The New York Times magazine recently published an article, “The Evolution of Fleece, From Scratchy to Snuggie”, which takes a historical look at the product category Polartec invented.

Polartec fleece products are now more lightweight, warm, functional, versatile and durable than ever. And we keep working to make them better.

The Evolution of Fleece, From Scratchy to Snuggie

By HILARY GREENBAUM and DANA RUBINSTEIN

Published: November 25, 2011

Even in the heyday of the polyester age — during the height of John Travolta and white bodysuits — when people wanted to stay warm, they still wore wool. And that venerable material had its downsides. It was notoriously itchy. When it got wet, it stank. And moths liked to eat it.

By the late 1970s, however, Malden Mills, a Massachusetts textile maker that specialized in baby bunting, began experimenting with polyester’s outdoorsy potential. Under the direction of the mill’s owner, Aaron Feuerstein, a team of engineers wound superfine polyester yarn into a dense fabric resembling terry cloth, only lighter. After its fibers were brushed, the fabric’s volume greatly increased; they also provided insulation and could wick water away.

In 1981, through an unusual collaboration with Yvon Chouinard, owner of a little-known mountaineering outfitter called Patagonia, Feuerstein introduced his invention to the burgeoning sportswear market. “We had the finest technical group, engineering group and research group in the textile industry,” recalls the father of fleece. “We built performance into the fabric. We were so proud of what we did.”

“GAP HAD IT TO THE MAX”

The first-generation fleece, called Synchilla (as in synthetic chinchilla), was used in Patagonia’s seminal Snap-T pullover (1985), which was subsequently made famous by family ski trips across the Northeast. “For many, many years,” says Rob Bondurant, vice president of marketing at Patagonia, “Synchilla was the Kleenex of fleece, if you will.”

Within a decade, however, fleece had become an inescapable element of daily life. And just as the fabric’s lightness appealed to sportsmen, its colorfulness, lack of fur and relative inexpensiveness made it, in a word, trendy. Scott Schulman, who runs The Sartorialist, a popular style blog, is reminded of the transformation that jersey went through after Chanel used it in her early collections. Before that, he says, jersey “was thought of as underwear fabric.”

Eventually, Lands’ End, L.L. Bean and others incorporated fleece in everything. “In the late ’90s, Gap had it to the max,” explains Ingrid Johnson, a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology. According to Nate Simmons, director of marketing at Polartec, the successor company to Malden Mills, “It completely changed the way the world dresses for cold weather.”

COMING IN FROM THE COLD

Ever since its early days, fleece has been continuously improved. The yarn — now about as fine as cashmere — was honed to prevent the fabric from pilling and wind from blowing through. As a result, the unmistakable fuzzy material is unusually lightweight and warm — an unreasonable expectation only a synthetic could fulfill. In 1993, Patagonia and Polartec began exploring how to make fleece from recycled content. The first iterations, however, were fraught with issues; they were also scratchy. By 2006, though, they were able to make recycled fabrics at costs comparable to the original.

Beyond embracing environmental issues, fleece’s greatest impact has probably been on the eco-chic fashion industry that blossomed around it. No longer does a man, come winter, have to hide his svelte figure beneath dowdy layers of down and wool. And no longer does he have to wear it outdoors. Lands’ End, for instance, uses fleece for monogrammable dog jackets with reflective trim, beanbag covers and Christmas stockings. Of course, for $10 anyone can enjoy the Snuggie, a fleece blanket cum smock that no mountain climber ever could have imagined.

UTMB® (Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc®) : considered the “queen” race of the event. 2,500 participants, 170km and 9,700m of positive altitude change. 46 hour time limit.
TDS® (sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie): 122 km and 7,100m of positive altitude change. 1,200 Participants. 31 hour time limit.
CCC® (Courmayer – Chamonix- Courmayer): 98km and 5,600m of positive altitude change and 1,800 participants. Time limit is 26 hours.
PTL® (la Petite Trotte à Léon): TEAM RACE made up of 2/3 people. 300 km and 25,000m of positive altitude change. Limit is 138h and 80 teams (teams need to stay together for the whole loop).

This year all UTMB finishers received a finisher vest from The North Face, made with Polartec® Power Dry® High Efficiency fabric. It’s a symbolic gift that the runners will wear with pride for years to come.

