Stellar Equipment Says No To Fast Fashion Trends in Ski Outerwear

Part of this success is because they are such a small company that they can take their time on products: after testing a single piece for years, they release it to the market, to live in their store season after season. Crawford-Curry went on to say, “because our product cycle is a few years, we can actually spend time and do it right. It doesn’t mean we always get it right, but we have the time to work on it.”

Spending that much time with the product allows Stellar to work through every angle of the piece, from design and testing, to helping tell the product story on their site. He says their loyal customer base appreciates this. People who buy Stellar know what they are getting, and are excited about the fact that it won’t go out of style in a season or two.

This vision, Crawford-Curry was told, would be hard. But he says, once a skier “gets the idea, they become very enthusiastic about it.” They become a Stellar believer. Stellar wants to take the middleman out of the equation, and when you read through their site, that is one of the messages they are trying to get across. They want you to feel like you are working directly with them–everything from their copy, to photos, to their robust blog that features some epic storytelling, speak right to the soul of the skier. In other words, in a sea of quick sales-driven product placements, Stellar’s pillars of authenticity speak to a core group of skiers.

Crawford-Curry referenced his pillars more than once. Stellar is not trying to just give product away to influencers, they do not want to do deep seasonal discounts to offload previous seasons’ gear, and they do not want to feed into fashion trends. To me, this signals their gear is valuable. This is, of course, different from the “normal” business model we see in today’s snowsports market. I believe it speaks to many of us that have grown up in the ski world and now are mountain people–we want gear that works, holds up, and is not just a token to the ski industry, it is actually a product that supports skiing and mountain culture.

This is novel to me because it ticks two boxes as a skier: I both know that the piece is not feeding into the never-ending cycle of consumption; and I know the outerwear will work well in a variety of environments, for several seasons. From being built and tested in Sweden and Norway, the shells and insulation are put through the wringer. Crawford-Curry says that they would not be able to wear just anything in their home mountains, so they use top of the line products to make sure their gear does exactly what they say it will.

While changing the ski-fashion industry is a part of their mission, it does not come with a compromise as far as the actual materials are concerned. Stellar would rather use new, top of the line fabrics than recycled ones, for example. Crawford-Curry says, “to me, we never front or say that we are a ‘sustainable brand.’ We do new gear made from plastics. From a sustainability side, I feel it’s more important or at least equally as important to not put out new gear all the time.”

Which is how they work on their pillar of not selling fashion. This changing of the mold is unique in the sense that Stellar is really working to make a difference, with the chance that customers used to the “normal” marketplace might not understand their new take. But, it is an important one: make a product that works and doesn’t feed into the cycles of consumption that, in turn, overuse precious resources.

As far as coming to the United States is concerned, Crawford-Curry realizes this might be a new challenge for Stellar. People here behave differently than in Sweden he says, we like to see gear on a friend. We learn about companies through word of mouth. He thinks that in time, Stellar will bring some of their products into shops in target markets in the States. They want to have boots on the ground at resorts this winter, to help showcase their gear and get real skiers excited about it. I look forward to seeing them out in our space. But for now, you can shop their product on their website.

From all of these components that make up their brand ethos and goals–my main takeaway from Stellar is that they are trying to speak to core, real skiers. They want people to use their product who understand freeride, freestyle, and ski touring on a visceral level and want a product that matches a no BS attitude. In a time when the world is constantly feeding us quick hit, fast information, I appreciate this call to slow down and to tune back into the roots of why we all love skiing. It seems like through Stellar’s approach to the product and how they speak to us as skiers, this is foundational in their core mission. To me, that’s something we can always use more of in the ski world today.