Recently, I heard a very interesting word, called middle-aged three treasures, fishing, Maotai, Archaeopteryx. There is also a female version of Lululemon, Ralph Lauren, and Archaeopteryx.
This combination of three treasures can be replaced in various ways, but only the "Archaeopteryx" firmly occupies a seat.
Once upon a time, storm jackets were at the bottom of the chain of aesthetic contempt, the standard for retired uncles and aunts. But in the past two years, the outdoor wind has risen strongly, storm jackets have become fashionable items, and Archaeopteryx has become a fragrant food for urban hipsters, and the popularity is close to that year's Canada goose.
In addition to being out of the circle, another thing Archaeopteryx has in common with its fellow Canadians is that it is expensive. The official price of a basic hard shell is as high as 4500, and some of the more popular colors can even be sold at a premium of eight or nine thousand.
No wonder everyone says that this is not an archaeopteryx, it is obviously a noble bird.
Here is an experience to share with you: when a product begins to enter the stage of selling color, it means that it has come to the ripening stage of cutting leeks.
For this issue, I even spent a lot of money to be cut and experience it. In this issue, let's talk about how a storm jacket reverses aesthetics and then sells at sky-high prices?
01
Now to talk about the operation of the brand of the ancestor bird, we have to mention Anta behind it.
In 2019, Anta acquired Amerfin, the parent company of Archaeopteryx, for more than 30 billion yuan, including Salomon and Wilson in addition to Archaeopteryx. These brands are basically professional players in many segments, covering outdoor, running, tennis, cycling, skiing and other fields.
Coupled with Descente and Cologne, it is clear that Anta is laying out the high-end sports market. Although the domestic audience of these sports is still much smaller than that of traditional football basketball, there are at least three benefits:
First, these brands are more professional and vertical, with a very fixed consumer group. And with the domestic economy, these projects are in an incremental market. Second, as a high-end brand, the gross profit is relatively high. Third, the acquisition of these brands is a shortcut to overseas markets.
And after the growth of the once cash Fila gradually reached the ceiling, the archaeopteryx of the third growth curve became even more important.
At that time, although Archaeopteryx was already famous in the outdoor circle, it was still a long way from going out of the circle and entering daily and even trendy wear. It can be seen that the explosion of Archaeopteryx and the node of Anta's acquisition of Emmafen are still quite overlapping.
02
At Paris Fashion Week 2020, after the big show of LV's Fall/Winter collection, the late designer Virgil Abloh, then LV Menswear Art Director and founder of Off-White, appeared on the curtain call.
And his outfit is not LV or Off-White, but a Archaeopteryx Alpha SV storm suit, which costs $799.
The storm suit on Virgil quickly became the focus of the media, and in the next Off-White show, Off-White and Archaeopteryx completed a convention-breaking collaboration, outdoor clothing and dresses cross-border integration, attracted enough attention, and also detonated the brand Archaeopteryx.
At the beginning of this year, Archaeopteryx completed a viral spread on the short video platform.
The genesis was that an American photographer named Jason Allred paid $599 for an Archaeopteryx stormtrooper and wanted to test the product's waterproofness, so he shot several videos, including putting his sleeve under a faucet, pouring a glass of water on a hat, showering in a storm suit, and finally jumping into a pool.
The videos were uploaded by him to TikTok and soon exceeded 3 million views, and the number of views grew higher and higher, followed by a large number of imitators. Wearing Archaeopteryx shower, it also became a terrier.
Also in China, on social media, more and more fashionistas put on Archaeopteryx storm jackets, which also made Archaeopteryx break through the boundaries of the outdoors and become a trend.
Here is a simple science, the so-called storm jacket we mentioned here generally refers to the hard shell.
The so-called hard shell is an outdoor coat that uses composite materials, has certain air permeability, and has strong windproof, waterproof and wear-resistant properties. It is said that because the last moment of mountaineering is required to reach the top, it was finally translated into the name storm suit in China.
To be breathable, waterproof and wear-resistant, fabric is of course the top priority. While many outdoor brands have their own fabric technology, generally speaking, high-end product lines use Gore-TEX fabrics, and Archaeopteryx is no exception.
Obviously, the reason why it is called hard shell is precisely because the fabric of these clothes is "hard". And the more series it is designed to cope with extreme outdoor environments, the harder it will be.
In fact, the hard-shell that can wear the shower, the most out-of-the-loop, and the hottest selling is not the most suitable for urban commuting in outdoor clothing. Because most of this thing is prepared for you to climb, and the more professional, the farther away from the comfort you need for everyday life.
