METSTRADE: Hanging out with Henri-Lloyd’s Knut Frostad and the new Dynamic Range
According to Knut Frostad, Henri-Lloyd’s executive chairman, the company’s new, recently launched Dynamic Range is his personal ‘baby’. The range, which includes a jacket, smock, dry top and salopette designed, shaped and cut for both men and women received a Dame Special Mention (in the Personal Equipment Category).
“If you look at the product you’re going to say that looks pretty much like sailing gear, but if you take a closer look and you know what we have done behind the scenes on this product, it’s quite revolutionary,” says Frostad. “We’ve spent an enormous amount of energy on it.”
That energy includes manufacturing the material, getting rid of dangerous chemicals and even making the jacket’s outside coat-loop strong enough for Frostad (who took up his position in February this year) to literally suspend himself.
“If you look at skiing or yoga, the weight and comfort of the gear has changed, but sailing has been very stale. All sailing gear has been super stiff.
“We solved that problem in the old days by just making it big. Women had to wear oversize trousers that made you look like an elephant. That was the only way to make it flexible.”
But the company, which partners with America’s up team INEOS Britannia, says this new range offers so much more.
To create it, Matteo Alfieri, Henri-Lloyd’s head of experimental design, looked at sports like running and cycling, studying the ergonomics and fabric technology used. A worldwide search reviewed over 100 fabrics, which resulted in a collaboration with a Japanese mill and the new range’s four-way stretch fabric being created. It took over 24 months to design and develop the range.
“Now we can make it smaller and tighter fit and still have a feeling that it is super flexible,” says Frostad.
Testing products in Henri-Lloyd’s Dynamic Range
Henri-Lloyd undertook extensive product testing of its prototype products with sailors from SailGP, TP52 and other programs. The product development team analysed and reviewed the sailors’ use and movements when wearing the new offerings, and incorporated the sailors’ feedback into the final product designs.
“We have saved an enormous amount of weight, the challenge is to have the same breathability and the same waterproofness.
“That wasn’t possible ten years ago, but with the new development we have have done in Japan this fabric breathes as much as any other high tech performance fabric and is 100 per cent waterproof.
“I have been wearing the product all summer – racing in it and sailing with my family. It doesn’t look anything like what I’ve worn in my whole life and I’ve worn sailing gear for years. The stretch means that you could almost be naked and have the same movement. If you put this on and then go back to your old gear, you’d be ‘wow, what a difference’.”
Sustainability in the new range from Henri-Lloyd
Frostad speaks animatedly of the future and the sustainable elements of the product, about how Henri-Lloyd has aimed to make it ‘future proof’.
“It’s like we all want electric boats, but we can’t charge them. We need to solve the whole problem, and that’s what we are doing.”
One of the first challenges he notes was finding recycled fabric which was actually recycled.
“Today there is so much recycled fabric in the world that is ‘new’ recycled fabric. That’s the truth. It’s really a lot of greenwashing.”
“That is a much bigger challenge than people understand.”
Also on the agenda was lowering the chemical components.
“California has to (by 2025 January), and Europe will in two years, ban pretty much all the chemicals that are used in clothing today to make it waterproof,” says Frostad. He mentions Fluor, a perfluorocarbon (PFC).
“Fluor is the worst. That’s used to make fabric water repellant so that the water-drops peel off. A lot of chemicals are used. They have been found to be pretty harmful. What we have been wearing all of our lives to make ourselves waterproof when sailing has not been good.
“As far as I know, we are the first brand to launch a product that is 100 per cent PFO and PFC free for both the membrane inside, and the water repellency of the jacket. [The range is] meeting the regulation we will have in Europe in two years. We are doing it now. Because we know it’s harmful, why would we keep selling it?”
Henri-Lloyd now has a stake in the material which its Japanese supplier is manufacturing. It’s clear the company is more that pleased with the results of the research.
“Sustainability only really works when you keep the performance,” says Frostad. “I am extremely excited because I have spent my whole life racing and I can tell you that this is a game changer when you are on the water . . . making sailing and boating more pleasurable and comfortable is a big thing.”
It’s all in the detail when it comes to sailing gear
But more than the overall promise of sustainability, the range has an eye on detail.
“Any serious marine clothing should have a hanger [coat-loop] outside the jacket,” explains Frostad. “If you find a sailing jacket without a hanger at the back, it means they don’t know anything about sailing. The problem is that people are tumbling around in your boat and then they grab the jacket and ‘pouf’, they rip the hanger out of the jacket. Then there’s a hole and the jacket is gone.
“So we have made a jacket hanger so strong I can hang in it, and I am 94kg. I promise you, if I do that in any other jacket, I will rip the jacket to pieces. We have engineered the hanger reinforcement. We have had industrial design on this. It’s a small detail but . . . .”
The H-shaped back hanger features 100N holding strength to ASTM PS 79 test standard (American Society for Testing and Materials).
Frostad’s listing of benefits is unending. He cites the removable hood (“We’re not the only ones to do this, but we made breathable flaps,”) a popper (breeze-clip) to connect the jacket fronts when they’re opened so they don’t flap around (“a beauty of a detail,”), orthopaedic cuffs (“when you twist your arm it has flexibility,”) and built in knee pads with the seam following bend of the knee and more, and more and more.
“Because we have a designer who is a maniac on technology, he focused a lot on breathability. A lot of competitors do jackets that have breathable fabrics but then they screw it up on the details. The typical thing is the chest pocket. If we had made this whole pocket out of the same fabric, it would stop breathing. It is meant to breathe as one layer of fabric [even though in itself it is three layers of fabric]. If you double it, it stops breathing, so we made mesh on the pocket for the breathability. We don’t want to have a dam.”
That he’s excited about the new range is an understatement. Not just the details, the interchangeability to suit weather conditions and racing requirements . . . the lightweight nature of a comprehensive kit bag . . . the variations in shapes and sizes. It’s certainly a long way from his previous role of Navico’s CEO.
“Clothes and electronics are two different things. You’re wearing it while you’re pushing the buttons. I love clothes though.”
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