As creative director of the Merrell Apparel brand, Tobin Teichgraeber led a custom team of designers and marketers to build Merrell’s new apparel platform. His experience in strategic marketing, brand planning and launching and expanding brand categories in the outdoor sector contributed to the successful launch of the line at OR winter Market and ISPO this year.

Previously, he was the vice president of product and marketing at Helly Hansen where he revitalized and repositioned the Mountainsports division, and reorganized the various Helly Hansen apparel segments into one coherent story.

Prior to Helly Hansen, Teichgraeber spent six years at adidas-Salomon where he spearheaded the development, design, marketing and global launch of Salomon Snowboards in 1996, including the acquisition of Bonfire snowboard apparel.  Tobin entered the apparel industry as a head retail buyer at Blades in New York City in the early nineties.

What was the motivation to launch an apparel line?
I would answer that in a couple of different ways. First of all, I would say that Merrell sees that there is an evolution in the consumer market and our customer faces a lot of different environments and conditions and they have a desire to look great and feel great. So, from our perspective, there are certain demands that are out there for apparel and certain needs that aren’t being met today. We really wanted to bring a modern take on what outside apparel could be. Knowing what we know from our experience in footwear, where we tried to bring a fresh design perspective, and re-energized the existing category of outdoor footwear, we thought we could do the same in outdoor apparel and essentially redefine and re-energize outdoor apparel as a category.

What are the points of differentiation?

For me, the biggest difference between our approach and what is in the market today is that we have literally looked at what is shaping the markets today and the evolution and state of affairs in the outdoor industry and we have built a team specifically to addressing that evolution. We summarize it as modern outside. We built a global team of people with an incredibly strong skill set in technical outdoor apparel and we also merged that with a great sense of style – people with the ability to bring some flavor and some excitement and appeal to the products. So, it’s this collision of performance and style that we really try to deliver.
I think it’s also important to note that we are doing it on a global basis. So, we have an international team. I think that starting from square one with building an international line as our mission, and with what we saw as a ripe opportunity in the marketplace, these allowed us to create a team that is really dedicated to that goal.

Who do you see wearing Merrell Apparel?

I guess I need to start with the brand overall. In footwear, we have a very well-balanced business. We have about 50% of our sales in women’s globally, about 40% in men’s and about 10% children’s. It’s a very broad brand in footwear today. Entering the apparel market, we want to also develop a very balanced business. We have a very gender directed collection for men and also for women. Everything was conceived from concept all the way through to finished product specifically for men or for women. We don’t have children’s product today – so talking about the adult market, we are balanced male to female. In terms of common traits or attitudes, it’s not about a specific age group, but more about the optimism, athleticism and active lifestyle – people who enjoy getting outside. We use the term trend-right quite a bit. This means people who are aware of what’s happening in their products – people who are curious.

I wouldn’t necessarily classify it as an urban lifestyle brand – we are definitely an outdoor brand. We have tried to infuse more of a classic outdoor feel, or maybe an expedition oriented look. Some of it is more of a modern style-relevant look. So you will see products that do fit people’s lifestyles. The important factor here is that people are very time-squeezed today. As much as we like to get outside, we don’t have as many opportunities to do it as we would like. When we are able, we also need to squeeze it into an already busy day.


You have taken the collection to both OR and ISPO, do you have an early read on how retailers are reacting to the line?

Orders are changing week to week, but the read right now is very healthy. It’s basically a 50/50 split by gender. We’re very pleased with the early read so far.


What about key products – is there anything in particular that retailers have really taken to?

The products that people are most interested in are the ones that have the biggest story to tell. A couple of key items of interest – one is the Bio Blend story, which is basically an umbrella story that we brought to market where we are working with sustainable materials – organic cotton, merino and various merino blends. That’s been a really strong story for us and it’s represented in our sportswear products, sweaters and some next-to-skin applications as well. It has really caught the attention of the market.

Also, we have taken merino out of the functional base-layer world and turned it into a wearable wardrobe staple. Our Slick-Seam collection, which is a very tight collection of three pieces for men and three pieces for women, are all made from laser cut, CNC controlled equipment, and welded together without stitching. Those have been very strong attention getters and we are very excited about those as well.


As far as the reception from retailers in the U.S. versus Europe – was one stronger than the other?

I didn’t really split it up as one or the other in my own viewpoint, but Merrell is a relatively newer brand in Europe – you know we have over two decades experience in the states and only close to ten years in most European markets. There was strong momentum in both markets, and to be honest a great reception at both shows. I was super busy at both shows so I didn’t have a lot of time to sit back and compare the two.

We’re also having strong sell-in in Asia, South America, and throughout the southern hemisphere. So, the launch is fully global.


What about distribution?

What we are seeing is exactly what we were expecting, which is the outdoor trade is clearly our primary distribution channel, particularly outdoor specialty. This channel is really the early adopter – they cater to people who are looking for new things, fresh ideas and new products. This tends to be the same people who are interested in our product. It’s exactly as we had hoped – the outdoor specialty shops are really intrigued and are showing a strong interest.

In addition, Merrell has quite a few Merrell retail stores. Here in the states its not a big presence yet, but globally there are quite a few. Having an apparel collection does help to complete the brand and tell the brand story. So we are looking at things like Merrell retail and learning how to better utilize the web.


What is the team currently working on?

A lot of what we were doing at the shows was pre-lining spring ‘08. That line is coming along great. We’ve initiated sample production already and we’re very excited. It will be a slight increase from fall ‘07 – total style count will put us around 120 pieces. We’re really excited so, you’ll have to wait and see. You know, building something from scratch is never easy, but each season the outlook gets more and more optimistic.