At the Helly Hansen Investor Day held Wednesday, September 2 at the Norwegian brand’s headquarters in Oslo, executives from the brand’s new parent company, Kontoor Brands, Inc. revealed plans to double Helly’s revenues over the next five years, largely by further expanding beyond its roots in ski and sailing to reach trail runners, hikers, backpackers, and climbers, with a particular emphasis on U.S. growth.

Kontoor also expects to double the size of Helly’s workwear business, again with an emphasis on the U.S. region that’s just getting started in the category.

Overall, Helly Hansen’s 2030 financial targets call for:

  • Revenue of greater than $1.1 billion, representing a compound annual growth rate of approximately 10 percent and up from $675 million pro-forma revenue in fiscal 2025
  • Gross margin in the mid- to high-50 percent range
  • Operating margin in the mid-teens percent range
  • Cumulative cash generation of more than $500 million through 2030

“Helly Hansen is our growth engine,” said Joe Alkire, president and CFO at Kontoor, at the event. “The mandate is clear: expand aggressively in the U.S. and the Alps and grow in technical outdoor and workwear –  two categories where we have massive opportunity relative to where we are today.”

The growth has three key pillars:

  • Supercharge the U.S.: Drive balanced growth across strategic wholesale expansion and direct-to-consumer channels, increasing brand awareness and distribution in Helly Hansen’s largest growth opportunity.
  • Win in Premium Outdoor: Compete year-round across the premium outdoor market, building on Helly Hansen’s leadership positions in winter sports and sailing while expanding into adjacent technical outdoor activities where the brand already has credibility.
  • Power Workwear: Scale a “proven, profitable” European workwear business into North America, leveraging Helly Hansen’s professional-grade product authority and Kontoor’s regional operating capabilities.

Alkire said, “Technical outdoor and workwear are two key aspects of our business where we have massive opportunity, have earned credibility, and a differentiated right to win. These three initiatives account for the overwhelming majority of the growth in our five-year plan.”

Stronger growth beyond the 10 percent is expected in the latter part of the five-year plan as “the benefits of our early investments begin to scale,” added Alkire. The operating margin rate gains are expected to be driven by “significant gross margin expansion, operational discipline, and increased brand investment,” he added.

Børre Hegbom, global head of Helly Hansen, at the event said Helly Hansen stands out for its heritage, with the brand set to celebrate 150 years in 2027. He said, “We’re one of the oldest brands in this industry today.”

Hegbom added that Helly Hansen also stands out for its innovation and Norwegian design. He noted that Helly Hansen was the first brand to launch the synthetic mid-layer in the sixties and the first to come out with the first synthetic base layer in the 70s.

“What’s unique with Helly Hansen and separates us from the competition is where we play. Most outdoor brands have been on the South Pole, North Pole, and Mount Everest. So have we. But we are one of the very few brands operating on the toughest conditions in the world, the ocean,” said Hegbom. “It’s a completely different ball game. It’s not rain and snow that is the problem. It’s waves of salt water coming over you. So we make one of the most advanced products in this industry today. “

He told attendees that 60 percent of Helly Hansen’s growth over the next five years will come from the U.S.

One newer driver of growth in the U.S. will be the hiring of the first North America general manager for Helly Hansen. C.J. King, who has held leadership roles at Arc’teryx’s North America operation for the last ten years, lastly VP North American Wholesale, ,joined the company as general manager, Helly Hansen, North America, Sport, effective August 31.

Hegbom said he’s been overseeing the U.S. business from Norway over the last ten years and called King’s hiring a “big difference for us.”

Hegbom also expects Helly Hansen to see a huge benefit from becoming part of Kontoor, which acquired Helly Hansen in June 2025. He noted that the majority of Helly Hansen’s owners he has worked under at Helly over his 22 years with the brand have been private equity companies with “a limited approach to investments.” He said Helly Hansen has still been able to deliver growth in the high-single digits over the last 17 years, and expects Kontoor to help accelerate the growth in the years ahead.

Hegbom said of Kontoor, “They understand this business. We speak the same language. They can really help us in the U.S. marketplace. They are U.S. experts. We will have access to Kontoor’s multi-brand platform. That is a big upside for us, and they understand that we need to invest to accelerate growth…I’ve been here for 22 years. This is truly a game changer for Helly Hansen and the people in this company. It’s a new world for us.”

