Living in Manchester, we’ve seen many stores come and go over the years. Some good, some fantastic, some interesting, some weird and some bad. It can be hard to keep up at times with the constantly shifting retail environment, but every now and then, there’s a new kid on the block we simply can’t ignore – and for 2025, that new kid was Arc’teryx.
After opening three stores in the Big Smoke, the dead bird has finally decided to spread its wings to come and give the North a bit of love, and we couldn’t be more buzzing about it. We’re not entirely sure why it hasn’t happened sooner, to be honest, if there’s anywhere in the UK deserving of the highest quality GORE-TEX jackets, it’s sunny Manchester.
The New Cathedral Street store opened its doors for the first time the other week, and we wasted no time in getting in there to drool over all the lovely weatherproof commodities, and while we were doing it, we just so happened to bump into a fellow called Stéphane…
As it turns out, Stéphane is Arc’teryx’s Senior Director of Brand Marketing, and was very accommodating for an impromptu interview, in which we discussed Arc’teryx’s athlete program, the brand’s entanglement with a variety of subcultures, System_A and all importantly, why Manchester?
Hi Stéphane, how’s it going?
I’m good, thanks. How are you?
Yeah I’m good – how come Manchester was so lucky as to get an Arc’teryx store?
For many reasons. First off, it’s because we’ve been trading in Manchester for more than 20 years now, through a network of outdoor speciality retailers like Ellis Brigham, Cotswold Outdoor – all those guys. But it’s also because we’ve got a strong community in this area, as well as in the Peak District and the Lake District. We’ve got a lot of athletes coming from this area, so we knew we had a strong community here. We were looking at Manchester for a long while, and finally we found the space that fits our business model. As you can see, it’s not a small store.
Yeah, it’s definitely not a small store.
Yeah, so it all made sense, and we’re very happy to be here now.
When & where was the first European store opened?
London Piccadilly, back in 2015.
With you mentioning all the athletes there, do you find that Manchester is generally a pretty outdoorsy area, and for that reason aligns well with Arc’teryx as a brand?
Yeah this has always been the case. For a very long time, we’ve had athletes coming from this area, mostly from the climbing scene – there is bouldering and low-altitude climbing here – but there is also a good mountaineering scene slightly further afield, too, so we’ve always looked to support these athletes.
This might be a slightly strange question, but is there any similarities between the North West of England and Arc’teryx’s homeland, Vancouver?
Haha, in some respects, yes! At least in terms of the weather patterns. What is missing in this area is the mountains, but when it comes to rain and inclement weather, it is very, very similar. Vancouver is known for having one of the greatest amounts of rain on a yearly basis, and Manchester is also very wet, so the only real difference is that Vancouver has peaks of 4000m.
Yeah, it’s the bad weather that makes people in the North West of England so entranced by outdoor clothing. Northerners need a shell jacket just to survive.
Yeah, first and foremost, outdoor clothing is a need here. Just as it is in Vancouver. If you go to British Columbia, you’ll see everyone wearing Arc’teryx, not just because it’s our backyard, but because it’s so wet. There’s a joke in Vancouver about the weather in June… they call it Juneuary.
Haha, because it’s basically the same weather as January?
Yep, normally it’s just pouring rain.
We were talking the other day about how retail spaces are changing… about how stores are no longer places just to sell goods, they now need to be a hub for community. How important do you think community is going to be for the new Arc’teryx Manchester store?
It will be essential. This store is not going to be a place where you just buy products, as you said, it is going to be a hub. We’ll use it as a platform to have moments with the core community of the brand and the extended community of the brand.
What we try to do – on one hand – is be inclusive to our guests who want to start their journey in the outdoor world. But at the same time, we want to elevate the knowledge of other people who are further into their journey by using our expertise.
To do this, we are mingling with top-notch experts in various fields, as well as people involved with culture, music and the arts. The outdoors does not live in its own bubble; it is connected to other things, so we try to mix culture with core outdoor activity.
I think Arc’teryx is so unique, because as you just said there, it’s not just an outdoor brand. There is so much culture entrenched with the brand, and people with all different kinds of hobbies have adopted it, most notably people involved with skateboarding and graffiti. Why do you think that is? What is it about Arc’teryx that makes it reach further than the outdoors?
Firstly, I want to say that we don’t lean into these communities or activities intentionally. We don’t follow any trends, and for that reason, we have somehow become adopted by adjacent communities that recognise the authenticity of the brand and who we are, which is a core mountain brand.
