W+W for REI

Product design for outdoors lifestyle retailer REI in the US, designed to be accessible to all, modern and playful.

US outdoor retailer REI has stores in 168 locations, their ethos is ‘a life outdoors is a life well lived’. With their core customer being an expert in the outdoors.

REI came to us wanting to broaden their customer base to the person who is attracted to the outdoor ‘lifestyle’ but is not a specialist for example festival goers. The collection needed to be unisex and ‘for all’, to be an impulse purchase, be ‘peg-able’ and basket-ready..

We identified key categories for product development with the ambition that the brand would become a leader in that space.

With new inventions designed from scratch alongside bespoke kits, we applied a contemporary design led aesthetic to everyday functional items resulting in a universal gender neutral, democratic designed collection.

The creation of new products in this range meant we worked hand in hand with our suppliers throughout the product development process, learning new techniques in manufacturing, in order to achieve the look the range needed.

The launch of the collection was a huge success and led on to subsequent further collections and the expansion of the brand beyond REI into other retailers.