686 is best known for its snow outerwear, and has also expanded into technical apparel, which includes 686’s popular Everywhere pant. 

The Daily followed up with 686 founder and CEO Mike West to find out more about the strategies that are helping it grow in a difficult market.

He also talked about the challenging snow season, next season’s orders, and 686’s wholesale/DTC mix.

The Circana data shows 686 is one of the fastest growing brands in the outdoor specialty channel. What is driving that growth for 686?

686 CEO Mike West: As much as we appreciate the nod from Circana, our goal over the past 32 years continues to be slow, consistent growth over a long period of time – i.e., the “Kaizen” way of doing business. 

Our core is utilizing technical fabrications that protect you from the elements – not only in winter gear but also in year-round technical apparel. As a brand that was founded in the city but raised in the mountains, we’ve been fortunate to gain an audience that relates to this hybrid outdoor lifestyle. 

Our growth can be seen in two key categories: snow outerwear and accessories; and men’s outdoor bottoms designed around technical features and fabrics that can transition from season to season and from the trail to the boardroom.

Did your company overall grow revenue last year as well? 

Mike West: As an independent, we’re in it for the long term. It’s important that “growth” is proportionate to supporting great people, being on brand, and enhancing the fan experience of being outside. It can be challenging to check all these boxes. 

2023 was our highest top-line revenue to date, but it also had its share of business challenges. However, I can honestly say we’re having the best time we’ve ever had. On a side note, how rad would it be if we could be judged on how “profitable” and how much “fun” we’re having? These are the markers I strive towards with 686.

There has been lots of talk in the outdoor industry about the excess inventory in the market. How has that impacted 686, and what strategies has the company used to navigate it? 

Mike West: People who know me know I’m a straight shooter. The short answer is yes, we’ve had some issues on inventory, but thankfully only in a few places. Our experiments in non-core categories might not have been the best decision, but we learned from it, which is growth. 

We have no plans on mass closeouts that will dilute our long-term goals. We’re not a discount brand, nor do we play heavily into promotional tactics. We keep our MAP policy set and stand our ground. Could we “grow” quicker if we were more flexible and focused solely on the short term? Hell yes, but that’s not what we’re about.

How did the snow season turn out for 686? How do next season’s order books look?

Mike West: As much as we’ve broadened our business beyond snow, it’s still our core business. A few things happened in the past four months. We concluded the Winter ‘23-‘24 season not only as our best top-line financial year, but also as our best direct e-commerce business to date. It was really the first time I felt the omni-channel strategy working well, establishing a true flywheel between direct sales and retail partnerships. The snow season also extended longer than normal. 

Winter ‘24-‘25 pre-books have been challenging to say the least. The biggest issue we faced in pre-books was deadlines being pulled forward during a year with inconsistent weather, and our partners requested more time before placing their pre-book orders. 

Because we plan and forecast well ahead of when orders are due, we adjusted more than usual to ensure we didn’t compromise by being over-inventoried. We’ve always believed in a made-to-order approach and selling out. The winter order season was really an adjustment period for everyone, realizing it’s not business as usual. 

Despite this, I believe we performed incredibly well; we are down 7% year-over-year on the top line but forecast to be up in terms of profit. I’ve heard from my other peer brands they are down 30%-plus, so I’d like to believe we may have taken some market share.

686 offers much more than snow goods. Are you having success getting wholesale distribution for 686 apparel? If so, what categories and products are resonating? 

Mike West: For snow, our wholesale accounts span the globe and we are in more than a few thousand brick-and-mortar storefronts. 

For non-snow categories, it’s a very small handful of accounts. The vast majority is online-direct for the sole reason of slow, controlled growth and knowing where we stand. We’re honestly not ready at this time to make a large push to our retailer partners in categories we don’t yet lead. We respect our retail partners and understand it takes a lot to make this work for both parties. In short, we’re taking our time to be intentional about apparel.  

Any interesting changes in the marketing and social strategies for the brand? 

Mike West: We launched our first feature short film this winter, “ATLAS,” which won Short Film of the Year from both Slush and Torment magazines. We took a risk and put the majority of our budget into a single project with multiple rollout touch points that included retail and DTC, and it appears to have worked. The project uplifted the brand throughout the snowboard community, created demand, and established a new platform for storytelling and marketing moving forward. We will be building off of the “ATLAS” platform in both the snowboard and ski worlds over the next three-plus years. 

On the social side, we leaned heavily into our riders, collaborators, and licenses. Major launches with Hello Kitty, Welcome Skateboards, Iron Maiden, and others put 686 in front of millions of new eyes and led to omni-channel success. Throughout our winter marketing, we are continuing to let our athletes and creative partners shape the brand through an arthouse mentality as they are on the forefront of culture and creation. 

On the apparel side, we signed a new MTB athlete, Aidan Howe from In the Hills Gang, and are using Aidan and others in our new brand campaign “Make Every Day An Adventure,” that aims to connect the apparel back to the core experiences of “explore, adventure, and unwind.”

You are the owner of 686, and have managed to stay independent in the challenging snow market for over 30 years. Are there any key lessons you have learned along the way that have made that possible?

Mike West: There are lots of lessons and I’m still learning. 

Here are a few:

• It can be incredibly lonely when you own 100% of something that can go away with several compounding mistakes. 
• Make decisions that enable people to move forward.
• Perseverance will get you everywhere.
• The best brands should outlive a founder, athlete, retailer, or single entity.
• Brands don’t need to be big, raise money, or go public in order to have a positive impact.
• Invest in people that look and act different than you.
• Weird stuff works.
• Transparency, sustainability, and accountability matter. We just became B Corp certified and are incredibly proud of this moment.
  
• Truly enjoy what you do or step aside and bring someone else up.
• Support other independent brands that live and breathe being outside.

At a time when independent specialty retailers are concerned about many brands’ DTC focus, how important is the wholesale channel to your business? How does 686 support wholesale accounts?

Mike West: Plain and simple, our retailer partners are our rock. I believe in supporting them and the local communities they are a part of. I, and most of the people at 686, grew up in specialty retail and are very familiar with the positive life lessons we have learned from being on the floor and in the mix. 

We have no plans to offset the share of wholesale and direct sales. We’re currently about an 70/30 ratio of wholesale to DTC and it’s working well for each part of the business.