Kulkea Founder Gives a Sneak Peek Into This Season's Newest Products
Published by Allie Hochman
There's Never Been a Better Time to Invest in Travel
I’m really excited about some of the new products coming out, which will all be officially available by September 15th! We’re listening to people on the mountain, we’re listening to our buyers and authorized dealers, and we’re listening to our sales reps, so what we’re bringing out will be the result of all of that. The Käydä bags in the 44 or 36, the Kartta bags, and the Kantaja Single Roller are perfect travel options right now for people with Ikons or Epics who are just traveling anywhere, like the Alps, Europe, the Rockies, here in the U.S., or anywhere else.
Introducing the Käydä 36L, a Travel Solution for Even More Adventurers
We’re really pushing our travel line and taking it to new levels. We’ve had the Käydä Travel Backpack out for a couple of seasons now, and it’s really taken off well. It just got a terrific review from Men’s Journal, saying that it’s the best ski travel pack out there, and with it being an overall travel pack, we’ve decided that we should make a smaller version as well. Plus, we had a number of people who were probably in the 5’5 range and smaller, saying, ‘I love this bag, if you made one slightly smaller, like a little bit shorter in height and a little bit narrower, it would fit my body perfectly.’
So now it’ll be available in a 36L and a 44L version. They’re not all that much different in sizing, but what it allows is for people who are slightly smaller to have a more ergonomic fit and still have that great product. So, that’s the Käydä line growing, and it fits perfectly in line with our expansion of the Kartta line, which is a cousin product of the Käydä.
Kartta Takes on A Whole New Color Wave
In coming up with the new color wave, called the steel blue, we decided it was time for us to get beyond the blacks and the greys. Whenever you start a product line, that’s typically where you have to start, but personally, I like color better. I think it’s more adventurous, and I remember a really smart buyer in the industry said years ago, ‘Dave, don’t be afraid of colors. We want colors.’ It’s time to bring some color to this line and so we brought the steel blue.
And then that floated into the Kartta line, that’s been a black/ blue, black/ red, black/ gold line previously. What we’re rolling out now is several new colors - we have a beautiful cobalt blue coming out, we have a really nice rust red coming out, so it’s really expanding the line because it’s an all-around travel bag. It’s time to bring some color there, too. It’s a lot more fun, and I think the consumers actually are a lot more adventurous. So it’s time to do it. What’s great about the Kartta, it it allows someone who wants a really perfect travel carry-on bag to take their ski boots, and all their other apparel and accessories with them.
Kantaja Single Roller Rises to the Occasion
With the Kantaja Single Roller, the demand for this upcoming season has way out stripped the supply we had, and that was really the result of some reviewers taking notice and realizing we came up with something completely innovative where people should be/ want to be traveling with one pair of skis, one pair of ski poles, and apparel in the bag, and don’t want to carry a huge gargantuan bag. So if couples are going, each picking up one, or if it’s single travelers going themselves, they get the single roller too.
