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Gear to dream of

Company president and scientist Jon Reichlin is a hardcore US endurance athlete and triathlete, who counts the tough Escape from Alcatraz triathlon as one of his accomplishments.

Bryce Thatcher, responsible for product design and development, is an adventure racer, speed-climbing record holder and twice a second-team All American cross-country skier, who has a background in exercise physiology and biomechanics. Adventure racers are still thanking him for developing a waist pack for water bottles — a vast improvement on the bottle holder he improvised from an old pair of jeans when he was attempting to set the world record for the fastest ascent/descent of the Grand Teton.

After 30 years’ experience in top level competitions — ultra marathons, triathlons and adventures races — their product tester, 5-times winner of the Wasatch 100 mile endurance run, Dana Miller, knows how to spot a design flaw or recognise a winner.

Product tester and developer Magda Lewy-Boulet not only represented the US in the 2008 Beijing Olympics women’s marathon, but also has a master’s degree in exercise physiology and has been studying how fluids and fuel can maximize an athlete’s performance.

“We’re athletes who solve athletes’ problems, we are not product developers who sit in an industrial design office,” says Reichlin during a recent visit to their SA distributor, Eiger Equipment, in Cape Town. “We create the products that we would like to use ourselves.”

Penguin Brands first became known in the US as a supplier of one of the widest ranges of shoe care products, but is now known for a wide variety of technically innovative products used by active people like runners, triathletes, cyclists, adventure racers etc. Their Nathan range includes items like running vests, racing packs, accessories, hydration systems, safety products etc. with the emphasis on technical innovations… for example, in the dual-bladder pack with electrolytes and water that can be combined by turning a dial. An environmentally friendly alternative to the 38-bn disposable water bottles discarded by US athletes per year.

One of the recent additions to their product range is the Penguin sport-wash, designed to meet the demand created by the growing use of technical fibres, says Reichlin. “In the US everyone wears fabrics engineered to move moisture every day.”

But, if you wash these in regular detergents, a residue accumulates on the fabric that traps moisture, breeds bacteria that creates bad scents and blocks the effectiveness of the fabric’s performance features like breathability, moisture-wicking and factory applied waterproofing.

“Our sport-wash leaves no residue,” he says. It actually removes the residue left by other detergents and also removes trapped odours, restores moisture-wicking, factory applied waterproofing and prevents colour fading. “It is vegetable based and completely biodegradable. In addition, you can use one bottle for twenty wash loads, which means that it takes up less space.”

They have always been concerned about the effect of their products and packaging on the environment, says Reichlin — they are not merely following the current sustainability trend in the US.

For example, in the Penguin foot-care range only top quality, high-performing, long-lasting materials are used in the products that preserve shoes longer and help make them look new longer, thereby reducing wastage.

For more than 20 years, their aerosol products have contained no harmful CFC propellants, nor do their current aerosols contain toxic chemicals such as Freon or Trichlor III.

Everything they produce and distribute is also 100% free of PVC (see p60), including their blister and clamshell packaging. PVC is no longer acceptable in the US, says Reichlin, and there is a strong drive to minimize packaging — even retail chain Walmart asked suppliers to cut down on packaging. “In order to eliminate packaging as much as possible, we have put hangtags on all our products.”

The Sorbothane athletic insole products are made of PVC alternatives Poron foam and polyurethane foam, an easily recyclable, chlorine-free foam that produces a durable, flexible insole.

These environmental concerns are clearly appreciated by customers, as Penguin experienced the best sales in the history of the company in the month when the worst economic downturn in more than seventy years hit the US. “The demand for environmentally friendly products is to a large extent driven by our children,” says Reichlin. ‘They are asking questions and serving as our conscience.”

Reichlin also attributes the good sales to the fact that when money is tight consumers can still afford smaller accessories, like a waistpack — for which the demand increases as people are more likely to go running or hiking when stress increases. In addition, a retailer will try and maximize sales by encouraging customers to accessorize when the number of feet per store drops.