You are in:
Saucony's VIZI PRO
White is, by any standards, by far the most visible colour we can wear, but it's hard to keep clothing actually white. So what's the solution for runners who want to get out there in winter? Fluorescent clothing, of course - which traditionally is usually a fluorescent yellow. Saucony's new range is a striking fluorescent orange, but this is the start of something big for the company's apparel lines. Jonathan Quint explains why...
SGB: Why orange?
Jonathan Quint: There is an element of wanting to stand out a little, both for us and the runner. We have done fluorescent yellow vests and jackets before, and there are other brands out there with strong, established ranges in fluorescent yellow, but this fabric is exclusive to Saucony, and it is the only fabric that is accredited by the American National Standards Institute for chromaticity - they're the equivalent of our British Standards Kite mark organization, and this colour and the treatment for this particular fabric is the only one the Americans have accredited. The tests they run on it are based on safety at work tests, which is why we show the runner next to a road worker, or a traffic warden, to show that this fabric and this colour is very bright under low light conditions.
SGB: What are the stand-out pieces in the range?
JQ: Pieces that currently exist in the Saucony range have been given this colour and this treatment so you can run in a technical fabric and you can also be as bright and as safe as possible.
There are great styles that you can currently buy, but you can't yet find them in the VIZI PRO orange, and you can't buy them with this treatment to the fabric. So we're dealing with established fabrics and cuts but now with the additional stand-out feature of VIZI-PRO.
For example, the Drylete long-sleeve half zip is in the range already and in my opinion is our best fabric, it's the fabric we make tights out of, so it is high-wicking, quick-drying, thermal fabric. There's also Optech, a lighter waffle-type fabric which is our best-selling men's long-sleeve.
Then there's our top-end jacket, which is in a new fabric, Sonic Light HD. we currently have a Sonic Light jacket, which is a very light weight, very quiet jacket, but the HD takes it one step further in that it is slightly heavier, with a great new feel. A typical running jacket will be like a shell suit type fabric, which we all know is not necessarily the look that we are wanting in our kit. This has been upgraded to a softer feel fabric. It is still water-resistant; it is still windproof but is even more breathable.
For the VIZI PRO range, the USP is high visibility in technical fabrics and technical styles
SGB: What values and facets are the core of the range?
JQ: Apart from being bright orange, there is 360-degree reflectivity, which you would expect on our technical kit. Even if you buy a black jacket, you get reflective material down the zip, normally on the nape of the shoulders and you could get some reflectivity around the cuffs. You should always be seen... but VIZI PRO orange gives you even better visibility at dusk and dawn, which are the times that a lot of people are out running.
All our top-end jackets and the majority of our top-end technical long-sleeves have an LED light built in to the sleeve. Just up from the cuff of the jacket you have a little LED that is smaller than a 10p piece. It's removable, for when you wash the garment, but you have a stitched-in holder. Just squeeze the LED light to switch it on and it flashes. Even if you don't want to go for the VIZI PRO you have this visibility in the standard colour palette. That LED, despite it being so tiny, is visible from 500 to 1000 yards away. It's on the end of your arm, so it is a part of you that is always moving when you are running - so you have the light, which is flashing, and you have the movement. If someone runs you over when you have got this on, they really mean to run you over!
There's a great story to tell about the whole range, not just VIZI PRO. The VIZI PRO is the most exciting of all the line-up, but there are so many nice technical features, all wrapped together in the right package which hopefully gets us to the top of retailers thinking for fall 2009. We're really pleased with this apparel collection, so are backing it with a marketing campaign, which will slot in nicely with our new footwear line-up and continue our push for that top slot in the running market.
