Karrimor
Karrimor is a British brand of backpacks, outdoor and sports equipment, and clothing.
The company was founded as the Karrimor Bag Company in 1946.
Financial difficulties beginning in the late 1990s led to the company entering receivership in March 2004, after which the trademark was acquired by Sports Direct and is now used for various budget outdoor and running products.
History
Original company
Early history
Karrimor was founded and based in Lancashire, England, following World War II, with the company moving early on from Rawtenstall shop premises to nearby Clayton-le-Moors. Its history began in 1943, when Waterfoot bicycle shop owner Charles Parsons went blind from an accident that had occurred in 1939. Under war and post-war conditions, he was also unable to obtain saddlebag and pannier stock for sale, but was still able to buy local raw fabric. His wife and her sister began to make bicycle bags for his shop, which the family also began to sell locally to other shops. This led to the Karrimor Bag Company being formed in 1946. As a saddlebag manufacturer it competed with companies then in the same industry, such as Carradice and Dunlop.The company was incorporated and changed its name to Karrimor Weathertite Products in April 1952, before diversifying into backpacks in 1958, where during the 1960s and 1970s it made its reputation.
Growth and renown
Karrimor were still small when their son Mike Parsons joined in 1960, and began to build the 6-employee company into an international outdoor equipment manufacturer. The company's growth arose from a number of factors.
| 1. | CEO being a dedicated end-user of the products, and a capable designer/innovator in his own right | Mike Parsons' own personal "obsession" with outdoor pursuits, including mountain marathons, led him to be described in the 1990s as the company's "best tester and salesman". For many iconic products Parsons was also the group's primary innovator and designer; the company's success was largely credited to the very close links created by Parson's involvement both in manufacturing and technical research as a manufacturer, and direct engagement with hardened end users, their requirements, and their experiences. A 2006 OutdoorMagic.com article credits Parsons as the "legendary" creator of many of Karrimor's best known products, including the Jaguar, Alpiniste, and Hot Ice backpacks, KSB footwear, the Karrimat, and the Kimmlite series. |
| 2. | Lancashire's location and local history relating to the Industrial Revolution and the textile industry | A second fortuitous factor beyond a CEO who was himself an enthusiast, product user and innovator, lay in the firm's location and the Lancashire region's history. In the 19th century about 85% of all cotton manufactured worldwide had been processed in hundreds of Lancashire mill towns, close to the nearby major port of Liverpool. Its legacy in the 1960s included an abundance locally of resources, businesses and expertise, allied with a strong traditional focus on product design – in particular for rubberised and coated rainwear – which was exceptionally well suited to the developing of new and improved outdoors textiles and products. Karrimor developed close ties to these local resources, which was unusual at the time. Product manager Eddie Creig stated in 1982: "How can you expect to have the correct material if you don't speak to the people who know what coated fabric is? The resultant meetings always seemed to me the main reason why we have led the field in our section of the leisure industry." |
| 3. | Lancashire's location again, and its proximity to major outdoor activity regions | Further related to location, the Lancashire region is also very close to some of the UK's most popular Hillwalking and climbing destinations such as the Lake District and Peak District. In the 1960s such activities gained more public popularity, causing an influx of dedicated hobbyists and a growth in popular demand and product expectations – in particular from nearby working class cities such as Manchester and Sheffield – and placing Karrimor in very close geographical proximity to its products' end-users. |
| 4. | Market timing and circumstances and social dynamics within 1950s – 1960s Britain | A fourth factor was market timing. Prosperity and consumer demand had returned to the UK in the 1950s, and the company was well-positioned to benefit from a subsequent mass-public 'boom' in its field, and its shift from seasonal activity to year-round 'all weather' activity. This was driven in the first instance by post-war social change in the UK: the 1953 climbing of Everest and the resulting explosion of interest in climbing and climbing clubs; the 1950s creation of the Pennine Way and several National Parks in the UK; the creation of the motorway system and growth in leisure travel; pent-up post-war demand for outdoor activities and hobbies at all levels of society which was economically supported by high levels of employment; support for outdoor activities at all levels of society causing these to feature prominently in the media, in education, and in youth activities; widespread familiarity with climbing and its equipment ; and massive public interest in family camping and caravanning. There was also a lack of established high quality competition for the newly expanding sector, which was supplied by a combination of imports and a flood of cheap, poor quality, army surplus stock. |
| 5. | "Creative" use of social networking to gain wide awareness, reach, and interest among end-users | A final, and major, factor was the "creative" use of social networking, which allowed Karrimor and its peers in the field to expand unusually quickly in these conditions. These manufacturers' owners had close personal links with many individuals involved in enthusiast organisations, publications, stores and outlets, public exhibitions, and expeditions, in their field, which were also often run by fellow climbers and enthusiasts. This ability to convert a new start-up into a widely known substantial business using social networking via fellow enthusiasts is commonplace in the internet era but was uncommon at the time; it significantly lowered barriers to entry and raised market reach and product feedback for those enthusiast-entrepreneurs able to create good quality products and gain positive coverage and discussion by their peers, as well as access to highly regarded "lead users" who tested and collaborated in product design and real-world testing. |
Indeed, the 30-year period 1960–1990 has been described as a "golden age" for UK outdoor pursuit entrepreneurial companies generally.