Polartec would like to send a big shout out to its own David Gatti, Director of Military Business for Europe, who completed the TDS in 25 hours and 45 minutes, finishing 351st out of 1,200 runners. Of course, David wore a complete Polartec layering system (Power Dry T-shirt, Power Dry High Efficiency longsleeves, Neoshell Jacket). Congrats to David on his second UTMB finish!

To read a complete recap of the race, check out irunfar.com and the North Face Journal.

Enjoy some photos and video from the UTMB below.

This month, Sari appears in Outside magazine as one of the “Mutants Next Door”- real people with families and jobs competing at the elite level and (trying to) make it all work.

The article, on newsstands now with Stephen Colbert on the cover, goes on to say that Sari “has a knack for finding her way to the podium. In January, Sari placed second in the Ski Mountaineering U.S National Championships. She also won the coed duo category of the 24 Hours of Moab mountain bike race in 2010 and mopped up a field of pros at the 2008 Mountain Bike Marathon. She also won the 2009 Teva Mountain Games Ultimate Mountain Challenge and the 2008 XTerra World Championship. Thats all the more impressive considering the 32 year old juggles her training and part time office job with a full-time job raising 2 kids with her husband, Ian.”

Check out Sari’s blog post discussing the interview, photo shoot and how it feels to be called a mutant.

Nick, with his mutant tele skills, decided to climb Colorado’s Pyramid Peak (14,018ft) this weekend, and posted some pictures of the epic ascent. Not a bad Saturday morning.

And it goes a little somethin’ like this- “For 35 years, Gore-Tex has dominated the market for waterproof, breathable fabrics, but this spring it has some competition. Textile maker, Polartec, has developed its own waterproof, breathable fabric that threatens to trump Gore-Tex’s latest. We put both through the wringer to see which stands out.”

The Rab Stretch Neo Jacket with Polartec NeoShell went head to head with Millet’s Trilogy Limited GTX with Gore-Tex Active Shell.

The Results: (drum roll please)-”All four testers consistently felt more comfortable in the 17oz Polartec shell, despite the Gore-Tex jacket being 3oz heavier. Testers had to physically air out the Gore-Tex jacket by unzipping its armit vents, whereas sweat evaporated quickly out of the ventless Polartec.”

Needless to say, we are thrilled at the review and it’s a great Monday at Polartec.

Here’s what the editors said- “The Kishtwar just might be the ultimate soft shell. It’s made with a brand-new fabric from Polartec that somehow manages to be impressively breathable but also remarkably tough, windproof, and water-resistant,’” said Sam Moulton, Buyer’s Guide Editor at Outside magazine. “Add it all up and you’ve got a versatile soft shell for everything from backcountry skiing to cool-weather hiking.”

The holy grail of softshell jackets, the Kishtwar Jacket is designed for highly aerobic endeavors in foul weather. Polartec Power Shield Pro allows a high rate of air permeability that significantly improves moisture transport compared to softshells that do not allow airflow, while offering superior water resistance. The hydrophobic, microporous, polyurethane membrane stops water from penetrating while still allowing airflow. The Kishtwar features high abrasion resistance, four-way stretch and non-restrictive fit.

“Serious outdoor athletes and guides have been asking for a fabric like Polartec Power Shield Pro for years,” said Nate Simmons, Global Director of Marketing for Polartec. “Recent breakthroughs in membrane technology have finally made this combination of water resistance and air permeability possible. The North Face created an all-business jacket with the Kishtwar that will answer the needs of the most demanding users.”

Outside magazine’s Buyer’s Guide features the latest and greatest of outdoor product and gear, as the ultimate guide for outdoor enthusiasts. Outside’s testing team looked at more than 50 of the best new jackets, and put a dozen through the paces on a wide variety of conditions, activity and terrain, including a mountain climb in Iceland, a trek to Mount Everest Base Camp in Nepal, and an adventure race in Patagonia.

The North Face Kishtwar Jacket was also awarded “Gear of the Year” by National Geographic Adventure. http://on.natgeo.com/9ellZK

The Kishtwar is available now. To see it in action, watch this video.

