What are your thoughts on city-dwellers and everyday consumers wearing performance Arc’teryx products even though they don’t necessarily need them?

DG: It’s funny, isn’t it? But when you think about it, it’s cold in NYC, and you want to be warm. When I first started 20 years ago, one of our little backpacks, the Arro, was making its way into local skate shops. We were so psyched because it happened on its own. We sell tens of thousands of jackets, and we know they’re not all going to alpine climbers. But we’ve never thought, “Oh, other people are buying our products. Let’s start making products for them.” That’s what the user does, right? They take it in and make this cool in their world. It’s like, who cares? Just let the products go where they need to go.

TF: The brand started with a desire to make good products and really good materials, and that ethos has stayed with us all this time. Our products have to be the best. That mentality is one of the things that has kept our brand integrity. There have been a lot of requests over the years asking us to produce something at a lower price, but we choose to stick with our quality even if it’s more than what many people are asking for or need.

EH: Some people may be going on an expedition where they’ll be exposed to extreme elements for days, while others may be waiting at a bus stop. When designing products meant for times when performance gear isn’t necessarily needed, we use the same recipe, toolbox and process as the performance products, except we’re putting them in a different context. We focus on all-day comfort and everyday versatility, while still looking at functionality and performance at the core. The ideal garment takes you from the morning until the end of the day, so you have to be able to switch from cold or wet environments to really hot environments without massive drama. We tend to look at quiet trends as opposed to loud ones, but with all this streetwear hype lately we also have to be somewhat sporty.

Now You Know: Arc’teryx puts its gear through trials to determine if the pieces are up to par. Harnesses are put through strength tests, while fabrics are put through abrasion tests. a lot of the machinery used is tweaked specifically for Arc’teryx products. How do you feel about Arc’teryx’s recent popularity within the streetwear space?

DG: No matter what, we always want to make our products for the highest performer. We’ve always felt like there’s a certain authenticity and depth associated with our products that goes deeper than how they look. Part of our success is that we’re not trying to be trendy. Being in the streetwear world can be really scary if you have your sights set on being a 100-year-old brand because it’s a roller coaster of “you’re hot, you’re not.” So we just stay the course and do what we want to do. There will always be a following for that because it’s truly authentic. The moment we pivot and try to address the streetwear world, we’ll totally lose it.

The longer you hang out in the streetwear space you’ll notice that the brands that are hot today are not going to be there in the future. They may not even exist, or they get gobbled up by a big entity and are never the same. Eventually there’s another new thing that comes along. Tome, trying to stay relevant in that would be stressful. So the best way for us is to just make great stuff. I don’t care who buys it. So when it comes to our success in that space, we’ll take it, but we won’t lose sight of our purpose, which is to make great stuff and welcome everybody.

EH: Well, there’s a huge wave of cultural appropriation of the outdoors. I think the secret for Arc’teryx is that we have always done the same thing. The minute we start to design into this appropriation, that’s when things are going to go really sideways. Authenticity is the key, and that’s what makes us attractive. We can’t really worry about that world right now. We have to worry about building a 100-year-old brand.

TF: I guess we’ve turned into a luxury brand, but it sure has helped us grow. It’s also given us the ability to have some cool development opportunities. It’s been nice to play up our core products without losing our main focus. As long as we can keep making the good sh*t, it’s fine.

