling. 

To find out how Abrams and his team landed on “Pierogi” and many of the other unique names that Flylow uses for its apparel, I called him up to ask. Abrams is one of the most approachable and good-natured people in the ski industry and he was more than happy to dive into the history of the company’s naming conventions. The short answer, he said, is that they don’t put too much pressure on themselves.

“To be honest, we just come up with names when we have to. We’ve always been way more focused on materials, fit, and performance. To say that we plan the names out in some sort of clever way would be disingenuous,” he said.

Flylow built its reputation on creating bomber ski apparel that would put up with the abuse Abrams, Steen, and their friends would dish out every ski season during their twenties. Their first big success was the Chemical Pant (the pants are still in the line), which came with a burly outer fabric and 1,000-denier Oxford reinforced cuffs, and knees and they were the company’s answer to the flimsy ski pants Abrams and his crew would often rip after a few days into each ski season.

He came up with the name “Chemical” because he liked the sound but also because he realized the pants were just made up of a bunch of different plastics, which are made out of various chemicals. Abrams says environmental concerns have always been part of the reason Flylow is invested in making gear that will last, but he isn’t kidding himself about what materials are used to make sure the pants kept skiers dry and warm.

“That name got me thinking about science, and that’s how we also eventually landed on the Quantum Jacket,” he said. 

When I asked Abrams about the Pierogi Jacket, he said the team was talking about how the jacket has a protective, wind-resistant outer and soft inner fleece and he said the dumpling popped into his mind immediately. 

“We were basically describing a pierogi when talking about that jacket,” he said. “At one point we also considered calling it the knish jacket, but that one is too hard to spell and there’s nothing sexy about a knish. There is something sexy about a pierogi.” 

When you visit the Flylow site today and look for the Pierogi Jacket, you also get clever copy written by Abram’s wife Megan Michelson that says, “Just like the doughy dumpling they’re named after, this midlayer is warm but lets off steam.”

Apparently I wasn’t the first person to ask Abrams about the apparel names, because he also pointed me to a blog post Flylow has on its site called “.” That post goes in-depth on various apparel names, but highlights include the Higgins Coat, which was named after the Higgins character in the 1980s crime-comedy TV series Magnum P.I., the Brosé Work Shirt “for guys who drink rosé,” and the Johnny Shirt—which the company suggests matching with the Cash Short. The Phil A Shirt is named after Abrams’ dad, Phil, who spent his life wearing a similar button-up. 

On a more serious note, there was the Jim Jack-et, a shirt-jacket hybrid named in honor of Jim Jack, a close friend of Abrams’ who died in an avalanche in 2012. There is also the Rudolph Jacket, a puffy named for Chris Rudolph, another friend who died in the same slide.

Abrams also said that, once, the company decided to reach out to their customers and let them name a product. Hundreds of suggestions came in, but they ended up going with the Larry Vest.

“Larry is just a fun word to say,” Abrams said, for all explanation.

Over the years, Abrams has collaborated with larger companies and seen the hoops they often jump through when coming up with names. Their marketing and legal teams end up having control, so that the products don’t run into copyright violations and are named in such a way that they’ll sell as easily as possible.

For his part, Abrams has run into copyright issues, like the time he tried to name proprietary insulation “Yeti Loft” and was contacted by Yeti (the bike company). But those experiences don’t stop him from having fun, he says. While he does own a business, selling isn’t his only goal.

“When we talk about names, we don’t talk about what’s going to sell, but instead we talk about not giving people a reason not to buy,” he said. 

Whenever Abrams needs naming inspiration, he likes to get outside. During the winter it’s a ski tour; during the summer it’s a mountain bike ride. He can recall several places along snow or dirt trails where a good name came to him out of the blue. But day-to-day, he never puts much effort into product names. He knows the names will come to the team when they need to. 

“To be honest, we’re not that worried,” he said.

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January to March 2020

Idle factories

China’s lockdown was announced during Chinese New Year in January, keeping factories shuttered beyond the usual holiday period, and once they reopened, production ramped up slowly. The slowdown caused some manufacturers to delay Fall ’20 launches.

Slowdowns spread beyond China. India—which manufactures much of the sportswear sold by U.S. brands—projected four-month production delays, reports Flylow co-founder Dan Abrams. “We have some Spring ’20 product groupings that are so delayed that we’re not going to deliver them until Spring ’21,” he said.

Domestic manufacturing also suffered slowdowns as states imposed shelter-in-place orders. For example, Farm to Feet sent almost all personnel home for three weeks while it developed alternate production procedures that accounted for social distancing and increased safety guidelines. The company’s manufacturing facilities reopened at the beginning of May after extensive training for these new procedures, and was running at full capacity by June ’20.

