Chinook Trading has been producing private label footwear for retailers for over a decade now, but has recently decided to launch its own brands in order to build more equity. In charge of the new project is former Kamik Global Marketing VP, Mike Coogan.
Chinook will be launching three separate brands, each targeting a different outdoor audience. CoHo Pacific will be a leisure outdoor lifestyle brand, with some performance characteristics; Ergo Outdoor will be a performance brand that has a more streamlined look, while TrekSta will be the companys all-out performance brand.
Coogan told BOSS that Ergo and TrekSta will both be distributed to specialty outdoor retailers only, while CoHo is more of a “mainstream” brand for general sporting goods retailers. The top-shelf brand, TrekSta, is an Americanized version of the same brand sold in Korea, and is part of a partnership between Chinook and the factory that produces and markets the brand.
“The private label end of the business really gives us the oomph with the factories,” said Coogan, “While the branded division will give us the innovation and technology, but the really nice thing about the branded side is that while there is more marketing and product development involved, the margins are better.”
