After 127 years in outwear, Filson is launching a women's line

Oct 16, 2024

Heritage outdoor goods brand Filson is launching a women’s collection for fall 2024, the first in the company’s 127-year history, as it aims to capture the attention of a new generation.

The Seattle-based brand, popular with outdoors enthusiasts or those going for a rugged look, is perhaps best known for its thick wool jackets. And while it has done seasonal drops of women’s sizes of its popular jackets before, this 32-piece collection launch is the first time the company has designed a full line for women.

“It is about bringing a new audience and new experience to our brand for the first time,” Filson’s marketing director Katie McElroy said. “And it is younger, more modern, but the heart of what we’re celebrating is craftsmanship.”

The collection goes live on the site Thursday following pre-sale events in its stores on Wednesday and for customers who signed up for a waitlist online.

Filson has experienced meaningful growth in recent years thanks to the increasing popularity of a Western aesthetic. In response, it’s expanded its reach and pursued strategic placements, like outfitting characters on the Paramount show “Yellowstone.” McElroy said the company’s revenue has gone up 40% in the past five years.

But now, getting into women’s marks an opportunity for Filson to update its brand for the 21st century. Rather than being known as a company that makes grandfathers’ hunting jackets, it’s angling to capture the bohemian city dweller or coastal cowgirl. Women already make up around 30% of site visitors on average. Now, the brand is betting that it can convert some of its existing customers as well as attract new ones.“It’s really versatile and there’s a lot of different facets to the Filson customer,” McElroy said. “It doesn’t matter where you live or what you do, you can rock it and wear it, however you see fit,” she said.

The fall collection includes jackets, shirts and bags. A winter collection will hit in early October with longer and heavier outerwear and sweaters — as well as the women’s edition of its popular wool jacket called the Mackinaw Cruiser.

Filson’s collection has been in the works for about four years. Plans began in earnest after Italy-based distributor and licensor WP Lavori took a minority stake in Filson in 2020 and now has a 40% share, McElroy said. WP Lavori’s co-founder Cristina Calori had the specific intention of creating a women’s line. But the timing is fortuitous as Western and Americana aesthetics plug into the mainstream.

Gabriella Santaniello, founder and CEO of consulting firm A Line Partners, said the rugged outdoors aesthetic has been catapulted to popularity thanks to pop culture moments, like Beyonce’s “Cowboy Carter” and the Paramount TV show “Yellowstone.” Other brands in the Western wear space are capitalizing on this moment by growing their physical reach. This includes Tecovas, which is plotting a wholesale strategy, and Boot Barn which is expanding its national footprint by opening more stores. “Cowboy and cowgirl has been on trend for a while,” Santaniello said.

Beyond music and entertainment, the idea of a Wild West lifestyle is a nod to core American values or history in a way that resonates with some consumers who may be looking to adopt that lifestyle. “If you look at where people are moving in the country, there are people going to Texas, Tennessee and Montana,” she said. “That lifestyle resonates with a lot of Americans.”

But expanding to a new demographic is a big undertaking. To promote the new collection, Filson has created a multi-channel launch campaign featuring photographs of models in the new gear shot in Santa Fe, which will show up in print, connected TV and social media. Put together, it’s Filson’s largest-ever out-of-home campaign. “It’s that hitting, achieving optimal frequency across multiple formats that will allow us to really make an impact and drive consideration,” McElroy said.

The out-of-home campaign includes billboards in key locations in Seattle and Los Angeles near Filson stores, as well as a Union Square subway station takeover planned in New York that covers walls, turnstiles and screens. The company will also launch geo-targeted social and search campaigns for anyone in a 55-mile radius of Union Square.

“Women’s fashion is just so different from men’s fashion in terms of advertising,” McElroy said. “We knew we needed to cut through the clutter of a very saturated market, and put Filson on the map so that people look up from their phones and go, ‘Oh, who is Filson?'”