Living in a city, there is basically no opportunity and the environment is harsh enough to allow the hard shell to function as it should. At most, you don't need to use an umbrella as a raincoat on rainy days, or carry the howling wind in the northern winter. But think about it, unless there is an occasional rainstorm, the waterproofness that can be used for showers is really overkill. Not to mention that buying a raincoat for thousands of dollars is too luxurious.
In addition, because of the hard shell fabric, daily wear walking, moving, will make a sound, many people are not used to it.
What is really more suitable for daily commuting, as well as light hiking, is actually a soft shell as opposed to a hard shell, and fleece with better warmth.
Because the soft shell is much more breathable and more comfortable in comparison, it is very important in daily wear. And the water-repellent performance is just enough to prevent some light rain, which is much more practical in the city.
As for the popular path of Archaeopteryx from 2020, I'm not sure whether Anta is behind the scenes as a promoter. But at least the fire of Archaeopteryx was vividly reflected in the financial report.
Anta's mid-year financial report shows that Amer has maintained steady growth and its losses have been significantly reduced. In the third quarter financial report, the retail sales of other brand divisions to which Archaeopteryx belonged increased by 40% to 45% year-on-year, a rapid growth rate.
03
If there is any group that most wants to see Archaeopteryx out of the circle, it is most likely to be the former consumers of Archaeopteryx and the people who play outdoors themselves. Because along with the rise in popularity of Archaeopteryx, there is also the price of Archaeopteryx.
Not only that, when Archaeopteryx gradually began to have trend attributes from outdoor brands, the phenomenon of code breakage and out-of-stock became more and more. Not only is the price expensive, but it is often not available.
However, it should be mentioned that Archaeopteryx did not suddenly become expensive.
Previously, an outdoor player made a picture of the outdoor brand "Despise Chain", which was widely circulated. It is generally believed that at the top of the chain of contempt are the three families of birds and elephants, namely Archaeopteryx, mammoths and climbers. And the originator of the fleece I mentioned earlier, Patagonia.
These brands themselves are not cheap, the products are thousands of dollars, and the bird is only one of the most outstanding. The $400 storm jacket is not only expensive for us, but also for foreigners.
But we know that in the past, outdoor clothing represented by storm suits was usually considered very "dirty". So, what makes this outdoor wind blow more and more vigorously, so that it finally catches up with fashion?
Every time I talk about the topic of fashion, I will repeatedly mention a concept: the essence of fashion is actually a kind of right to speak. Whether a style can catch fire or not, the key is who wears it.
Skiing, outdoor, diving and other sports, the audience itself is mostly middle-class, consumption power is relatively strong. Although the Internet says "middle-aged" is mostly a joke about age, it is undeniable that people in this age group have the highest social assets, which is one of the reasons why Archaeopteryx is the "Three Treasures of Middle Age" rather than the "Three Treasures of Youth".
In various film and television works, investment banking elites are always the leaders of suits. But now on Wall Street, the more typical way for financial practitioners to dress is a shirt and a Patagonia vest.
If you replace trousers and leather shoes with Lululemon and Allbirds, it will instantly change from financial style to Silicon Valley style.
The reason why outdoor wind can be popular is precisely because it has attacked the two groups of the financial industry and the Internet industry. In the mainland, too, Archaeopteryx first became the standard for financial practitioners and employees of Internet giants.
For the development of men's clothing, I have always had a violent theory, here to share with everyone, right and listen.
The development of modern men's wear is only related to one thing, that is, occupation.
In general, no matter how men's clothing changes, it is generally divided into four categories: gentlewear, cargo wear, military clothing and sportswear. The various items and styles we look at today are nothing more than evolved and improved from these four styles.
For example, suits are the representative of gentlemen's clothing, coats are mostly the inheritance of military uniforms, jeans, boots are mostly workwear, sneakers, sportswear are from sports. As for the reasons, you are interested in me to talk about it in the future.
The rise of the technology industry has made Silicon Valley entrepreneurs a new generation of wealth icons, while also reshaping fashion trends.
At least on the surface, Internet companies prefer a liberal workplace environment, which also affects the style of dressing. The outdoor, as well as sports and leisure, which is convenient, casual and comfortable, is not so "elite", and the anti-traditional aesthetic style has become the mainstream of these groups.
04
Outdoor gear has been a fashion item for a long time.
As early as the 70s, when outdoor activities were first popular in Japan, clothing designers incorporated local design styles into outdoor brands, so there was the earliest Outdoor Style. Later, functional outdoor equipment was combined with daily clothing to form the Urban Outdoor style, which is commonly known as the "mountain system".
