Race Face has decided to put more emphasis on the brand’s apparel line, seeing some real opportunity for growth in what the company describes as “all the fairly ubiquitous cycling apparel on the market.” The Vancouver based component company made their first move and hired award winning apparel designer Cheryl Knopp, who has held the VP of Product development position at Arc-teryx as well as various free-lance design positions with Mountain Hardwear and Blurr.

Knopp’s design work has resulted in many industry awards, including several PolarTec Apex awards for items in the Mountain Hardwear, Blurr and Arc’teryx lines that she designed; an ISPO Best of Show award for the Mountain Hardwear Synchro jacket; the European Outdoor Industry “Product of the Year” award for the Arc’teryx Theta AR jacket; as well as Backpacker Magazine’s Editor’s Choice for the Arc’teryx Theta LT jacket.

“Apparel is currently 20 percent of the Race Face business and we expect to double that in the next two years, even as our component market share grows,” said Race Face president, Craig Pollack.