Helly Hansen, a technical outdoor brand, appointed Waypoint Outdoor as its exclusive U.S. nationwide master sales representative for both the sportswear and work-wear wholesale businesses.

Waypoint has a successful track record in helping to build leading brands in the U.S. outdoor market. This partnership is designed to leverage Helly Hansen’s brand development, design and innovation strengths with Waypoint’s deep U.S. outdoor experience and relationships to accelerate building Helly Hansen’s U.S. specialty wholesale business to scale.

Bob Holding, partner at Waypoint Outdoor and former senior vice president at Arc’teryx, will lead the Helly Hansen business for Waypoint. As part of the transition, Waypoint will enfold the existing Helly Hansen USA Sales Directors, their teams and independent agents into the Waypoint organization to become a nationwide agency. The transition of the sales functions to Waypoint will take place on September 1, 2017, enabling Waypoint to prepare for the Fall/Winter 2018 season.

Helly Hansen’s USA headquarters will remain in Sumner, WA, for the consumer facing activities of marketing, e-commerce and customer service, as well as finance, supply chain and logistics.

New growth strategy
The new long-term growth strategy deployed in early 2015 is based on the ethos that “Helly Hansen makes professional grade gear to help people stay and feel alive,” tapping into Helly Hansen’s deep 140-year Norwegian heritage.

Identified initiatives to deliver sustainable growth, improve productivity and re-focus the business include:

  • Developing a strong brand with a focus on core categories, countries and channels.
  • Strengthening recognition as the brand that professionals use, trust and recommend to their peers and clients.
  • Securing a position as a leader in providing technical performance products in the mountains and on
    the sea – led by Skiing and Sailing – while also building a premium position in Mountain, Baselayer,
    Urban and Workwear.
  • Building a consumer-centric organisation investing in brand development and innovation funded by
    improved financial performance and a leaner supply chain.

Paul Stoneham, CEO of Helly Hansen, said, “We are excited about partnering with Waypoint to develop a new go-to-market model that builds on the strengths of both organizations to accelerate Helly Hansen’s USA growth. Over the last 20 years, Waypoint Outdoor has repeatedly proven themselves to be a world-class sales agency. This new longterm partnership will leverage our international brand and product strengths with Waypoint’s deep customer experience to accelerate building Helly Hansen to scale in the USA.”

Jim Purdy, founder at Waypoint Outdoor, said, “Helly Hansen is one of the pioneers in our industry with over 140 years of product innovation, serving professionals and consumer alike. With its strong brand and award-winning products, we’re confident we can bring HH to a leadership position in the US. We could not be more motivated to be working with the HH team in the US and Norway. We also see this as a significant shift in the industry as we cut new ground as a National Sales Agency.”

Bob Holding, partner at Waypoint Outdoor, said, ”There’s a tremendous amount of change in the outdoor marketplace today. We know we can build the Helly Hansen business with a strategy around a specialty distribution, focused product initiatives and operational consistency. We believe Helly Hansen represents the opportunity to be the first European Brand to truly take a leadership position in apparel in the U.S. outdoor market.”

Photo courtesy Helly Hansen