Currently, 30 percent of Helly Hansen’s business comes from the U.S, with Europe making up the majority of the remaining sales. Hegbom further said that while the U.S. generates $150 million in sales and is “already our largest and fastest growing country.” He added that although Helly Hansen has established itself as “one of the most successful European outdoor brands in the U.S. marketplace,” it’s still “relatively small versus the big guys in the U.S. That is something that we now are going after. “

He said Helly Hansen has a “very healthy balance channel mix “ in the U.S., with 55 percent coming from wholesale and 45 percent from DTC (direct-to-consumer). The brand’s not planning to change that balance but expects both channels to grow. Hegbom said 45 to 50 percent of Helly Hansen’s growth will come from wholesale, and 50 to 55 percent from DTC.

Hegbom added that after focusing on specialty accounts to expand Helly Hansen in the U.S. over the last 10 years, a focus going forward will be to increase emphasis on the “key account business,” or national chains. He said the focus will be to increase brand awareness to find success at large accounts. Today, Helly Hansen is in a limited number of national doors, and the goal is to increase the number of doors to 25 percent to 35 percent penetration.

Helly Hansen is also planning to double the size of the e-commerce business by 2030 with a focus on elevating Helly’s website as a “premium full-price destination.” Hegbom added, “We will build a seamless omni-channel experience, and we will deepen capabilities to drive retention, loyalty, and customer lifetime value. E-commerce is very important for us in the U.S. marketplace and is already our biggest region in terms of e-commerce.”

In physical retail, Helly Hansen has 12 stores in the U.S., mainly located in ski and sailing locations. The plan is “not to roll out a ton of stores in the U.S., but to roll out a handful amount of stores in the right locations,” said Hegbom.

Outside the U.S., Helly Hansen plans to focus on growing in the Alps region.  Said Hegbom, “Why are we focusing on the Alps? It’s Europe’s largest outdoor market with a four-season opportunity that fits us perfectly well. It’s already the largest ski market in Europe,  and we have a very strong position in ski.”

Erinn Murphy, global head of finance & operations, Helly Hansen, said Helly Hansen has “an opportunity to drive deeper brand awareness and bring more consumers into the top of the funnel.”

She noted that aided awareness sits at approximately 30 percent in the U.S., which is “well below that of leading global peers in the same category, and in fact, when you look at unaided awareness, we sit at just 3 percent.”

Murphy also elaborated on the growth opportunities Helly Hansen has in outdoor and workwear based on consumer insights. Outdoor or sport represents about 75 percent of Helly Hansen’s business and workwear, 25 percent.

She noted that the outdoor market globally is over $300 billion in size, with Helly Hansen focused on the “premium segment that sits just north of $60 billion.” Workwear is an $85 million global market with Helly Hansen focused on securing a foothold in North America and further expanding in Europe.

She cited several “structural tailwinds” fueling the technical outdoor market. Murphy said, “First, this is a category that is steeped with innovation, has premium pricing, and we expect premium margins over time. Second, it’s an activity-based market. You are seeing the rising tide of participation in several outdoor activities, whether it’s hiking or rock climbing or trail running. These activities are becoming a global movement and ultimately create a sticky and recurring consumer base. Third, this is the fastest-growing part of the market and is projected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 6 percent each and every year through 2030. And finally, this is a segment that allows us to extend the wearing occasions year-round and create deeper relationships with our consumers.”

She said extensive consumer research conducted in Europe as well as in the U.S. shows Helly Hansen is already attracting a “highly engaged, active consumer” with 20 percent of Helly Hanson’s core consumer discovering the brand through one of Helly Hansen’s 55,000 “professionals,” a broad group of athletes such as the Norwegian Alpine ski team, as well as fishermen, search and rescue teams, mountain guides, ski resort workers that the brand works with. Murphy adds, “We also have a performance-driven consumer. In fact, the top purchasing criteria for our consumer is technical performance. Not surprisingly, our consumer is an enthusiast. They ski an average of 16-plus days a year, and finally, they are already active year-round. 75 percent of our core consumer participate in at least three technical outdoor activities.”

This includes 75 percent of core consumers who are hikers, and over 50 percent are trail runners

In the U.S., recent Kontoor survey data shows the Helly Hansen customer skews male but also attracts a “healthy portion” of females too. Seventy-three percent of Helly Hansen’s consumers in the U.S. are under the age of 43, and they represent “high category spenders,” spending $1,500 in the winter sport category on average on a two-year basis.

