Giving it Welly

What with interviewing Torben Grael, and waxing on about Ericsson 3, you may have guessed that I was a guest of the Ericsson Racing Team down in Galway. Somehow I forgot to post about my Sunday Business Post article last Sunday, about the branding side of the VOR, and in particular the gear development angle.

Helly Hansen talked me through their product research programme as main clothing sponsors on board the Ericsson boats. One of the big outcomes has been the Helly Welly and their range of footwear in general. As a sailor, you learn early on not to expect much from footwear. Ireland led the way for a while with Dubarry boots, but their lining always pulled inside-out within a few months, which made them increasingly uncomfortable. The Helly Welly is lighter, more comfortable, and dispenses with the lining. And they’re bringing out one with a gaiter for super-duper offshore sailors.

What’s particularly nice is the way it rolls down to make it an ankle boot when it’s hotter – very clever.

The article on the Ericsson/Helly Hansen development programme is here.

Sunday Business Post, June 7, 2009

Ocean Race works as live lab
by Markham Nolan
When the Volvo Ocean Race fleet left Galway yesterday, it marked the end of a unique 18-month exercise in clothing product research and branding, Two crews headed out of Galway Bay bound for Sweden on board Ericsson-branded boats, clothed head-to-toe in technical sailing gear from Helly Hansen. Much of that gear had evolved considerably since the crews started training 18 months ago in Lanzarote.

Also leaving Galway for Sweden – flying rather than sailing – were product specialists from Helly Hansen, armed with yet another round of debriefs and data on how their kit had performed. The Norwegian company, which produces clothing for sailing, skiing and other outdoor sports, partnered with the Swedish Ericsson teams in the early stages, with a view to using the Volvo Ocean Race as a long-term laboratory for clothing development.

By hitching a ride on two of the yachts, their clothing would endure the most punishing sailing conditions on the planet in a ten-stage race over 37,000 miles long.

‘‘A single leg of the course lasting 30 days is the equivalent of ten years of use for clothing worn by the average person,” said Karl-Einar Jensen, marketing manager of Helly Hansen.

‘‘When they sail down a wave at 35 knots and they hit the next wave, the force of that wall of water is so extreme, just like driving a motorbike down a highway and hitting three metres of water.”

It is not unusual for the boats to punch through towering waves at speeds of more than 60 kilometres an hour, sending walls of seawater rushing along the deck, into the faces of the crew and every nook and cranny of their clothing. In one leg of the race, the crew would go from sub-zero temperatures to the sweltering humidity of the Doldrums and back again.

Weight restrictions on boardmeant the sailors would need clothing that could function equally well in all conditions. After an early dressing-down from the sailors, Jensen and his team realised that there were no testing grounds for this race other than the race itself, and that product development would have to be a work in progress.

‘‘We brought the first prototype of the dry suit to the training camp in Lanzarote, and suggested that some of the sailors jump in the swimming pool to see if they were waterproof,” said Jensen. ‘‘They just laughed and said: ‘What are you doing? It’s way more extreme than a swimming pool, that’s not a test’.” Turning a fire hose on them from ten metres would be closer to reality.

By the time the race started in Alicante, both sailors and tailors knew things would be changing at every turn.

Feedback sessions at major stopovers often meant on-the-spot refinements to gear and new products being created within days.

Lighter clothing quickly gave way to heavier-duty clothing. Fabrics changed to help kit dry in the damp, four-hour breaks between time on deck.

‘‘The feedback has been brutally honest, straightforward and if something’s great, they tell us. If something’s not working, they tell us,” according to Jensen. The Helly Hansen executives describe the criticism from the sailors as forthright, but constructive.

‘‘We have been sitting there and taking a beating on what was not working, but had the opportunity to actually do something about it,” said Tor Jenssen, a Helly Hansen product manager who worked on the race kit.

‘‘In Cape Town, we had some issues and we did a turnaround – we made some new products for them in a very short space of time.”

The need for top-to-toe coverage also saw the company break into the footwear market, an area dominated for many years by Irish firm Dubarry.

However, as a branding exercise, Helly Hansen’s visibility risked being comparatively low key, particularly compared to that of Puma.

A new competitor in the sailing and technical gear arena, Puma has a whole boat and crew in the Volvo Ocean Race, emblazoned with its trademark.

In contrast, Helly Hansen’s logo couldn’t appear on any part of the boat’s sails or hull – where space is reserved exclusively for Ericsson branding – and competed with the name sponsor for recognition on the clothing.

Jensen was quick to point out that Puma’s emergence could only help to grow the sector, but the firm still faced playing second-fiddle to Puma unless it could come up with another way to be seen.

The solution was to dress the entire Ericsson team in the same clothing once they came onshore, from skipper Torben Grael down to onshore supporters and corporate guests.

The resultant blue-clad throng was easily the most visible demographic at the stopovers, including Galway, where they invaded the Radisson hotel like styled corporate Vikings.

Although clearly Ericsson gear, every item of ‘blue army’ clothing carried at least one discreet ‘HH’, with the supporters as walking mannequins for both brands.

The Galway stopover, at the tail end of the last oceanic leg, brought the Helly Hansen equipment development project to a close. The results, beyond an imminent Team Ericsson podium finish, should be coming soon to a ‘yottie’ shop near you.