With a focus on domestic manufacturing and wool fabric innovations, Voormi is taking its backcountry game to the hunting world with its new PHASE-Sc spatially constructed wool textile technology.
By Aaron H. Bible
Don’t blink or you’ll miss it. Voormi’s new line of camouflage moves through the forest and off the company’s shelves, as the brand breaks boundaries in product design and come-to-market strategies.
While SGB broke this story in late October, Voormi announced to the public Dec. 10 that its latest “spatially constructed wool technology” will be called PHASE-Sc textile technology.
Voormi may be a tiny brand, but the changes it is introducing through its sales approach, sourcing and production are huge, to say nothing of the actual products themselves, including Core Construction introduced in January that promises to be “an evolution” in how we view and discuss waterproof breathable, say company founders.
And like other outdoor brands addressing the rejuvenated hunt-fish and performance-hunt markets, Voormi this fall took a step toward meeting the needs of not just skiers and climbers, but woodsmen, hunters and bird watchers, creating a completely unique and effective concealment pattern from its existing fabric technologies.
Men’s Access Camo
Voormi’s new hunting apparel line has been a passion project, particularly for Co-founder and CEO Dan “Butch” English, who started Voormi after a stint as Executive Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Licensing at Mossy Oak, lending him a credibility as difficult to replicate as Voormi’s concealment pattern itself.
English is not only a lifelong hunter, backcountry horseman and fly fisherman, but is a competitive rifle and clay shooter and was a member of the USA Shooting Team (Running Target) from 1980-1983. At that time there was a push to help place Olympic athletes in long-term careers, and English found himself at another small startup called Microsoft, where he spent most of his career and managed several large divisions before taking on the EVP role at Mossy Oak.
The Voormi concealment project is not only bringing new camouflage technology to the table by precision blending various earth toned yarns, but is helping bridge the gap between traditionally defined outdoor and hunt demographics.
Co-founder and CEO Dan “Butch” English.
“It’s something that’s near and dear to my heart personally, and I believe it’s going to change the industry, because no one else is doing what we’re doing,” English said. Voormi is transcending what camouflage has been in the past, consisting of a heat/dye transfer process that has a very flat and shiny look. “We’ve taken the same earth tone colors that you see in nature and created a very unique coloring process at the yarn level; and through our construction techniques we’ve created an interesting tonal technique, but it’s very very effective in the woods. The other reason it’s effective is we’re doing this with our wool based product.”
Continued English, “Most hunting clothes are made with synthetic fibers, which standout in the early morning and evening light. Ours absorb and change with the light. Our fabric is going to look lighter during the day, and will get darker as the sun goes down. It blends in like you would not believe, and because it’s wool, you get all of the properties of wool… natural stench control is built in. And then you throw in all of our unique construction techniques, Core Construction, Surface Hardened – it’s a game changer.”
“We’re not trying to be a hunting company or a camouflage company,” English explained further. “We want to provide an alternative that works across a wide range of uses, for those who want to get close to an animal for whatever reason. And for our customers, those mountain professionals, most of them spend a lot of time in the woods in the fall, waiting for the snow to start falling. They’re used to a performance product, and this is a unique approach that looks incredible and is very effective.”
On top of the field-tested effectiveness of the new camouflage pattern, Voormi’s small batch manufacturing allows it to be extremely nimble in responding to consumer and dealer demand. Its new headquarters and facility in Pagosa Springs, CO, is not only expanding its North American cut and sew commitment, but is bucking the traditional philosophy that as a brand grows it must move away from its small town roots. Voormi is committed to 100-percent North American raw-to-finished fiber production with Rocky Mountain wool, as well as North American textile and finished goods production.
This passion play was born out of English’s desire to “challenge the long held paradigms of mature industries through disruptive technologies and business models,” according to the company. And that’s exactly what Voormi has accomplished since coming to market in 2011.
“We’ve taken a completely different approach. We’re focused on a backcountry experience,” said English in an exclusive SGB interview. “If you follow the typical mountain lifestyle, when you move into fall everybody is in the woods. Our intent was, we can actually do some really cool things with our technology.” And as the brand grows, it will continue to add Colorado- and U.S.-based production- helping smaller sew shops and everyone who touches the product a chance to be a part of something special.
The new textile technology provides Voormi the ability to precisely place colored yarns in a biomimicry pattern for application in performance concealment apparel. PHASE-Sc Technology allows for a new dimension of color to be incorporated into apparel down to the yarn level, says the brand. PHASE-Sc Technology’s precision placement of colored yarn builds a concealment pattern — one thread at a time — throughout the fabric (as opposed to surfaced applied print patterns) and results in a softer, quieter concealment garment with less light reflectivity. PHASE-Sc Technology is a color-blend technology that works in concert with the company’s other fabric technologies that elevate the wool’s durability, odor-resistance, weather resistance, and moisture wicking properties.
Here’s the product lineup:
Alpine Terra Baselayer($129)
Built from the same high performance moisture wicking DUAL SURFACE Precision Blended Wool as our Thermal II base layer, but engineered all the way down to the fiber level to blend seamlessly through the transition from valley floor to high alpine environments. This spatially constructed, phase-dyed wool based alternative to shiny surface printed synthetics transitions naturally with the ambient light conditions, and has quickly become a must have in the quiver of our local guiding community. Now Available.
Blowdown Pullover($199)
Built from the same high performance SURFACE HARDENED Thermal Wool as our Access Midlayer, but engineered all the way down to the fiber level to blend seamlessly in to the backcountry. This spatially constructed, phase-dyed wool alternative to shiny surface printed synthetics transitions naturally with the ambient light conditions, and is the perfect do-it-all thermal for the rugged challenges of blowdown timber navigation. Now Available.
Blur Jacket ($TBA)
Leveraging Voormi’s award-winning, Core Construction Technology, the Blur Jacket will not only blur the boundaries between hard and soft shells, but will keep you quietly concealed as you move through the backcountry. Available Spring 2016.