A major example of this synergistic combination of factors was Karrimor's innovation of the first robustly waterproof lightweight nylon texturised fabric, marketed as KS-100e. Within 1960s textiles, cotton fibres expand when wet, bond to many coatings, and cotton fabrics are therefore easily made waterproof and rot-proof, but remain relatively heavy and cumbersome, and far from an ideal backpack textile, while nylon fabrics are lightweight, tough, flexible, easily cleaned, but technically very difficult to waterproof other than by adding coatings, and when untreated are always permeable to water. Therefore, in the 1960s, robustly waterproof fabrics were still largely based on rubberised coatings, duck-cotton and the like, even though these flexed poorly and added weight. In collaboration with a local company, Karrimor developed an elastomer-nylon process in which toughened nylon fabric was waterproofed without significant weight or additional coatings, and without losing its natural flexibility, durability, texture, or other desirable qualities.
Designs were launched in backpacks, camping mats and other areas of equipment manufacture. Famous climbs such as Annapurna and Everest using Karrimor equipment also had a lasting impact on the company's profile in its field, and gave its products a 'reputation for functionality and usability'. At times, this left manufacturing output "struggling to keep up with demand".
In this way, between 1960 and 1990, the company innovated successfully and gained international recognition for many of its products . Its first factory opened in 1965, in nearby Haslingden, with two more following. The 1960s also saw business revenue grow 800% and the first exports. In line with its growing global reputation and prominence, in 1975 the company changed name once more, to Karrimor International Ltd. By then, Karrimor was supplying an estimated 80% of the UK backpack market, and exporting some 40% of products.
Recession and resurgence
Two of the company's three factories closed and 100 of the 300-strong workforce were made redundant. Determined to remain focused on the manufacturing strengths of the business, a core selling and reputation point, Parsons sustained the business by investing in product lines that would sell counter-seasonally to backpacks, and modernised Karrimor by visiting the United States to learn newer business practices, where manufacturing and business practices were often far in advance of those in the UK. According to Parsons, the changes cost the family-owned business over £1 million by completion, but left Karrimor at the start of the 1990s as "the industry's most significant supplier", and it continued to win awards and renown.Pre-receivership achievements and recognition
Karrimor's pre-receivership highlights included the 'Alpiniste' backpack of the 1960s and purple 'Haston Alpiniste' pack of the 1970s – described as "dominating" the decade in terms of climbing packs – leading to Chris Bonington's team in their well-publicised 1975 ascent of Everest's south-west face using Karrimor equipment ; Ks-100e, a pioneering waterproof nylon-based fabric invented in 1973; a British Design Award in 1991 for the Condor backpack; the design of the ubiquitous 'SA' backpack support system; and pioneering development within lightweight fabric/suede footwear with the KSB range. Backpacks at that time were often made from heavy fabrics or with a solid external frame; the Alpiniste and its relatives were the first 'modern' non-frame backpack, in the sense of being lightweight with the weight transferred to an integrated hip belt via a close-fit back support system. This was the forerunner of all non-frame modern packs of this kind. During this period, Karrimor offered a lifetime warranty on its products, and was reputed for its in-house warranty and repairs service, often many years after the product purchase had taken place. These lifetime warranties are no longer honoured by the new owners of the Karrimor brand. Other highlights also included the introduction of closed cell foam mattresses known as the "Karrimat", and Karrimor's first exports and first experiments with nylon backpacks in 1967, leading also to the first marketed waterproof nylon cycle bags in the 1970s, as well as the first mountain marathon.At the time of its 2004 receivership, OutdoorsMagic.com website described Karrimor as having a "tremendous tradition", a history that included "legendary" products, and a "very strong brand name", Past owner Industrialinvest concurred, stating that the company had an "international reputation for outstanding ", and in a 1996 review of top British manufacturers, The Independent described Karrimor as "a leader in its... field", albeit one that it felt had "failed to invest and expand".
The awards continued well into the 1990s. In 1991, Parsons and Karrimor received the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild "Golden Boot" award for "outstanding contribution to the outdoors", and in 1993 the company was one of 15 winners in the "Best UK factory" awards, with Management Today describing Karrimor as a "world-renowned manufacturer" that had responded to the 1980s recession by investing heavily in automated production, U.S.-based stockflow processes, and production flexibility.
In 1999, Cullinan's acquisition documents stated of Karrimor that it was: