Hanes Jumps into Outdoor Gear Market, Announces Everest Expedtiion

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By: Kraig Becker
Updated:
4

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Okay, I didn’t see this one coming, but it seems that Handsbrands is jumping into the already crowded outdoor apparel market pushing it’s Champion line of gear and Duofold base layers as alternatives for the mountaineers and outdoor enthusiasts in general.

Today, Expedition Hanesbrands was announced with the launch of a slick website that invites the world to “Come Climb With Us“. After taking the site for a test drive, I have to that it’s pretty impressive, at least in terms of show casing Everest and what goes into a climb. On the site, you’ll also find more information about the team, which will be led by adventurer Jamie Clarke when they attempt their climb in the spring of 2010. There is also a preliminary look at the gear, which includes some great looking base layers, as well as insulating layers, soft shells, and a hard shell too.

They’ve also launched another site called Climb Everest With Us in which we can share what our “Everest” is. That is to say the challenges in our life that we are focused on as our own personal goals. You can upload a video to this new online community and get the chance to win $10,000 to fun your own adventure. Sounds pretty great to me!

As if that wasn’t enough, Hanes has asked the Gear Junkie to join the press team, and next spring he’ll be trekking up to Everest Base Camp to cover help cover the expedition and test out the gear himself now doubt. I would have loved to have been a part of that press team for sure!

So, there you have it. More gear for us to choose from. I’ll be interested to see how well it performs. I have to say that looking at it in the images I’ve seen this morning, it looks to be very high quality stuff, but until I can actually test it, it’s hard to say for sure. The base layers in particular look good, which I guess shouldn’t be a surprise considering the company. Hopefully they’ll perform as well as they look though and be offered at affordable prices.

It’s interesting that gear companies looking to make a splash are all headed to Everest in recent years. First Ascent definitely got plenty of exposure this past spring, in no small part because of the big name climbers on the team. But there is no question that the line of gear got plenty of exposure, and it looks like Hanes is hoping to do something similar. I wonder if it’s too late for them to take me along!?! 🙂

Update: If you want to see more of what Hanes has in store with this gear, click here, where you can actually see some of their line of clothing and what they have planned.

Kraig Becker
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4 thoughts on “Hanes Jumps into Outdoor Gear Market, Announces Everest Expedtiion”

  1. I'm not sure how I feel about this.

    Is it the trendy thing to launch an outdoor clothing line with a Everest marketing angle these days?

    I know Eddie Bauer at least had some outdoor heritage… but Hanes?

    Whats next? The Fruit of the Loom's characters on the summit?

  2. Well, according to the press release this morning: http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090923005513&newsLang=en

    DuoFold has been in high mountaineering for decades, it's just not nearly as high profile as Eddie Bauer.

    And that said, watching the press conference this morning, I was very impressed with how the gear looked, but it is the performance that will matter most of course. But it looks like they've put together a really great system here. We'll see though. Lots of big names to compete against in this market.

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