Outdoor brands continue to cling to padded coats

An F&F employee takes a photo of a model wearing a Discovery Expedition long padded coat at the clothing brand's pop-up store in Seoul, Tuesday. / Courtesy of F&F

By Park Jae-hyuk

Outdoor brands in Korea will continue to rely on long padded coats for the second consecutive winter, rather than setting a new trend, fashion industry officials said Tuesday.

Although domestic clothing companies said they are looking for a new item to cope with the expected ending of padded coat fever next year, they have yet to come up with a blueprint for the future.

A Discovery Expedition pop-up store opened in Seoul that day showed the tendency.

The store displayed newly released long padded coats that the outdoor brand showcased on a runway last week, in addition to padded jackets of various lengths and colors.

“As we think there still remain opportunities for long padded coats on the market, we decided to focus on the item this year,” said F&F deputy general manager Seok Koung-hoon, who is in charge of marketing at Discovery Expedition. “We are thinking over our next step through continuous communication with our customers.”

F&F said Discovery Expedition added not only functionality, but also brand identity and style to its new long padded coats. The company also said its products feature diversity in terms of size, fabric and color.

Discovery Expedition's rivals have also begun releasing upgraded padded coats for winter.

On the day of the pop-up store's opening, Nepa released the Primia long down jacket, which is known as a favorite of actress Jun Ji-hyun. Millet released the new version of its Richelle padded coat, a day before the pop-up store's opening.

Lotte Shopping will start selling 10,000 of its new long padded coats today at its department stores and outlets nationwide. The official sponsor of the PyeongChang Winter Games led the craze for long padded coats last year, as 30,000 of its “PyeongChang long padded coat” were sold within a month.

Against this backdrop, some observers say the craze for long padded coats has already come to an end, citing hundreds of padded coat trades on online second-hand markets.