AUGUST 2017 _ http://www.popularmechanics.co.za 39
flat seam with no thicknesses. It’s a very good seam for a founda-
tion garment.”
“A lot of what we do is not standard clothing industry stuff at all,”
says design manager Jolyon Pike. “We have started getting into
laser work and computer stitching. In the design centre you’ve got
computer-savvy people who can do CAD, for example.” And backup
that includes two engineers – one skilled in mechatronics – and a
team of of mechanics.
Company firsts on the African continent range from manufacturing
rain- and storm-proof, seam-sealed, foul weather protective clothing
to being the only African company to have been awarded a Gore-Tex
licence. More recently, it became the first African manufacturer
to use Sew Free technology. Accolades have been heaped on such
efforts by the industry, government and other organisations.
Besides relying on brand ambassadors who test and record
information to ensure suitability for South African conditions,
the company uses its own in-house testing. “We’ve got a lab that
we’ve just recently set up, costing close to a million rand, where we’ve
got equipment like tensile strength testing, colour fastness testing,
wash testing and waterproof testing,” Fairlamb explains. Breathability
tests using specialised equipment are done in collaboration with
Cape Peninsula University of Technology.
Amazingly, the factory carries out repairs of garments dating
back years – besides the additional long-term feedback, this is a
great brand-building exercise. The same expertise allows them to
do specials such as garments for people needing extreme sizes or
shorter sleeves or trouser legs.
In addition to the investment in technical capacity, there’s been
ongoing investment in the workforce that has resulted in a highly
skilled staff, more than 240- strong, many of them from surround-
ing areas. There’s also significant input into outsourcing and local
enterprise development in the form of smaller cut, make and trim
(CMT) factories.
They’ve introduced several groundbreaking concepts. “Like the
Phoenix jacket, which is a soft shell,” says Fairlamb. “I don’t think
it’s a secret. The other retailers are starting to do the same thing.
Soft shell has become a very big product and we have expanded
that into a number of different styles. The current popular look,
puffer jackets, is “absolutely shooting the lights out”.
It’s not easy keeping a balanced outlook when hardcore, tech-
nical gear has become fashionwear, agrees Ryan Weideman, Cape
Union Mart’s outdoor merchandise manager. “We’ve got some
core products that are quite technical. People would buy those
for hiking in the mountains, that kind of thing. But there are
customers who arrive in their sports car and buy the flashiest
thing. It’s more aspirational.”
Keeping up with trends is a challenge. “We are already fairly done
with our summer 2017 range, up to December, and we are pretty
much a year in advance.
Any given time we pretty much have a forecast of three seasons.”
Design chief Pike put things in perspective: “We have our own
designs, we have our own handwriting and we have our own look,
but we have to keep abreast of what’s in the marketplace. The
customers are online and they know what they want.” PM