Member Article

Double international award success for North East outdoor brand

North East outdoor brand Berghaus is celebrating after two products in its latest product range secured major international industry awards. The brand has picked up both an ISPO Award at Europe’s leading sporting goods trade show in Munich, and its first ever Apex Award, presented by global textile giant Polartec®. Both accolades were earned for products in the all new Extrem collection of high performance clothing and equipment, which was designed and developed in Sunderland and launched this autumn after an extensive testing programme.

Berghaus Extrem has a history that goes back to the mid-1980s, when the original products were created at the firm’s offices in Newcastle and went on to establish the brand’s reputation for cutting edge innovation on the international stage. In 1988, the company was awarded a Queen’s Award for Export, while the Extrem range became synonymous with mountain adventures around the world by leading adventurers such as Sir Chris Bonington, Alan Hinkes and, later, Leo Houlding. The latest Extrem range uses leading performance materials and has been engineered by experts from the Berghaus design team, based in Sunderland. All of the products have been extensively tested, by professional mountain guides and Berghaus ambassadors such as Leo and Anna Taylor.

The Berghaus MTN Guide Hyper Alpha jacket has secured an ISPO Award in the clothing category. In the Hyper Alpha, Berghaus has brought together two high performance fabrics to create an ultra-lightweight waterproof and insulated shell for long, hard days in the mountains. Combining its own extremely breathable HYDROSHELL ELITE™ with Polartec® Alpha®, the brand has added in features and fit to engineer a hugely versatile shell that weighs only 226g (women’s size 12) / 268g (men’s size medium). Compatible with harness and pack, the Hyper Alpha offers optimum comfort across a wide range of conditions and activities, allowing the wearer to keep going without having to pause to remove or add layers. When it’s not needed, it packs down into a tiny space until needed again.

Launched over 20 years ago, the Polartec® Apex Awards celebrate the brands that push the boundaries of style and innovation. The new MTN Guide MW Hoody has secured an award for Berghaus’ cutting edge use of two high performance Polartec® fabrics, delivering a midlayer that offers everything required for high output activities in cold conditions. The jacket’s Polartec® Power Grid™ is fast wicking, quick drying and lightweight, body-mapped for the right balance of insulation throughout. Meanwhile, the integrated Polartec® Power Wool™ neck gaiter and mask provides exceptional comfort and performance when required. Features and fit have been carefully engineered so that this midlayer can be worn in comfort throughout extended mountain adventures. At only 340g (women’s size 12) / 400g (men’s size medium), the Berghaus MTN Guide MW Hoody won’t slow anyone down. It is the first Berghaus product to win a Polartec® Apex Award.

Charlie Pym, Berghaus brand director, comments: “The ISPO Award and Polartec Apex Award represent a great vindication of the exceptional work that many colleagues in our team in the North East have done to develop and launch the new Extrem range. It’s been a long and challenging process and throughout it, we have been very aware of the rich heritage that Berghaus already has in creating innovative and effective products for the mountains. It was vital that we lived up to the reputation that Extrem had forged in the past, which provided inspiration, motivation and pressure. So far, reaction to the new collection from the trade and consumers has been hugely positive, and the awards are a welcome extra boost. I’m delighted for our very talented Berghaus crew, who thoroughly deserve both accolades.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Chris Lines .