Fabric Stores Salt Lake City

Outdoor Retailer Recap

Outdoor gear changes every year, but some changes are crucial enough to make everything now in stores old-fashioned. Think: adding spandex to denim to create stretch jeans. Old-fashioned-ization is what will happen when new products from the recent Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake City hit stores in 2012. New technical fabrics, new concepts in outerwear and new buzzwords will change almost everything.

The new buzzword for outerwear is “efficiency.” The Mountain Hardwear brand has the concept mastered. The whole trend is minimal—lightweight and no bulk. Aside from pocket elimination, there’s no Velcro or elastic on cuffs. Instead, an internal knit cuff on jackets gives a seal without bulk. Pant insulation stops at the boot level, fitting snugly to the boot, so skis, snowboard or crampons don’t shred the bulky fabric around the other ankle.

The company also made radical fabric innovations. One new fabric offers a “jade effect.” Jade, as a stone, is always cool because of a special hardening on the surface. Mountain Hardwear put that property into a yarn for its cross-training line, so it will last for the life of a garment, helping to ward off overheating while running or hiking.

Another innovation, the “Ghost Whisperer” jacket is made of a new kind of nylon, woven so tightly that it protects as much against wind and cold as some insulated jackets without bulk and is startlingly lightweight—less than 2 ounces. The pale, white fabric is so thin it’s nearly see-through and crushes down to fit into an attached sack, as small as a ping-pong ball. It will cost $135.

The company hired famous mountain climber Ueli Steck to advise the designers of the new line. Alex Baires, Mountain Hardwear’s backpack designer, used that advice to eliminate excess features in backpacks. Compression straps, normally used to compact a pack, are now made of detachable webbing, offering a choice of whether to use them or not—or whether to use them for some other purpose on a backpacking trip.

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Amy: Utah State was the only fashion program in Utah at the time. Unfortunately, in the middle of my sophomore year, the university was making budget cuts and the apparel and textiles major was one of the first to go. The program was completely dissolved by my senior year. I was able to take all of the core classes before I graduated. The credits I still lacked were picked up in the art department, specifically printmaking. In the end, I guess it was a good thing they dissolved the program; otherwise, I would have never started printing my own fabrics and clothes. Amy: My dad is a humanitarian. He is in Central and South America almost as much as he's in the U.S. He is always looking for people and places that are in need. In his travels, he came across Cojol-ya. Cojol-ya is an association that is set up to help and preserve Mayan weaving. He told me about it and asked if I wanted to do an internship. I flew out a month later to Santiago Atitlan and learned how to weave on a backstrap loom. It was the most life-changing experience I've ever had. Amy: After I graduated, I moved to Guatemala for a second time. I didn't know what I wanted to do at the time so I went there to figure it out. After almost three months, I got parasites and moved back home. I knew Utah was where I was supposed to be. My boyfriend (now husband) was here still finishing school and my family was all here. My goal was no longer to go where the fashion was, it was to bring fashion to Utah. Amy: After Andrew, my husband, finished school at Utah State, we moved to Salt Lake City. I got a job working at Fashion Affair. Fashion Affair was the fabric store that existed before Yellow Bird Fabrics. The owner of Fashion Affair, Margit Hansen, wanted to retire. She asked me if I would like to buy the business. I knew I couldn't afford it, and in the middle of an economic crisis I knew I wouldn't be able to get a loan. I decided to start fresh with a small inventory and see where it went.

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