Interview with Tristan Hutt at the Zhik Avlare launch party

by Mark Jardine on 14 Jun 2016 We spoke to Tristan Hutt of Zhik at the Avlare launch party which was held at Ocean Leisure in London on Thursday 2nd June.

Mark Jardine: What does Avlare provide that anything else in the market hasn't done yet?

Tristan Hutt: With the Avlare range we really wanted to bring to the market something that had never been seen before. It's a completely new material that's not been used in a marine environment. Basically the material works in such a way that its enhanced features make the gear completely hydrophobic for a long period of time and that's the crucial difference of this material to anything else that's out there with a hydrophobic coating. It lasts and it's durable and so the product will be durably hydrophobic for its life. If it ever does wet out, the coating can effectively be reactivated - just through a simple process using heat, it's incredibly simple.

The idea behind it was to provide something for the athletes in Rio allowing them to go into the water and as they stepped onto their boat the material would be completely dry and so there would be no additional water weight when they're sailing.

Mark: We've seen the pictures of the Australian Sailing Team having buckets of water thrown over them and then being dry. What has been the reaction from the sailors who have used the Avlare so far?

Tristan: Really positive across the board. I've seen this before with other Zhik products when they've been launched, Z-Skin was another really good example of that, where you would just get sailors coming in and they're so enthused about the products and they just say 'this is my go-to kit now, this is what I want to be wearing all the time and I'm just looking for an excuse to wear it'.

Mark: How do Zhik go about developing an entirely new material or using it for the market?

Tristan: It's a very involved process that takes a lot of time and effort. Any of our products when they get rolled out have a very, very detailed testing process that they go through. With a product that's an entirely new material, that goes to a far deeper level. We have a great research and development team, a lot of time is spent on material science that focuses on developing the right fabrics to meet a brief effectively. That's the starting point. It's all about solving problems, like how to keep a stretchy material that breathes dry for a long period of time when it's only one layer thick? Then they find and develop materials that work and do the job, and that's what they've done so effectively in this case.

Mark: Zhik have a strong relationship with their team athletes. How does that feedback loop work with the developers?

Tristan: Avlare has been on test with many of our key sailing team partners including the British Sailing Team, Australian Sailing Team, New Zealand Sailing Team, Danish sailing association and Singapore Sailing Team for quite some time. Team management has been involved, giving us a lot of useful feedback from the sailors, ultimately it's a big network of people that work with our R&D team to develop new Zhik gear. It's about processing all of that information, using that feedback in the best possible way to improve the initial designs and then testing revised concepts again and working through until we got a product that everyone is really happy with. The athletes have been involved with Avlare from the word go - it has been really important to get their feedback.

Mark: From today Alvare is available on the market to sailors. What will this provide that they cannot get from another product?

Tristan: In a way, it's like the ultimate spandex (rash vest) - it's what spandex would love to be. Imagine effectively a spandex top that never gets wet. You get all of the benefits – it's breathable, flexible and allows water to pass through so you do get the water-cooling effect, but the material itself doesn't take up water and wet out thus cutting wind/water chill. You get the UV protection and it's remarkably thin and light, so for warm weather, it's fantastic worn on its own, but it can also be worn over the top of wetsuits any time of the year.

As an example if you think about a multi-day event and you've got, say, a rash vest or something you pull over the top of your wetsuit that gets wet on day one it then just stays wet for the whole regatta. It's just sat, especially during the winter, on the outside of all your gear and you get the wind-chill from the water being held against you, it's then working against your insulating gear underneath. So what Avlare does is to give you enormous range, you can use it on it's own in hot weather and then throw it over the top of cold weather gear for wind-chill protection.

Mark: This is undoubtedly a premium product. Do you think it's something that a sailor needs to come into a store, such as Ocean Leisure, to try it on before they go out and buy it?

Tristan: I think it's nice with new gear for people to get their hands on the product and really get a feel for it, if it's something they've not experienced before, which will be the case with Avlare. That being said, there are a lot of sailors out there who know the Zhik brand; they know their size, they know the reliability of the Zhik gear is very good, and for a lot people it can be more convenient to order gear online. It really depends on personal preference.

Mark: Tristan, thank you very much for your time and it's great seeing Avlare launched.

Tristan: It's a pleasure, thank you.