2010/11 Outerwear A-To-Z: Bonfire Designer Kate Darnall

kailee bradstreet

• November 12 2009
• 3 comments

We caught up with Bonfire Associate Designer Kate Darnall to find out what the brand has planned for its 2010/11 outerwear line. Besides introducing a wider array of foundation colors to its palette, the Bonfire crew also plans to maximize growth with their current retail partners by “offering the right mix of reliable performance, diverse fit offerings, appealing colors and a clear merchandising story,” says Darnall, who added that the outerwear “had a hugely positive response from our team, our testers and initial pre-line meetings.” Adapting to the current market, as many brands today are, Bonfire says it has cut back on early season blind buys and is doing smaller production runs to limit overstock. We also got some additional feedback from Darnall:

What do you think are the three biggest trends shaping the outerwear market and how has Bonfire incorporated them into its line?

1. There is a better variety of fits than ever before. You’ve got your tight kid, baggy kid, medium kid and everyone in between.  For 10-11 we’ve completely dialed in the right fit for every type of rider.  For example, our indy fit pants are now narrower through the knee with less flare over the boot to fit that streetwear look.  It’s a great functional slim fit.  For women we have a new mid-fit jacket length that is just a bit longer than our classic fit and is a favorite for the girls at Bonfire. For jackets, length is a big part of the fit conversation and we offer three lengths for women and two lengths for men.

2. Color blocking offers retailers a fresh evolution from the all over print look.  It’s vintage and draws on trends from the early days of snowboarding’s roots, which is cool too. We’ve incorporated various color blocking and blocking of prints throughout the line.

3. Snowboard clothes that don’t look like snowboard clothes. A lot of our riders who ride rails in the city don’t want to look like they just got off of a chairlift.  We’ve addressed this by increasing our layering offering with pieces like the Northwest Hoodie, which looks like a cool flannel and will still keep you warm and dry.  We’ve also addressed this through using creative fabrics that look like streetwear.

L to R: Women's Taylor Jacket in marine and Prism Pant in crimson. Men's Volt Pant in canvas and Blur Jacket in lemon/canvas/marine

What fabrics, colors, & technologies are you focusing on for next season?

It’s nice that our line is big enough that we can offer everything from a high end salvage 20k rip stop [to] great value fabrics that really work.

We’ve moved towards a greater variety of foundation colors that will merchandise and mix with anything. At the same time they’re very rich colors. Marine is a good example of a vibrant foundation color that can be a classic staple that’s edgy. Classic Bonfire pop colors complement the foundation palette. We’ve made this shift as both a response to rider input, the marketplace and our overall assessment of color trend evolution.

With technology, we’re starting with layering pieces. Our base layer tops all have a new toasty fingers feature allowing riders to tuck their fingers up into their sleeves into a cozy little pocket. Our youth line now features grow sleeves for youth jackets, hood gaskets make sure hoods stay on over helmets and all our youth pants connect to youth jackets for a complete snow seal.  At Bonfire Technology means keeping riders fed.

What are price points doing and what are you doing to add value to your line?

We have focused [on] the important price points in the market. At Bonfire we offer good, better and best performance levels.  The first level of performance is DryLevel 1, which means 7-10K waterproofing. DryLevel 2 is 15K and DryLevel 3 is 20K. It’s a simple selling tool, so that consumers know what they’re getting and retailers have an easy story to sell performance. Let’s face it, happy customers are return customers who had a great experience in the jacket you sold them.