Craghoppers Archive Collection

Founded over 50 years Craghoppers are a brand full of history and this history is going to be celebrated by a new archive collection, which is launching next year. To find out more we sent some questions over to e-commerce executive Alex Wall who explained more.

Could you explain a bit about the history of Craghoppers?

We were actually founded back in the late 60’s by Brian Gaskin and Roy Holmes but originally operated under the brand G&H Product. The first pieces we put out were the Cagjac and our Kiwi trousers which have since gone on to sell over 7 million pairs worldwide.

Gaskin was a potholer by trade and one of the leading members of the Cave Rescue Organisation. At the time, the only waterproofs available in the UK were from Peter Storm and Henri Lloyd but both were either too light or too heavy which is where the idea for the original Cagjac came from. As a mid-weight waterproof, the Cagjac was perfect for caving, climbing and walking.

In 1975, we sponsored the successful Everest expedition being run by Chris Bonnington. The Cagjac was actually the jacket of choice up to about 10,000ft. After 10,000ft mountaineers opted for our Nordwand which is actually the piece of kit you can see Doug Scott wearing if you Google ‘Doug Scott Everest’!

G&H Products acquired the Craghoppers brand in 1979 after their owners wanted to retire and decided to operate under the name Craghoppers going forward.

In recent years, we’ve spent a lot of time perfecting our NosiLife technology which can be found across a lot of our products and for next year we’ve got our upcoming Archive Collection.

What is the Archive Collection?

We wanted to see if we could recreate our iconic styles but use the technologies that we put into our current pieces. We feel we’ve managed that and the entire team are really proud of the range.

What are the main inspirations behind this particular collection?

You’ll see a lot of influences from the late 80’s/ early 90’s in this collection.

You’ve already told us quite a bit of stuff we didn’t know about Craghoppers - do you have any more interesting facts people may not know about the brand?

The founder of a well-known Californian outdoor brand used to fly over to the UK to buy our gear as he was unable to get anything of the sort back in the states. You can actually read about this in his book ‘let my people go surfing’.

What do you reckon to the crossover now between proper outdoor gear and everyday wear?

There’s definitely a crossover here in the North West and you can judge the popularity based on the new stores that’ve been popping up in Manchester and Liverpool.

In the last 12 months alone, we’ve had Patagonia and Fjallraven open flagship retail stores in Manchester and then we’ve had Ellis Brigham open up Outsiders Store in Liverpool.

Alongside that, other retailers such as Oi Polloi seem to be stocking more outdoor brands than ever. There is definitely a blurred line in the North West between outdoor and everyday wear.

Our lookbook for the collection, which we’ve worked on with Proper Mag, focusses on outdoor gear in the city so you’ll see the crossover feature a lot in that. There’s a video to come too which we’re really excited to put out.

What’s your top three Craghoppers pieces?

For me, the Bridport Shirt Jacket, Kiwi Pro Shorts and the Venta Lite II. I’m pretty confident everyone in the office owns a Venta Lite.

The stand out piece from the Archive Collection, for me, is the Ashfield Half-Zip. Had a lot of compliments on this from people who’ve seen the range already!

What’s the plans going forward for Craghoppers and also the Archive Collection?

For next season you’ll see some changes to some of our classic pieces. We’ve got a Venta Lite II vest and a hooded version of the jacket being added to the collection which I’m excited about. We’re going to start working on the next Archive Collection very soon so really looking forward to working with the design team on that.

You’ll see the Archive Collection drop as part of our Spring/ Summer 19 range.

This feature was initially released last year in No.2 of our magazine - you can shop the Craghoppers Archive Collection here: https://www.craghoppers.com/archive-collection/