Marmot: Putting people and the planet into perspective - 21 Jul 2007
Marmot is another brand at the Outdoor Show that really started taking action in the eco-friendly trend. They just recently launched a major company wide initiative called “People / Product / Planet™” which not only beautifully encompasses the mainstays of a responsible strategy but also infuses the whole concept throughout their product line.
I met with Marc Wachter (Director Marketing & PR for Europe) and he was ecstatic about this new program and equally enthusiastic when describing the new products illustrative of this new direction. In the course of its new marketing campaign, Marmot’s team has designed a new range of products that include frequent use of environmentally friendly materials and recycled products. They call this “Marmot Upcycle™”, which I think is a pretty nifty name and it includes the usage of raw materials derived from renewable resources such as organic cotton, soy, bamboo and hemp.
The product Marc and I talked a lot about (see picture) was the EcoPro sleeping bag series, 80% of which is made of “Upcycle” insulating material and 100% recycled polyester. The rest of the eco line-up is long, so I won’t go into detail (you can check out their website for more information) but it includes many different sportswear articles (over 45), backpacks and tents.
Because both Marc and I enjoy stories, he told me how Marmot was founded in April 1971. According to the story, University of California Santa Cruz students Eric Reynolds and Dave Huntley were in Alaska on the Juneau Icefields on a school project in Glaciology. It was here on the glacier, amongst these students, that the idea of a Marmot club began. To become a Marmot, you had to climb a glaciated peak with another Marmot. One of the rules of the club was that everyone was president. Most of the other rules dealt with the collegiate fascination with bodily functions.
That summer and through the semesters until 1973, Eric and Dave made prototypes of down products in their dorm room in Santa Cruz. Their first products were a down vest, a sweater and a parka and, later, three down sleeping bags. The warmest bag, the PIKA (now known as the CWM) was rated at -45 degrees F and retailed for $168 at the time. Eric did a winter ascent of the Grand Teton in Wyoming with Tom Boyce of Grand Junction, Colorado in 1973. Eric and Dave joined Tom in Colorado that next Spring. There, the threesome rented a 100 year old stone building near downtown that used to be a grocery store, and opened a rental and retail shop under the name of Marmot Mountain Works. They taught cross-country skiing in the winter to get by. Thus, in the spring of 1974, Marmot the company was born.
Colorful stories such as these are not common. It reminds us that there are real people with authentic values and a true love of the outdoors behind companies that sell outdoor gear. I for one was happy to see that a company which started out as a “club” and grew to sell it’s products worldwide; has taken the time to reorient itself along the same lines that brought it together in the first place.
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