March 2020

Slow Spring Sales

Stores were receiving Spring ’20 products and closing out Winter ’19-20 goods when they were shuttered. That convergence created a glut of unsold stock. According to NPD, outdoor retail sales in March ’20 declined 24 percent from February, and were 41 percent lower than in March ’19.

With brick-and-mortar retailers closed, brands that rely heavily on in-store shopping took a big hit. Without venues for shoppers to try on shoes, Vasque, for example, saw spring sales dip by 50 to 60 percent.

But it wasn’t all downside. Gregory’s hydration and daypacks continued strong through spring, and Mountain Hardwear sold lots of hiking pants to people who turned to outdoor workouts when coronavirus closed gyms.

“It’s really an inventory game,” said Mountain Hardwear President Joe Vernachio. Like many outdoor brands, Mountain Hardwear is doing everything it can to help retailers sell what they can—including swapping out winter items for spring gear, paying retailers a 40 percent commission on Mountain Hardwear sales, and lengthening billing terms. Mountain Hardwear is urging retailers to accept deliveries when possible. After all, says Vernachio, product “has zero chance of selling in our distribution center.”

April 2020

Accelerated discounting

Manufacturers and retailers typically delay discounting until late in the season, but this year, the sales started in April. According to Vernachio, the industry experienced an unofficial yet widespread “MAP (minimum advertised price)” holiday during which pricing dipped by 20 to 25 percent. Such sales help brands and retailers (especially those with ecommerce platforms) convert inventory to cash. But, said Flylow’s Abrams, “After June 1, Flylow and its retailers returned Flylow’s Spring ’20 product to full price.”

April through May 2020

Balky Spring ’21 planning

Many brands are pushing back product updates that had been planned for Spring ’21 because such items would relegate Spring ’20 items to the clearance rack. “We want to support our retailers by allowing them to sell through the inventory they have,” said Gregory Vice President John Sears. Across the industry, he also expects to see fewer new-product launches for Spring ’21. Brands such as Carve Designs and Mountain Hardwear are eliminating marginal styles that weren’t likely to be high-volume sellers.

Brands are also extending the timeframe for retailer orders. “We’re preparing for a longer selling season for Spring ’21,” said Abrams. For Flylow, that could mean weaker forecasting, since the company expects to have to place its factory orders before it confirms retailers’ demands. Mountain Hardwear, however, will shift its factory buyout (the time it reserves on the Asian production lines) by a month to line up with delayed orders.

Fall 2020

Delayed and staggered shipments

At the very first signs of trouble in early 2020, brands rushed to scale back their orders with factories in an attempt to avoid Fall ’20 surplus. And as Winter ’20-21 arrives, brands may consider delaying deliveries to retail—so that the season’s products appear in stores later than they typically would. “Honestly, we’re happy about that,” said Vernachio, “because it seems like winter arrives a little later every year, so waiting until March to bring spring in is probably the right timing.”

Sears says Gregory is mulling the benefit of delivering certain categories on January 1 as usual, with other types of product following behind. “Maybe we could introduce daypacks earlier in the year, with other packs arriving later,” Sears suggested. “And that way, we wouldn’t have new product replacing old product right away in stores.”

Spring 2021

Uncertain sales strategy

Some brands are aiming to replay Spring ’20 product in Spring ’21, so that retailers can sell through the glut. “Spring ’20 will feel fresh [in Spring ’21] because it didn’t really get a full season,” said Sears. Thus Gregory plans to re-run its lauded Paragon and Maven backpacks. However, cautions Vernachio, leaning solely on past-season goods risks looking stale. “It’s a balance,” he explained. “We’re still going to have a lot of fresh new ideas and fabrics.”

Spring 2022

Gear development impacts

Spring and Summer 2020 is when brands design Spring ’22 gear, but this year, social distancing eliminated in-person evaluations with fit models, prototype testing, and trips to factories to discuss nascent designs, slowing the process.

Lengthy trickle-down

Returning to “normal” timelines after the Spring ’20 surfeit may take a surprisingly long time. Some predict normal timing won’t resume until Spring ’22. But the silver lining is the resiliency of the outdoor sector—which has historically weathered economic downturns better than most. When the coronavirus closed ski resorts in March ’20, Abrams saw a spike in sales of backcountry gear, and he expects hiking and outdoor leisure to follow suit. “When times are tough, people axe the exotic vacations and go camping,” he said.

