Conscious Design

When we get together to design a new product, the first thing we’re conscious of is the benefit to wearers and the functionality of the product which we tackle from a number of angles. Once we’ve got that down, we then need to look at how to make the product in the best possible way.  As part of our R&D, our staff themselves will wear the item to work for a period of time, to ensure that it’s fit for purpose. One of our Directors actually ran a half marathon wearing our newest walking boot to ensure the comfort element was there!

We also have a number of field testers who assess our products by doing the actual job they’re intended for and then provide us with their honest feedback. This ensures we are supplying the best product for the job!  One of our most long standing field testers is ‘Pete the Feet’; he will happily and, quite literally, put all of our footwear prototypes through their paces, and we know we are getting the right feedback as Pete does a LOT of walking! Keep an eye out for Pete’s blog entries; they can help you make an informed choice about the footwear you need.

Another part of our R&D is to regularly ask our customers about our products, and if there is anything they would like to see that isn’t currently available. Many of our customers will happily trial new prototypes for us too, both our cycle jacket and ambassador II cap were developed using feedback from long standing customers.

Once the functionality and performance is there, the next step is producing our garments in the most sustainable way possible. We deliberate on where it will be made, using which materials and what packaging we will use, that way we know we’ve taken all production aspects into consideration in producing our high-performance, high-quality and highly sustainable garments!