Trail Names #12 - Digging deeper

Exploring product names at the big apparel makers

When looking at the Big 4 backpacking categories in January, I found it interesting to drill down into companies’ product names. Some brands have a naming system or theme. For others, it’s more random. So I thought I’d use that approach for the brands I looked at in Trail Names #4, the heavy hitters, the big guns. Might the product names at Patagonia, The North Face, Arc’teryx and Columbia reveal something about their positioning, their target audience? Let’s have a look! All of them have online shops, so I searched for their bestsellers to see how they named their flagship items.

Patagonia: Better Sweater, Down Sweater, Nano Puff, Synchilla, R1, Capilene. Patagonia is all about materials. Whereas the brand name does the standard outdoor thing of referencing an iconic adventure destination, most of the product names go straight to sustainability and technical content. The ‘Better’ in Better Sweater refers to the fact that the fleece used is 100% recycled. Same for Synchilla and Capilene, Down Sweater; Patagonia is underlining what its clothing does for the planet and for the buyer. I’d say this makes sense, in that of the biggest outdoor apparel sellers, Patagonia’s audience probably skews more actual adventure and less GORP-core, whereas the reverse is probably true for the others. Given that the overarching brand name is synonymous with the outdoors, Patagonia has leeway with its names to tell shoppers something else about their products, and I think they use that opportunity effectively.

The North Face: Denali, Nuptse. The North Face’s two top-selling items draw on its mountaineering history. But even in the item descriptions it’s clear that no one is climbing a mountain in these anymore. The jacket is “rooted in the unforgiving nature of mountaineering and immortalized on city streets”. While gesturing to adventure, these names are more intended as aspiration and image. Go further down the list, though, and not all the names nod at the historical cred the brand is selling. Garner, Freedom, Wander, Hydrenalite, Aconcagua. It’s a total mishmash. What do you garner with a hardshell jacket? Freedom and Wander are pleasant but generic. Hydrenalite ventures onto Patagonia’s turf by playing up materials. Aconcagua is a mountain in the Andes, wrapping back around to the brand’s heritage. There’s no real thread, and these are the bestsellers. The North Face doesn’t seem to have a strategy for its product names.

Arc’teryx: Atom, Beta, Gamma, Cerium, Liatris, Vertex. A lot of Arc’teryx’s names sound like they’re pulled from the hard sciences, or pharmaceuticals, or high-end beauty care. That’s in keeping with its image as a maker of highly technical gear with advanced materials. As the brand has gotten popular with techwear enthusiasts, its vibe has shifted away from gorp-y outdoors to futuristic silhouettes and an often dark, sometimes grimy color palette. The look is not inviting. And neither are these names. There’s nothing comfy or approachable about them. It makes for a sharp contrast with the sitting-around-the-campfire, laughing and drinking a beer scenes you see on almost every other outdoor apparel site. You will never see someone on the Arc’teryx site playing a ukulele. But just like you see loads of non-outdoorsy folks in Patagonia, I often see campfire ukulele folks in Arc’teryx. It’s just that the brand has picked a naming/image lane and is disciplined about it, which I find admirable.

Columbia: Suttle Mountain, Thistletown Hills, Glennaker Lake, Benton Springs. These places apparently don’t exist. Columbia has an odd take on the name-it-after-an-outdoorsy-location strategy. Are all the good placenames already taken? Columbia decided to skirt the issue by just making some up. The thing is, they do sound made-up, don’t they? Sort of a blander, watered-down version of the placename naming you see at other brands. A saltine to Big Agnes’ ritz cracker. This is just me thinking out loud here, but it’s almost like you don’t want a brand you sell at Walmart to scare customers off by being TOO outdoorsy. Denali? You could die climbing Denali! But the Thistletown Hills are probably just full of cute bunnies. 😊 Joking aside, I would like to give Columbia props for Whirlibird and Bugaboo. Those two names have been around for decades and have real character. Vivid, memorable standouts. My middle-school self was amazed by the 3-in-1 “technology” of my new Bugaboo jacket. I now know that technology to be something we call “layering”. And it’s free, anyone can do it!

If you enjoy this commentary and would like my help on a naming project, you can find more info at my LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/masoncolbywords/. Thanks for reading!