I would say the appreciation of this authenticity is a universal value of these groups. And this is why all the way back in the ’90s, people in Japan were wearing Arc’teryx, and also why we have been adopted by graffiti culture – because, first and foremost, they like the function of the product. Not for status reasons, but purely for the function. If you are living or spending time in a harsh environment, you need protection, and Arc’teryx has always provided the best function, no matter how you use it.
Just off the back of that protection comment, is the Alpha SV the best selling Arc’teryx product of all time? For me it’s probably the most iconic.
It is one of the best-selling products, but it is not the best-selling product. In the hardshell collection, the Beta is one of our best-sellers – in all of its iterations.
That’s another thing we should probably quickly touch on… the Arc’teryx’s product hierarchy…
Yeah, absolutely. So basically, you have a model of a product, then we have different versions for different needs – so SL for superlight, SV for severe, AR for all round – there is a naming convention across the whole range.
It’s an interesting system, and one that I’ve always thought is kind of similar to cars. And it makes sense, because cars are tools, and so are Arc’teryx products. They’re both tools to take you to new places, and you want to make it as easy for the customer as possible to understand what their tool is capable of.
It’s because our assortment is made up of franchises. We’ve had the Alpha SV since 1998, and it is still there. The Atom jackets we launched in 2009, and they are still there. Cerium jackets.. the same. So basically, a great deal of good product has been carried over and refined year on year, so there are generations of products that have their own specific purposes, and we want to make this as easy to understand as possible.
In the UK, especially, the relationship between the outdoors and fashion has really flourished over the last 10 years, and Arc’teryx, as I’m sure you’re aware, has been a part of that. Is this something that Arc’teryx has noticed and paid attention to?
It’s hard to be blind and to not see what’s going on in the market. And this is not exclusive to the UK; it’s a global phenomenon. However, we’re not designing, marketing, or positioning ourselves in fashion. We are navigating through it, but we’re not trying to leverage anything from it. Trends come and go.
Yeah, and you want to still be there when they go.
Exactly. So we don’t follow trends, we’re function over form, first and foremost. We focus on being a core mountain brand. But yeah, we’re conscious of it, for sure.
In the past, there have been some collaborations with Arc’teryx – is that something that the brand is still open to doing, if the partner makes sense? Or not really?
Not really. We stopped doing collaborations a while ago now. We have a sublabel called System_A, where we are testing hybrid design approaches to the outdoors, but with a slight twist. So with that we try to be slightly disruptive, but these products are made to perform the exact same.
So System_A is more conceptual?
Yeah, it’s more conceptual. We are testing colours, materials and everything else that we’re not doing in our main range.
So it’s like product experimentation that people can buy if they want to?
Exactly, and it’s very successful, because it’s more exclusive and a bit rarer. But regarding collabs, we don’t really do any. We still do the BEAMS collaboration, but that’s about it.
So you have the core mountain range, then System_A is more experimental… where does Veilance sit?
So Veilance is its own brand. It houses different models, at different price points. It’s using Arc’teryx innovation and technology, but applying it to different environments. It’s sold at some stores, and then it’ll have its own specific corner in the store, so it really is very separate from the core range. It has its very own specific design intent.
Going back to athletes… are there initiatives that Arc’teryx engage with for young climbers and athletes at grassroots levels?
Yeah, for sure. In our sports marketing program, we support young athletes in a very wide array of disciplines – trail, ski, climbing – and sometimes this occurs as just a bit of seeding, but then we’ll also put on events to help promote athletes.
We partner a lot with collectives and organisations at community levels to support the young athletes, and also to open up the outdoors to audiences that may not typically be able to access it. One organisation we work with in the UK is called OUTO – Open Up The Outdoors – and they promote the outdoors across a range of communities.
Great, I think that’s everything I wanted to cover. Is there anything else you’d like to add to the people of Manchester?
We’re looking forward to hosting a lot of community events here – and we will be in Manchester for the Winter Tour. Every year, we do a tour where we go to many big cities in Europe and we premiere films that our athletes have produced, as well as having art installations and parties and everything. Stay tuned for more news on that.
Alright, cool, I’ll make sure to get across to that, in the rain no doubt. Thanks very much for that Stéphane.
My pleasure.
Find out what Arc’teryx are up to here.
Images courtesy of @georgeverinderr
