You’ve heard the tagline “city to mountain” before. It’s meant to describe the Goldilocks Zone of functionality: gear that is constructed with all the practical and technical elements meant for real outdoor use, and that also looks good. It’s a term that’s bandied about routinely but rarely is it actually achieved, perhaps because in much of the product it’s meant to describe, there’s too much emphasis placed on that first word. Goldwin doesn’t fall into this group.
Goldwin’s roots are lodged in the snow-covered peaks of Japan’s Toyama Prefecture. It was there that Goldwin evolved from a small knit factory into a full-on sportswear manufacturer. Goldwin has always had the mountains in mind — among its first products was a knit hiking sock — and early on it established itself as a ski brand with a line of stylish technical ski sweaters. It continued to push its production of ski apparel by focusing on performance. The brand even outfitted Sweden’s national ski team for nearly 30 years.
While ski sweaters may have faded with time (in both color and style), Goldwin’s commitment to creating products with both form and function has remained. Its latest lifestyle and ski collections are proof of that; they include everything from a streamlined waterproof down puffer to an ultra-light Cypress green Gore-tex shell or a pair of waterproof outdoor pants made with a clean profile and a blended wool outer. Both collections are, thanks to a technical foundation backed by Goldwin’s own history, perhaps better described as mountain-to-city (and not the other way around).