Read the entire article- Vanity Fair’s “Official Preppy Reboot”

Excerpt from True Prep-
If, in 1980, you had whispered to friends that within the next few decades America would elect a thin, black, preppy, basketball-playing lawyer to be president, they would have laughed at you and exhaled in your face, inside the restaurant or club where you were sitting. And, if you predicted that one day all our children would have little portable phones stuck in their pockets so that they could not answer us when we called them from our little phones, we would have again exhaled in your face—indoors—and said you were talking science fiction.

The revolution began in 1981, at a company then called Malden Mills in Lawrence, Massachusetts, manufacturers of textiles including the wool for uniforms in World War II. A place like Malden Mills is populated by textile engineers who spitball, “mess around with fabrics,” and then refine, according to spokesman Nate Simmons. They work collaboratively with clothing manufacturers, as they did in this case with Patagonia. What came off the looms in the early 80s was pure synthetic, soft, quick-wicking, quick-drying, and machine-washable. It did not fade, and changed the wardrobes of athletes forever. Its Malden name was Polarfleece; its Patagonia name was Synchilla.

The new book also sites some new “Prep Careers for the New Millennium”, included in which is ‘Ski Bum’, a profession we are proud to associate with, alongside anyone working hard to support days off on rock, in rivers, on the slopes or anywhere else that requires a little less popped collar and a little more, “Where the hell are we?”

Yvon Chouinard product testing

To read the entire interview on ESPN Freeskiing, click here. Read below for excerpts. Story by Devon O’Neil, photos by Aaron Chance-ESPN.

Greg Hill is a skier unto himself, and not just because he once climbed and skied 51,100 vertical feet in 24 hours, or because he will probably notch 270 days on snow this year, or because his short film “The Unbearable Lightness of Skiing” was a Banff finalist a few years back, or because he failed his ski guide exam in 2009 yet still maintains a backcountry profile that is as admired as any in North America.

At the time of our interview on June 25, Hill had summited and skied 44 peaks this year, topping out on 16,644-foot Mt. Steele, the 10th highest in North America. He spoke via a spotty Skype connection in Las Trancas, Chile, where he is skiing volcanoes and hanging out with his wife Tracey, a part-time waitress and full-time mom; daughter Charley, 4; and son Aiden, 3, as he pursues his 2-million-foot objective.

Just this week, we gave an APEX Award to Vaute Couture Inc., a cruelty-free and sustainable design label founded by Leanne Mai-ly Hilgart, for her Vaute Coat, which uses Polartec Wind Pro® fabric. A Chicago-native, Hilgart spent eight months researching fabrics and searching for innovative manufacturers before launching her line. Needless to say, we are honored that she chose us.

Not only did the Voute Couture Vaute Coat show up earlier this year in Teen Vogue, but the El Coat was just spotted on the FOX hit, BONES, worn by the show’s star, Emily Deschanel, while playing a very fashionable forensic scientist.

While she may be studying dead bodies on the clock, Deschanel fortunately spends her free time hunting down eco-deals, and picked the El Coat, alongside Vaute Couture tank tops, as some of her favorite eco-friendly finds in this month’s Marie Claire magazine.

Polartec has never looked better. Thanks Emily and Leanne!

Meet the Designer: Check out the interview video below to meet Leanne Hilgart of Vaute Couture, learn why she started the company and see what exactly this brand new label is all about.

Karina, Karen, Paul and Jordan at Everest Base Camp

This news is a little old by now, but we’re happy to report that Jordan, Paul and Karen are now safely off the mountain and have arrived back in Kathmandu. After a over a month on Everest, they’re thrilled to have hot showers, telephone and internet access. Sticking to his goal of offering inspiration to other kids, Jordan has already scheduled his first school visit.  From Jordan’s Facebook page:

Jordan at age 9 in front of the mural at his school that started it all

“Stop #1- Rato Bangala School-the ‘harvard’ of middle schools here in Kathmandu, Nepal- 400 students get sneak preview at the new presentation by Jordan. 400 autographs. Need new sharpie.”

We’re incredibly happy for Jordan and proud to have supported him for over two years now. We’re also looking forward to being a part of his upcoming climb of Mt Vinson in Antarctica – the final peak in his Seven Summits quest.  As Jordan continues to be swarmed by the mainstream media we’re happily telling people, “we knew him when.”

