How Arksen apparel is engineered to be the best
“There are very, very good reasons for our price point,” Arksen Apparel’s Creative Designer Simon Oates said recently, when asked about the company's latest range of performance wear. The clothing brand may be a new kid on the block in outdoor clothing, but its roots run deep and by combining the industry’s top manufacturers with its innovative design team, it is making moves to be the best of the best.
“Our performance wear is not cheap, because it is built to perform and built to last. When people shop for outdoor clothing and technical garments, like a jacket, they don't buy one every year, they want to buy one and then that's the only jacket they will need for the 10 years or even longer. What we make is forever gear – and that's down to our engineered-led approach.”
Arksen was originally founded to design and manufacture class-leading Explorer Yachts and Adventure Boats for the premium market, so the company has engineering at its core and follows a function-first mindset. Every element of an Arksen vessel is designed for performance and longevity, and the same is true of every Arksen apparel product.
In any the garment, the design is specifically focused on solving a problem. The company takes its cues from elite athletes – from climbers, sailors, mountaineers, elite runners – who push themselves and the products they use to the limits. And as technology advances, every design is engineered to be an advance on the last, reaching ever higher limits.
“We don’t design garments, we engineer them,” explains Oates. “We manufacture products that provide better solutions – that could be making something more lightweight, more durable, more waterproof, more functional – and we use the feedback we get from the people who wear our garments to feed into future designs.
“Working with elite athletes operating at the top of their field, we design products around them to satisfy their needs – with one Ultra Marathon runner, for example, we developed new jacket to be as lightweight but as warm as possible, so you could get to a temperature of minus 25 degrees, but it was one of the lightest down-filled jackets we've ever done.
“Some products are bespoke one-offs and in those we are always experimenting – with a particular fill or construction or an ergonomic design to make it more packable – then we take the learnings from those products and extrapolate the concept into something more commercial to take into the main collection.”
Arksen Apparel working with high-end manufacturers
Great design is only the first step towards a great product. Top quality comes from selecting premium materials that offer the ultimate levels of protection and performance, but also from innovation in the way the garment is manufactured. To achieve this, Arksen selects the companies it aligns with very carefully.
“We're standing on the shoulders of giants,” says Oates, when asked about the quality of manufacture in Arksen’s products. “The way we work is to have a nimble core team with a wide network of expert partners, such as our world-class fabric suppliers, who put in the hard work with R&D and come up with innovations we can adapt into our collection.
“Our manufacturers are the best in Europe, they’ve got world-leading technicians and they operate to beyond-industry standards in their factory. They’re uncompromising in their approach to manufacturing, meticulous in their execution of our garments and continually innovating in the manufacturing techniques that they employ.
“Every partner is selected to be the best of the best and are from all around the globe – Italy, Switzerland, Japan, Asia – and the common denominator is that they are all experts in their field and they all have the capability to work with us to come up with the most durable, lightweight, or bomb-proof products.”
Together with its suppliers and manufacturers, Arksen is constantly advancing the materials and techniques used to create its premium products, whether that is bonding things better, using laser cutting techniques instead of hand cutting or moulding the products to precise design. It is all extremely high tech.
This is why, when it comes to the end result, these products can perform beyond normal limits, wherever they are used. Oates adds: “We are adjacent with the best brands in the market, using the same or better techniques, fabrics, manufacturing approaches and levels of innovation. We really are at the top of that pyramid.”
Arksen Apparel designed for performance and longevity
Everything about an Arksen garment is designed with a focus on performance and durability, but it takes extra commitment to match the planet-conscious DNA of the company’s vehicles and vessels. Even in performance wear, fashion can be flippant, changing with the seasons, which is a complete contrast to the philosophy of a circular economy.
Keeping products in active service for as long as possible is a core part of Arksen’s ambition across the sectors. Its vessels and vehicles are designed with repairability and component replaceability in mind, while its aftercare approach helps owners understand how best to care for their products. It simply makes sense, for people and the planet.
Oates explains: “Our garments are built to go the distance. We design without compromise when it comes to protection – if we’re going to make something waterproof, suitable for extreme sailing, for example, we would make sure the fabric exceeded industry standards and industry expectations, and that it does so for a very long time.
“When we come to the aesthetic aspect, we have a unique approach and we try to keep it as timeless as possible. The colour palette we use is very industrial, very classic. All of these things are designed to create a product that has longevity, a product that you want to wear time and time again.”
As a company that actively protects the planet through its 10% for the Ocean charity, Arksen is also a leading brand when it comes to minimising resource use. It employs recycled fabrics where possible, creates designs that stand the test of time and manufactures for the long-term and, where possible, for continued material use at end of life.
Oates continues: “Wherever possible, every fabric that we select adheres to our brand values around circular economy, while engineered design approach and the manufacturing techniques we employ are such that the garment should almost outlive its owner in terms of its usefulness, durability and construction.
“That's where we build that circularity in. We aim to keep our products in use for as long as possible, rather than going into landfill. Then, we have designed them so that before they do go into landfill, as much of that product as possible can be harvested for its fabric, its trims and so on, and be put back into the supply chain.
“It is not yet completely circular – very few products in this field are, due to the complexity of the construction and the need for shell fabrics, fills, trims, zips and so on to be separated out at the end of life. Determining how they're dismantled, recycled and reintroduced back into the supply chain is where the innovation needs to happen, but we’re there ready.”
Ultimately, Arksen products not only stand out because they use the best manufacturers, the best materials and the most planet-conscious approach to sustainability, they also have a unique rarity to them. The company consciously makes low volumes, to ensure owning an Arksen garment remains something very special.
“We're consciously not flooding the market,” Oates concludes. “I always say that we make the best jackets in the world from the best fabrics in the world in the best factories in the world. We make very high quality and very useful products in very low volume. That is our approach, distilled down to its core.”