Snow Peak Apparel Store

Snow Peak has opened its first apparel store, the first of its kind anywhere in the world, but first here in Korea, featuring a line of clothing and accessories.

The brand originally hails from Japan, a purveyor of high-end camping products, such as titanium cookware, foldable interconnecting bamboo table sets, luxury tents, and the like. Korean campers, especially car campers, are nuts about the brand. Most backpackers will have at least one Snow Peak item among their gear, say, a pair of their portable chopsticks (wooden tips can be unscrewed and inserted into the hollow stainless steel handles, which are then carried in a sleeve attached to a lanyard). (See the link to the official website on the home page for more details.)

According to the manager of the new store, Snow Peak licensed the logo to a local Korean company, which then designed and manufactured the apparel. I didn't have time to look very closely at the stuff, the photos taken on the fly, but a quick glance suggests that it's more "lifestyle" than "performance." Cargo pants, flannel shirts, down jumpers, stuff that would look cute sitting around a cozy campfire, but nothing with technology or design elements associated with vigorous activities or extreme conditions. I also didn't get a look at the prices, but I noticed that a pair of cargo pants was going for about 180,000 won. Not cheap. Nothing from Snow Peak is.

The store is located by the Jongro 5-Ga subway station, exit 5, in a back alley that's increasingly becoming a mecca for shoppers of outdoor sporting goods (in fact, Mammut recently opened a store just a couple blocks away).

Incidentally, the second floor carries camping gear. Nothing new there.