For Immediate Release

Two-time Polartec Challenge Grant Recipient Jordan Romero, Age 13, Sets Everest Record

05.28.2010 – (Lawrence, Mass.) On Saturday May 22, at the age of 13, two-time Polartec® Challenge Grant recipient Jordan Romero became the youngest person ever to summit Mt. Everest. Later this year, Romero plans to climb Mt. Vinson in Antarctica, thereby successfully completing his quest to conquer the Seven Summits.

Jordan, who is from Big Bear, California, climbed Everest with his father, his father’s girlfriend and three Sherpa guides. The team arrived safely back at base camp on the Chinese side of the mountain today.

Polartec supported Jordan’s Everest climb through its annual Polartec Challenge Grant, which provides financial and product support to expeditions around the world. Jordan and his family were outfitted with a full range of technical Polartec baselayers, insulation and weather protection garments, helping them to stay warm and dry on the Earth’s highest mountain.

“We’re incredibly proud of Jordan and his family and happy to be long-time supporters,“ states Polartec Global Marketing Director Nate Simmons. “As our country faces epidemic levels of childhood obesity and inactivity, role models like Jordan are critically important to both the outdoor industry and the health of our nation.”

Jordan began his quest for the Seven Summits in July 2006, when he successfully climbed 19,340-foot Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. In April 2007, Jordan summitted Mt. Kosciuszko in Australia, in July he climbed Mt. Elbrus in Russia and in December of the same year, he broke the record as the youngest person to summit Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina.

Last year, Jordan, climbed 20,030-foot Denali (Mt. McKinley) in Alaska and tied the record for the youngest person to summit the highest mountain in North America. Finally, in the summer of 2009, Romero climbed the Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia.

Jordan’s sights are now set on Antarctica’s 16,000-foot Vinson Massif.

About Jordan Romero
Jordan Romero is a 13-year-old boy from Big Bear, Calif. with big dreams. Born on July 12, 1996, Jordan hopes to become the youngest person to climb the Seven Summits – the highest peaks on each continent.

Many of you have probably seen the recent media coverage of Jordan Romero as he prepares to climb Mt. Everest later this month. For those of you who don’t know, Jordan is a 13-year-old from Big Bear, California, who has already climbed five of the Seven Summits. He’s also a two-time recipient of the annual Polartec® Challenge Grant.

Two years ago, we received Jordan’s first grant application. At the age of 12, he had already climbed Mt. Kosciuszko in Australia, Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Mt. Elbrus in Russia, Aconcagua in Argentina and Denali in Alaska, arguably the most challenging of the Seven Summits. Because of the high costs of travel and permits, Jordan applied for a Polartec® grant to help fund his climb of Mt. Carstenz in Indonesia. At the time, we reviewed Jordan’s application very carefully — certainly his age was both inspiring and a reason for concern. We had the opportunity to spend time with Jordan and his family at the Outdoor Retailer Show in Salt Lake City that year and we were impressed by his maturity and sincerity. We awarded him the grant in 2009 and Jordan bagged the peak.

In his attempt to become the youngest person to climb the Seven Summits, Jordan has become a role model and mentor for other children, speaking at schools about climbing, exercise and the outdoors. In a recent Special Report on Youth, The Outdoor Foundation examined youth participation in outdoor recreation — profiling the extent and quality of participation among ages 6 to 24. The report revealed that in recent decades — amidst changing technological and social landscapes — the American childhood has rapidly moved indoors, leading to epidemic levels of childhood obesity and inactivity. Role models like Jordan Romero are critically important to the outdoor industry and the health of our country.

Thus, when Jordan applied for a Polartec® Challenge Grant to help subsidize his climb of Mt. Everest this year, we again carefully considered his application, but soon agreed that Polartec® should continue to support his quest. After spending time with Jordan and his family we believe they will make prudent decisions in the mountains and will put safety above glory. We all know there are inherent risks in mountaineering — the effects of altitude, weather, gear and even dealing with cantankerous yaks on the trails — many variables that are beyond human control. We believe Jordan and his family have done everything they can to train and prepare for this climb and will do everything possible to mitigate risks on the mountain. Jordan has big dreams, which are inspiring others, and we’re proud to be one of his supporters.