Outdoor Underground Presents...

SIDNEY, NE — The word is “fleece” in the realm of outdoor apparel.  And nobody knows that better than the customers of the outdoor merchandise monster Cabela’s.

    “Except in name, our upcoming line of fleece parkas, pants, and coats promises to be essentially no different than the other lines of camouflage fleece garments Cabela’s have offered its customers in recent years,” says Jamee Guggenmos, Cabela’s Hunting Project Manager.  “We just can’t seem to figure out what to call the stuff.”

That poses a big problem.  According to Guggenmos, a recent demographics and market study backs up what Cabela’s now 1.5 billion in annual revenue has long suggested:

While hunters are an easy mark for companies selling ultra-expensive and extraneous junk, getting them to open their wallets is actually 100 times easier when they are fooled into believing the product they’re wasting money on is new in some way.

In most cases, that’s accomplished by simply “updating” the same old product by slapping the latest camouflage pattern on it.  But in the hunting garment industry, says Guggenmos, it gets a little more tricky.

    “You need a catchy new name,” he says.  “Demographic studies show that hunters and their money are soon parted when words like ‘ultimate’ and ‘revolutionary’ are used in any product description.”

Unfortunately, Cabela’s customers have already seen their Revolution™ Fleece and Revolution™ Fleece Dry-Plus® line of products.  There’s also Super Slam® Elite™ Fleece, Outfitter’s Fleece, Outfitter’s Wooltimate™ Fleece, Legacy Fleece™.

    “Complicating matters even further,” says Guggenmos, “are garment lines like Cabela’s Gore-Tex MT050® Whitetail Extreme™ Insulated Clothing and Cabela’s Ultimate Suede™.  We designed these lines to be every bit as quiet and warm as fleece.  But they are not fleece.  Well, actually they are the same but different.  Think of it as fleece that isn’t really fleece.”

With the fall catalog season right around the corner and their “Master Fall Catalog” soon to go to press, time is running out.  Two names are currently being talked about at Cabela’s headquarters in Sidney—“Stalker X-Treme Fleece” and “Super Mega Ultimate Revolution X-Treme Fleece.”

    “It could come down to what fits better on the label, since that’s really the only substantial change in this new line,” Guggenmos says.