"Outdoor Gear Coach provides courses, books, and support for outdoor activists who wish to learn about performance layering skills for the outdoors. We aim to help keep you smiling in the rain, dancing on the ice and riding well."See our book, Keeping Dry and Staying Warm. How to stay dry, warm or cool in the outdoors;
This is Chuck Kukla, USA, in a dialogue with Mike Parsons, UK.
Chuck is an Outdoor Gear Coach team member based in the USA. He is an outdoor retail staff trainer (see picture left), a retired chemical engineer, an EMT, and an active mountaineer.
Mike Parsons, co-founder of Outdoor Gear Coach and a former gear maker and designer at Karrimor and OMM, is active in many mountain activities. See ‘about us’
Mike to Chuck,
What is your perspective on training outdoor retail staff?
Chuck: There is an underlying problem here. Retailers are, in effect, outsourcing training to the garment brands. This is brand marketing disguised as training. Individuals have no accreditation, so progress cannot be recorded and monitored. Brand training is not transferable to other brands because it's not based on principles. It may change from year to year, often resulting in conflicting messages from the previous year. A feature highlighted during one year often mysteriously disappears the following year. It is designed to demonstrate any superior features of that brand without looking at the pluses and minuses inherent in any product. Outdoor Gear Coach is trying to fill part of this gap.
Chuck’s comments from a retail staff training perspective.
There is an underlying problem here. Retailers are, in effect, outsourcing training to the garment brands. This is brand marketing disguised as training. Individuals have no accreditation, so progress cannot be recorded and monitored. Brand training is not transferable to other brands because it's not based on principles. It may change every year and often results in conflicting messages from the previous year. A feature highlighted during one year often mysteriously disappears the following year. It is designed to demonstrate any superior features of that brand without looking at the pluses and minuses inherent in any product. Outdoor Gear Coach is trying to fill part of this gap.
Chuck. “Let's imagine the typical in-store scenario.
Customers enter our store with a perceived need to buy a new garment. In some cases, customers know exactly what they want, but in many cases, they only know what they think they need”.
Mike, One of our Layering course attendees in the UK, said he used to be mesmerised by the massive wall of garments and would exit the store confused and without buying anything. After he had listened to my one-hour talk, he was clear about what he needed and bought more as a result!
Chuck. Yes, we have an area in-store where we give advertised talks on certain days/dates, but these don't directly relate time-wise to the one-on-one sale situation. A customer buying a garment doesn’t think of it as a layer that needs to be functionally compatible with and sized to fit into their existing set of garment layers. I ask a series of questions to set the stage for a decision and the best choice for the customer.
Mike, The difference between size and fit is poorly understood, so here is our 3-minute video explaining it. And See more in chapter 1.1, page 1 in our book Keeping Dry and Staying Warm.
Chuck: I ask a few questions to enable me to give the best advice.
What is the customer looking for?
Where is the customer going, i.e., location, season, and type of activity? In the case of outerwear, the garment needs to be shaped or tailored specifically to that activity. Here is our 3 min video explanation
Are they replacing a layer or adding something new?
The second set of questions is about their past experiences.
What are their current layers? I suggest they bring their layers and pack them the next time they enter the store!
A good hood on outerwear costs around 20% of the whole garment, so I always ensure that the customer tries the hood to ensure it is helmet-compatible or is small and neat for a non-helmet user. See our 3 min video on hood selection,
Are they going on a guided trip or an event like an Ultra Run, and if so, do they have a kit list? Many people on guided trips have little understanding of the items on their list, so we prefer to make a special appointment in these cases to ensure good understanding and that all garments layer correctly over each other.
Mike, Event kit rules! We introduced event kit rules many years back in the early 1970s for the KIMM (later OMM) 2-day Mountain Marathon. The competitors were required to be self-reliant for 36 hours and carry a tent, sleeping bag, stove and food. Clothing layers were also specified, and the rules were later tightened to include waterproof pants and taped seams. The runners were always in teams of two, which added to their safety. These rules have been steadily clarified and strengthened over the years. Rather important because, by the late 80s, road runners were starting to enter off-road events and more guidance and rules were needed for safety reasons. (Chris Brasher, a regular competitor in the KIMM, founded the London Marathon in 1981. See Wikipedia) This process has been repeated in the last 5 years as off-road runners enter multi-day ULTRAs in mountain territory. Sadly, there have been several disasters, including 21 deaths in the 2021 Gansu Marathon in China, see Wikipedia and an extensive article in OUTDOORS magazine. My OMM event of October 2008 was a significant news story that went worldwide, taking news precedence over Barack Obama and Gordon Brown. It was a media-created disaster, as it turned out. We had only the same number of casualties as any previous year, i.e. 12 minor injuries and nothing serious. However, there is much to be learned by athletes and event organisers from the 2008 story I am writing up sometime soon.
(NB In section #9, Layering for Athletes, Guides, and Leaders, we list an additional ‘layer 7’ as either a polybag or a bothy bag. The latter is now a mandatory item for some Ultras. )
Chuck. Helping the customer understand the garments they currently own is very useful if there is time I ask them;
What do they like or dislike about what they have?
What would they keep or change?
How have they maintained or have they repaired them?
A garment can function in multiple roles in a layering system. For example, a windshell can sometimes be used instead of a waterproof or as a layer between a base layer and a fleece. I often discuss multiple situations with customers to help them create a versatile layering system.
In demonstrating the use of a new item of kit, I will often ask them to imagine several different situations, such as a series of What if? Questions–at night, in the rain, high winds, snow, are they too cold or too warm, what happens if they have to stop for a long time or are benighted? I often ask them to consider what may break. What if a zipper fails? Can they make adjustments with gloves on? How many garments have hoods?
Garments often have overlapping features. Each feature adds costs and increases the kit's complexity, which is a likely point of failure. The idea is to help customers think holistically about present and future needs.
Mike, the equipment rental stores of outdoor centres in the UK also play an essential role in helping people understand. The guys at Plas-y-Brenin, our National Mountaineering Centre in North Wales, UK, are proactive in explaining functions to clients hiring their equipment. They have a whiteboard on the wall to help make quick two-minute explanations.
HOW TO TRAIN YOURSELF ON NEW GARMENT ARRIVALS Before other training is available?
We are working on a 'READING THE GARMENT' system and will post it as an additional blog.
Mike. We have produced for our CPD talks ‘PERFORMANCE LAYERING’ several A4-sized training support posters—textile types, waterproof textile types, etc. We are happy to make them available free of charge to outdoor centres, but we charge a small fee for retailers. Email request to mike@outdoorgearcoach.co.uk
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