This story originally ran in the Summer 2020 issue of The Voice.

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In front of a room of journalists in March, Jonathan Nielsen described himself as really good snowboarder, a frequent mountain biker, and an adequate climber. The audience chuckled and the Backcountry CEO took a pause before spilling his excitement over the company’s biggest namesake product expansion to date. The collections—climb, apparel, and travel launched for spring/summer that week, mountain bike launched a few weeks ago, and ski and snowboard launch later this year—not only build on the company’s first foray into gear making in 2018, but mark a new era for the brand that was founded in 1996 by two ski bums.

After his presentation at the headquarters in Park City, Utah, şÚÁĎłÔąĎÍř Business Journal sat down with Nielsen for a one-on-one interview to discuss the company’s growth, first as a service and now as a brand. He told us that Backcountry’s customers have evolved to identify themselves by more than one outdoor activity—they’re climbers, cyclists, runners, yogis, snowboarders, skiers, mountain bikers, and more. And it’s part of Backcountry’s strategy to develop the best gear possible, based on feedback from millions of customers over 20 years.

On pushback from other brands when Backcountry decided to make its own gear:

“There’s been less pushback than I expected. It’s 2019. Everyone gets where we’re going from an industry perspective. Not everyone loves it, but they understand it and it’s a sound decision and the right thing to do for all of our businesses. The best retailers and brands are trying to get closer to having a deep relationship with customers. We’ve got to do what’s right for our customer and what’s healthy for our business. Our customer wants Backcountry product. They’ve said it over and over again. When I get questions about pushback, I flip it on its head and say, for us in an Amazon-driven world, we need to have unique product that enriches our brand and will make our business healthy. The healthier we are as a business, the better we’re going to partner for you. Similar to how brands go direct to consumer and that makes you healthy, building our own product ultimately makes us a healthier business.”

On bringing brands together for the collection:

“Because we’re this hybrid retailer becoming a brand, we can bring people together. If you look at our touring collection last year, it was Flylow, DPS, Black Diamond. This year, it’s Black Diamond and DPS again, Edelweiss, Metolius, So iLL, Gore-Tex, and Burton. There’s not really another paradigm where those all come together—outside of just a traditional retail setting—to create a full kit together. I think we have a unique ability to do that. We have a consumer they all want to reach.”

On giving the ever-evolving customer what they want:

“We’ve really embraced this notion of lifestyle. Twenty years ago, people were like, I’m a skier. We find that our customers do multiple sports and they actually want to wear apparel that represents who they are. We have a lot of great brands that hit that hit that nexus of outdoor. There’s a trend with athleisure. You go to a climbing gym, everyone is climbing in leggings. It’s comfortable and it works and it looks great. We have brands like Alo and Beyond Yoga. They hit that combination, especially for our female customer, of functional, looks great, performs. It’s everyday wear, plus you can climb in it. Everyone’s doing it. One of our bestselling products in 2018 was our female fleece-lined tight. We sold out of it.”

On selling on Amazon:

“One of the levers that Amazon uses to get brands to join is if you’re not on, they don’t police gray market and they let it be the wild west. They say, hey if you come on, we’ll get rid of all this gray market stuff for you. We do participate in the marketplace as a third-party seller, but that’s a direct function of whether our brand partners are on Amazon or not. In a perfect world, we would love specialty to be specialty. But I understand. Roughly 50 percent of all e-commerce growth comes from Amazon, so I get it. Brands need to tap into that channel and if they’re going to do that, what we like to do is help them think through it because we’re actually quite good at e-commerce and quite good at the Amazon ecosystem.”

On the health of brick-and-mortar retail:

“I don’t think retail is going away, it’s just different. Retail used to be just a function of location, right? When there’s no internet, it’s like, I own this location and therefore that is convenience. The internet blew that up. Now, you have to tell a story, you have to offer the customer something different than just a spot down the street. I think for a lot of retailers, it’s hard.”

On the inspiration for the Gearhead program:

“I think everyone thinks technology is here to destroy everything. I don’t have that view. And Gearheads are a great example. We actually think that personalization for us is less algorithmic and more people—it’s the people that enrich the website experience. You used to just walk down the street and say, yeah you’re my person. We take that local shop experience and give you access to it in a 2019 kind of way.”

On what’s next for Backcountry:

“The backcountry brand is here to stay. We had a small launch in 2018 and we’re taking a giant step forward in 2019. I think you’ll see continual large steps forward. Our goal is to become a major outdoor brand on the product side and continue to do what we’ve always done on the retail side and lean in to our Gearhead program.”

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