The most prominent redline in the apparel categories is clearly embroidery. Bonfire has included several embroidered highlights on its men’s and women’s technical pieces. In addition the company is positioning some of its apparel lines a bit differently. This will be the first full season that Alex Birch, the company’s director of marketing and creative will be with the team, and he has implemented some changes to the way the line is structures. Instead of creating a men’s line and paralleling those fashions with women’s versions, Bonfire is now designing each line from the ground up. The company has also discontinued its Kinetic brand. The technical alpine-climbing inspired apparel is now positioned as a new more youth oriented line under the Bonfire brand.


Obermeyer has increased their offerings this year and has touched on several developing trends. Retro seems to be on the upswing in ski apparel this year. Both Obermeyer and Napapijri have ‘10th Mountain Division’ inspired lines. Obermeyer in particular has launched several men’s and women’s wool jackets which the company has dubbed ‘techno-wool,’ or wool outerwear with a traditional look, but performance features like water and wind resistance. Obermeyer has also introduced the “Retro Bomber Darma.” This is a bomber style jacket in vibrant colors with faux fur hood.

Fur is making its way into nearly every corner of the apparel and even the après footwear lines. Obermeyer, Burton, and Bonfire are all putting fur and faux fur linings on their hoods, while Tecnica is seeing very solid sell-in out of its “Scandia” of fur footwear. Even though the company has managed to resurrect the Moon Boot with great success, The Scandia is still Tecnica’s best selling line of après footwear.

On the performance end of the brand, Tecnica has expanded its top-end Diablo line to include several tuned-down versions of the race boot. At the same time the company has completely re-addressed the women’s market with the new Attiva line of boots incorporating design features like narrower heel pockets, and gender specific.