Mission has launched its first apparel collection
Josh Shaw, chief executive officer and founder of Mission, announced the launch of an activewear brand focused on the thermoregulation category.
The men’s and women’s line, called VaporActive, will consist primarily of T-shirts, shorts and underwear for men, and Ts, tanks, bras and capris for women.
The collection will be sold at Amazon as well as on the Eastbay, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Mission web sites. It will be priced just above Nike.
Mission was founded in 2009 along with several high-profile athletes including Dwyane Wade, Serena Williams, Reggie Bush and David Wright to explore the use of the burgeoning thermoregulation technology.
Its first product was the EnduraCool cooling towel that hit the market in 2012. Since then, the brand has expanded into other cooling gear and accessories such as hats, headbands and wristbands as well as heating accessories including gloves, scarves and hats.
Shaw said: “We struck gold with the cooling towel.
“We’ve sold over 20 million units since we launched in 2012, which equates to retail sales of north of $250 million in cooling accessories already.”
With this success as a backdrop, it was only a matter of time before Mission turned its attention to apparel.
The company creates the cooling accessories itself, but for apparel, it turned to 37.5, a fibre formerly called Cocona that activates carbon from coconut shells to move water away from a heat source and dissipate it. The fibre is now used in a variety of applications including footwear, tailored clothing and dress shirts with Kenneth Cole, golf shirts with Tommy Bahama and an outdoor collection with Adidas.
Mission has secured the global exclusive and/or semi-exclusive rights with 37.5 for a number of categories for men, women and children including sports bras, leggings, athletic socks, underwear, hats, headbands, wristbands and sleeves.
Jeff Bowman, chief executive officer of 37.5/Cocona, said: “Mission and Cocona have a special relationship that is unlike that of most of our customers. Not only does Mission have global exclusivity for 37.5 technology in several athletic product categories, giving them a big advantage in telling a complete and systematic thermoregulation story, but the technical teams from the two companies work extremely closely with each other and third-party testing institutions to understand and advance the state-of-the-art with respect to comfort and human performance-enhancement in clothing.”
The line, which will consist of 30 styles, will be marketed to the active millennial.
