Outdoor Industry

Puffy Coats for Dogs: A Dispatch From the Outdoor Retailer Show

By Alex Strickland, 8-06-10

	Because dogs climb, too. Photo by Alex Strickland.

At some point, most outdoor enthusiasts find themselves in a particular quandary. An amazing new product comes out and the moment you see it plastered across the front of an industry rag, you’re smitten. Only one problem. It’s almost exactly like a piece of gear you already have.

A bit lighter, a bit cooler, a bit better. But just a bit.

A common workaround for this condition is buying the piece of gear “for your spouse.” It’s why my fiancée has a top-end 29er mountain bike despite her not knowing how to shift gears.

The only problem with this plan is that eventually the significant other catches on and your feathery soft down gig is up. Well fret no more, fellow over-consumers, there’s a booming industry afoot and on display at the Outdoor Retailer Show: outdoor gear for dogs.

Sure, it’s been around for years, but outfitting your dog is reaching new heights as people take their mutts on increasingly extreme excursions. Climbing harnesses, thinsulate jackets, soft shell pullovers and personal flotation devices abound for Fido and friends.

“Make no mistake, we recognize that there’s a slightly ridiculous side of this,” says Dave Ritchey of D-fa, a New Zealand-based canine outfitter.

But that doesn’t stop the product designers from dreaming up a whole line of premium outerwear at a premium price. Ritchey says the company has no problem finding customers for its $100+ Sub Woofer soft shell or Puff Doggy coat.

“People are treating their dogs as an extension of themselves in this country,” he says. “Three-point-six million pet owners bought designer apparel for their dogs last year, but that market is underrepresented in outdoor stores.”

And as more and more people head outdoors and into more extreme activities, they appear to have no qualms about bringing along the family pet.

Ruffwear, the granddaddy of the dog outfitting companies, unveiled a multi-point harness last year that enables ambitious owners to take their dogs canyoneering, rappelling, backcountry skiing and any number of other vertiginous activities.

“We had gotten requests for a harness for years, but never really thought the market could support all the R&D we’d have to invest,” said a Ruffwear spokeswoman. “But finally we’d gotten so many from outdoor enthusiasts as well as professional ski patrollers and search and rescue teams that we went ahead with it.”

Ruffwear’s catalog features a photo sent in from a Canadian ski patroller who is preparing to rappel down a couloir with what appears to be Chewbaca securely fastened to her back. It’s enough to make you wonder who really suffers from separation anxiety.

Ritchey, who makes no bones about his love of puns (when asked about naming life jackets D-FDs or merino wool shirts Ice-Barkers, Ritchey was unambiguous: “Are you effing kidding? It’s the best part.”), says the market for canine outerwear is such that D-fa was attending the show thanks to a government grant that helps fund emerging brands in high-potential markets.

“We know how to build this stuff and people want it,” he says. “We’re like Petagonia.”

Alex Strickland is a freelance writer in Utah. He’ll be sending reports from Outdoor Retailer all week.

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