The survey of U.S. winter sport consumers who had purchased in the category over the last 24 months showed the top four attributes they care about in the category is a brand’s technical performance, being a trusted brand, warmth and weather protection. Against other leading technical outdoor brands, Helly Hansen ranked at the highest in the trusted brand and warmth categories. Murphy said, “The bottom line to us is clear. While our brand is smaller than many of these multi-billion-dollar brands, our consumers already give us disproportionate credit in the most important purchase drivers in the category, and this is our right to win.”

In workwear, Helly Hansen is focused on the North America and Europe that is projected to grow at 6 percent over the next five years.

She said, “We have already built credit in the harshest climate in the world, which is here in the Nordics. And equally as exciting as the tailwinds powering outdoor are the tailwinds powering the workwear market. We all read the same headlines, but this is an industry, particularly in the U.S. that is being reimagined each and every day. The cost of higher education is driving more and more consumers to choose an alternate path away from university.  As a result, you’re seeing multi-year waitlists at trade and vocational programs, and the construction sector is booming. As a result, you’re seeing multi-year waitlists at trade and vocational programs, and the construction sector is booming.”

Murphy said Helly Hansen’s five-year plan intends to double the marketing spend through 2030 but also the brand also expects to shift to a brand-led  from a performance-led marketing approach.

She said, “Prior to Kontoor’s ownership of Helly, on average, we spent about 70 percent of our marketing dollars on performance, and we are flipping that paradigm. We’re also moving more from a fragmented approach across multiple categories and multiple products towards a category-specific story-level storytelling approach. And finally, we’re moving from what has been a centralized marketing team to distinct sport and workwear marketing teams.”

Mike Karapetian, Kontoor’s global brand & operations, finance, said Kontoor expects to build the U.S. business to “at least $500 million, with strong contributions from both premium outdoor and workwear.”

He noted that in outdoor, Helly Hansen doubled the business over the last ten years by focusing on the winter sports and sailing categories. Karapetian said, “The strategy worked. Today we have 1 percent and 4 percent share, respectively, and are a category leader of each. We are now ready to build the third leg of the stool.”

Karapetian noted that similar to those categories, Helly Hansen will focus on targeting “professionals” across trail running, hiking, backpacking, and climbing, to reach the broader outdoor categories. Said Karapetian, “The compelling factor here is the relative size of the technical outdoor market at roughly three times the size of the winter sports market. Relatively small share gains here result in relatively large revenue gains. In fact, just adding 1 percent of incremental market share in the technical outdoor category would equate to more than $400 million of incremental revenue, or almost the entirety of our global plan.”

Among moves being made to capitalize on the broader technical outdoor opportunity, Karapetian called out the hiring of Helly Hansen’s first North American business as general manager, as well as ongoing investments in the product team and in marketing. Said Karapetian, “Over the near term, we will flex marketing spend higher as we drive brand awareness before settling back to more normalized levels in the back half of our plan window, and we will also thoughtfully expand both wholesale and direct to consumer, including modest door growth and digital investment. The sequencing here is critical. Talent and product leads marketing, which in turn leads distribution. “

In workwear, Helly Hansen has found strong success in the Nordics, where its sports and and workwear businesses are largely the same size following workwear’s rapid growth in recent years. Similar to sport, Kontoor plans to galvanize growth in the U.S. by hiring a dedicated North American manager for the category, similar to a move ten years ago made in the Nordics region.

Said Karapetian, “We will replicate this structure globally, starting in the U.S. where relatively small share gains can result in large revenue gains. Similar to sport, it starts with talent. We are establishing a dedicated workwear organization.  We are also investing behind a U.S-tailored product line to augment our global concepts. We’re scaling our marketing investment,  and we’re expanding our digital platform.”

In sum, Kontor expects to grow Helly’s U.S. business to at least $500 million by 2030, or more than 20 percent annual growth, with the rest of the world contributing mid-single-digit growth.

Said Karapetian, “Within sport, our core categories of winter sports and sailing drive the majority of the near-term growth, with technical outdoor accelerating as we scale new product franchises. And within workwear, we expect measured growth over the next few years as we scale organizations and execute against our innovation roadmap.”

Image courtesy Helly Hansen