In 2008, after the financial crisis, a style called Normcore began to emerge.
The so-called Normcore is a compound of the English words "Normal" and "Hardcore", which refers to the use of neutral and gentle dress style to create a hardcore expression.
The emergence of Normcore comes at a time when the fashion industry is at its peak, when people are struggling to create differences for fashion, and pursuing trends has become a burden. Anti-fashion and popularization have become a new trend, and people hope to regain authenticity by "grinding out differences".
In this trend, white T-shirts, jeans, white socks and other bland items return to the fashion industry. Since then, various outdoor brands have been absorbed and become part of Normcore.
As Normcore became richer, in 2017, New York magazine's fashion website The Cut proposed a new term "Gorpcore", which stands for "good ol' raisins and peanuts", a mixed dried fruit often eaten by hikers. Therefore, as the name suggests, Gorpcore is a dress system with outdoor functional clothing as the core, which naturally includes storm jackets, fleece, light down jackets, hiking shoes and so on.
It is with this environment as a foundation that Archaeopteryx can take the stage of fashion week and then explode trends.
05
At both ends of the fashion scale, one end is tailoring, design, and the other is functionality. The outdoor brand's focus on functional characteristics happened to hit the muzzle of the new generation of middle-class demand and became the son of the version.
Although I say that hard shells are not so suitable for commuting, it is also relatively soft shells and fleece. Compared with some dress codes in the workplace in the past, as well as ways of dressing, outdoor products are indeed simpler and more practical.
Take the rule of outdoor clothing as an example, it is divided into three layers. The first close-fitting layer mainly plays a role in ventilation and perspiration. The second middle layer is usually fleece, down or cotton clothing. The third outer layer is mainly responsible for waterproofing and wind resistance, that is, storm jackets.
Everyone should have an experience. As you get older, you will focus less and less on dressing and more and more comfortable work. Outdoor clothing just meets this condition.
From spring to winter, you only need to put one piece of clothing on the outside. In the weather of more than ten degrees, one inner layer and one piece of fleece are enough. Below ten degrees, you can change to a cotton jacket, or a light down jacket. If the wind is strong, put on a storm jacket outside, and if the temperature is lower, you can continue to add warm clothing such as down in the middle layer.
In addition, these clothes are born to cope with the outdoor environment, and in the face of a simple urban environment, it is simply like killing monsters beyond the level. Not only can it adapt to various scenes in life, but it is also very durable. Many people wear a fleece jacket for more than five years, and they happen to be on the other side of the scale compared to the fast fashion of the previous version.
This is also why many people once they accept outdoor style, the aesthetic is reshaped, and even buy outdoor addiction. It didn't take long for the fashion that was in the wardrobe to be replaced with all kinds of hard shells, soft shells, and fleece.
Some people compare Archaeopteryx to the Lego of the clothing industry, which is actually more appropriate.
Lego's success lies in creating a system that can be expanded infinitely, and outdoor brands such as Archaeopteryx have created very clear product lines based on outdoor styles. In this regard, the same is true of the equally popular Lululemon.
At the beginning of buying these products, the first choice of consumers is not the style, but like buying digital products, according to their own needs, understand the model, its functions, applicable scenarios.
Therefore, whether it is the middle-aged man's Three Treasures or the women's version of the Three Treasures, the ultimate orientation is to reduce energy in clothing selection.
But the paradox is that the fashion trend of today's outdoor brands, and its essence, there is a certain contradiction.
The reason why outdoor brands should enter the fashion circle is because this can make clothes have higher gross margins and a wider range of consumer groups.
Before the explosion of Archaeopteryx, although it was also expensive, few people called it impractical. But when it is connected with fashion and the price far exceeds functionality, the basic philosophy of outdoor products is not so complete.
Remember, the popular path of Canada goose is no different. At the beginning, the selling point of the goose was also professional-level warmth, and it was marketed to be able to wear to the South Pole. But in the end, everyone found that in most areas, it seems that such a strong warmth is not needed in winter. And the down jacket, which costs much less than the goose, is also warm enough.
This gust of wind comes and goes quickly, how many people are still talking about Canada geese this year?
Outdoor wind can attract new groups precisely because it has certain anti-fashion characteristics. But how long can the story be told when it becomes fashionable on its own?
Perhaps in the future, when new industries rise, the right to speak about wealth and fashion shifts again, and what the Archaeopteryx represents today will become something that new styles will push down.
Author: IC Labs
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