If anyone knows a great ski jacket, it’s messenger Miller. The Professional Skier has tested countless ski-killing for an 18-year career that includes five Olympic Winter Games, six Olympic medals and 33 World Cup profits. But in 2015, during training in Portillo, Chile, he took a point in the Nuke Suit Jack Aztech MountainA ski label founded by the Aspen, Colo., Pair Heifara Rutgers and David Roth. He was stopped … well, in his spurs.
“I could see that it was strongly developed because of the connection of the founders with Aspen,” said Mr. Miller. “They clearly spent a lot of time on the mountain and understood the technical aspects of fabric and design.”
Mr. Miller admired the fit, breathing and bewilderment of the jacket for better heat circulation and movement. He appreciated his well-placed bags, open cuffs for simple glove wear and unmistakably cool.
Later he met Mr. Rutgers and Mr Roth, and the three men worked together, with Mr. Miller served as the Chief Innovation Officer of Aztech Mountain and a few styles, such as the Hayden 3L Shell Jacket and Shell Pant. He was also the face of the brand for three years.
“To this day, I think the jacket, if not the best, than in a very small group of the best ski jackets I’ve ever skied,” said Mr. Miller.
Ten years later, Aztech Mountain remains an Aspen -not, tailor -made for those who would rather haunt the Silver Queen Gondola than Champagne shower in the Cloud Nine Bistro. In a category of exaggerated glitter and logo-heavy excess, where luxury ski labels have changed the slopes in a runway, Aztech Mountain gives priority to performance and precision.
Instead of flashy branding, the clothing is defined by well -considered details: mountain -shaped zippers, streamlined silhouettes and the right hit of neon and print. It is a label that is recognized by knowing nodding in the gondola, a quiet badge of Insider status.
The fashion and function of Aztech Mountain is not accidental. Mr. Rutgers, who leads the design, merchandising and creative, spent a large part of his career with Marc Jacobs. In 2013 he started working on a new type of jacket – originally for Barneys New York – and called in a team of friends and former Jacobs designers to bring it to life.
“I had experienced fashion at the highest level and I saw the growth of Moncler and Canada Goose,” said Mr. Rutgers, who, with Mr Roth and their four -year -old daughter, splits time between Aspen and Tribeca, the home base of the Some independent store from the brand.
For Mr. Rutgers, the pursuit of SkiWear was an obvious choice. His father moved his family to Aspen in 1974 and began to give skiing. Mr. Rutgers grew on ski racing and watched Downhill matches of his perch near Ruthie’s, the lunch hut on Ajax Mountain. His favorite run is AZTEC, for which the brand is mentioned. Some early Aztech styles contain vintage photos from the Aspen Historical Society.
“I always say that Aspen is our muse,” said Mr. Rutgers. “It is the backbone of everything we have ever done. I liked to grow up and felt happy that they had parents who were in Aspen when it really happened. “
In 2013, Mr. presented Rutgers A small collection of a family friend, Lee Keating, who owns the Aspen Boutique in addition to her husband, Tom Bowers, Performance ski. The store became the first wholesaler to support the brand. To this day, Mrs. Keating Aztech’s minimalist aesthetics appreciates a world of more-is-more ski-style.
“They stay in their lane,” she said. “They don’t put much fur on their coats. They do not bed their coats. There are no crystals, no feathers, no extra logos. It is quiet and cool. If you get it, you get it. “
Triana Trujillo, a personal stylist in Aspen, likes to mix and match combinations of Aztech’s prints and solids. She thinks the collections are trendy without feeling extremely.
“You see a lot of tourists coming in with large, crazy pieces and superproof pants on the mountain,” said Mrs. Trujillo. “The locals love Aztech because we tend to dress more on the technical side.”
For those who see the slopes as their personal catwalk, the ski mode scene never looked better. Independent labels such as Goldbergh, Cordova and Perfect Moment are space in the sector together with heritage brands such as Bogner and Moncler. Even ready-made faithful loyal, such as Zegna, Brunello Cucinelli and Loro Piana, exchange city suits for ski suits. The result is a growing range of options that meet those whose choice of ski après ski.
“We always say that if you can wear it in New York and Aspen, it is a good product,” said Mr. Rutgers. Their wives Super Nuke JacketFor example, has a cut silhouette that can work with a skipib or with jeans and boots.
“But it’s a challenge that we are confronted with,” he said. “What are we? Are we fashion? Are we ski? The simple answer is that we are ski, where and where. “
The Aztech fashion campaigns can think differently. Mr. Rutgers cooperates with fashion industry veterans such as Casey Cadwallader, the artistic director of Mugler, and Laura Zaccheo, the former head of knitted clothing at Marc Jacobs. The fashion stylist Jay Massacret, who has worked with McQueen, Kenzo and Calvin Klein, the high-concept lookbooks and social campaigns. They do not shoot the clothes on a mountain, but at unexpected locations, such as the imperial sand dunes in California or in the streets of Paris. It is not what you could find in the magazine Backcountry.
There is also the question of how you can scale ‘Aspen’. As Aztech Mountain spreads to the world markets, the challenge is not only growth, maintaining the individual Aspen -ethos of the label, while translating into destinations that are steeped in their own ski traditions. In December the company opened its first shop-in-shop in the Hotel Alberg in Lech, Austria, a movement that meant that his commitment to re-interpret the Aspen-Mind-set for a demanding European market that is loyal to legacy brands .
But which Aspen does Aztech sell? Between the influencer Brigade and towering house prices, today’s Aspen is far from the close -knit ski test of the past. The local population of the first spirit of pretentious powder seekers has given way to a scene in which lift lines are longer, tables with cache-cache books months in advance and the costs of arrival-for a family of four or a single season pass never been steeper.
Yet the soul of Old Aspen remains for those who know where to look, in the first songs at Highlands, on a worn stool in J Bar and under the subtle nods that have been exchanged in a gondola.
“In the beginning we thought Aspen would be a cancellation for people,” said Mr. Rutgers. “Can we talk about Aspen if we try to sell in St. Moritz or Lech or Lenzerheide? What we realized was that we had to lean in it. I was lucky to ski almost everywhere, and every time I return to Aspen, I am reminded that this place is really special. “
