“Not many people get me to do this”, confesses Jørgen, fiddling with his shirt mic as we sit down to conduct a short brand interview in Amundsen Sports’ elegantly furnished Oslo HQ. Why not? “It’s something we’ve tried in the past, but people soon just give up trying to get me to be natural in front of the camera.”
Yet despite his stated discomfort, he goes on to talk eloquently about the brand that he has painstakingly nurtured over the past fifteen years. And far from being stiff or unnatural, he gives the appearance of a man who is relaxed and comfortable in his environment – utterly at home, in fact. Perhaps this is no surprise. It soon becomes clear that in many ways, Jørgen regards Amundsen Sports as an extension of his family, a second home. Indeed, the distinction between work life and home life, as well as between business and pleasure, seems to be somewhat blurred. When you love what you do, this is arguably no bad thing.
He sees it thus: “The brand is based on our passion of creating products and living a playful, adventurous outdoor lifestyle.” And Jørgen is a bona fide adventurer. His field testing adventures with the brand have taken him from his front door to the North Pole. He’s also been to Antarctica; ridden on horseback through inner Mongolia; travelled on skis and foot from Montebelluna to Oslo; driven dirt roads through Botswana; and undertaken a boating trip down America’s northeastern seaboard. Setting out from Martha’s Vineyard, they headed to Fishers Island, over to Montauk and down Long Island all the way to Manhattan, then up the East River and along the Harlem River to finally meet the Hudson. All this was done in the Fram Jr, a 70-year-old traditional Norwegian double-ended wooden boat.
Maybe this blurring of lines is somewhat inevitable, given that his company also shares the family name. It is a name loaded with heritage, pride and meaning. Because, if you haven’t already guessed by now, Jørgen is a direct relative of Roald Amundsen. In fact, the renowned polar explorer was Jørgen’s great grand uncle – his great-grandfather’s brother.
Time to delve into that legacy, the origins of Amundsen Sports, secrets of success, and what defines the brand…
“Well, I think it's always inspired us a lot. All we do is about adventure. Whether we’re developing product or field testing, we try to capture that adventurous spirit – not necessarily doing the hardest or fastest trips but enjoying the experience in itself”.
“Then when it comes to Amundsen himself, I think we take a lot from his philosophies. In his own time, he always succeeded better than all his competitors, like Scott for instance. Part of that was because he focused on small-scale expeditions rather than big international expeditions. Secondly, he always went to learn from the Inuit or the traditional people in Norway, the Sami – how they used clothing and equipment and dogs. But at the same time, he was also quite avant garde in terms of technology. So, he managed to mix tradition with the future, and that's something that we've been quite inspired by. When we are making our products, we take a lot of the inspiration from the past, things that have really worked for generations in terms of cold weather survival, but still taking advantage of the cutting-edge technology of today.”
“I guess I can rewind back to when I founded the first Norwegian watch brand, which was also called Amundsen. So, Amundsen Oslo watches was formed back in 2002, and I built the brand from nothing to having a presence in the Norwegian, UK and US markets. It also caught a lot of attention from the Swiss watch industry, and in fact I ended up selling it to a Swiss watch brand a few years later. That meant moving to Geneva for a few years and helping to merge the two brands”.
Amundsen’s original aim was to create timepieces that could withstand the extreme temperatures found at the North and South Poles. In creating his first watches, he enlisted the help of Tecan, a Swiss company, to construct a multi-layered dial out of nickel using photo-electroforming technology. The two-piece dial had a grid-shaped overlay intended to represent lines of latitude and longitude. A limited edition, only 250 pieces were made. The watch was priced at about $16,500 USD – about 2½ times the retail price of a standard stainless-steel Rolex Submariner at that time.
Of course, the Amundsen watches were much rarer than any Rolex. On their initial release, Amundsen also declared his intention to follow in his forebear’s footsteps and blaze his own trail northward. Accompanied by a team of explorers, he skied to the North Pole, hauling all 250 of the watches with them. Now, you can’t say that about your average Rolex. The expedition duly reached the North Pole on 19th April 2004. Before leaving, they ceremonially buried a watch in the ice.
Incidentally, this horologically-driven adventure has an interesting postscript: three years later, in 2007, an 11-year-old boy named Niels Mortensen found a black box near his home in the Faroe Islands. Intrigued, he and his mother opened the box to find that it contained the self-same watch that Amundsen had left at the Pole. Most likely, the chunk of ice in which the watch had been buried broke off and was carried away by the currents of the Arctic Ocean, until it eventually came to rest in the Mortensens’ backyard, nearly 2,000 miles further south. Remarkably, the watch was still working.
“I wasn't so fond of being an employee in what I felt was my own company, so I withdrew after a few years, moved back to Norway and founded Amundsen Sports. I did so with the idea of pursuing my two passions; creating products and to continue living an adventurous outdoor lifestyle. Having travelled the world with the Amundsen name, I saw the potential of using the family history, and basing a brand around that, which is obviously particularly relevant to the sports and outdoor industry. And being such an outdoor enthusiast myself, I’d always wanted to make the kinds of products that I actually used.”
“I think it’s that we take a long-term view to product design and development, rather than chasing market trends. I’m a product designer myself by training. And so, for me, it’s always about the product. It’s always been about what I'm missing myself as an outdoor enthusiast, what I would like to make and use. And I think that's basically it. We manage to stay clear of the big trends. We’ve always just gone our own way, instead of just following behind the big players in the industry.”
“I guess we’re a little bit different to most clothing companies. I don’t come from a textiles background – my product design training is in hard goods, like the watches. New ideas very seldom come up in when I'm in the office. It's mostly when I'm out in the field, or if I find a new material – the product generally comes from either of those sides. But it never starts by saying ‘we think the market wants this’. We don’t look at what’s currently performing well or try to tag along on trends. Instead, it's always coming from inspiration out in the field or from fabrics themselves.”
“It’s not so difficult for us, because we do more or less all our production in Europe. And you can still find great heritage fabrics in places like England, Scotland, Switzerland, Germany, France and Italy – mostly Western Europe. For other companies sewing in the Far East, it’s much more difficult, since over there, there’s more focus on synthetics”.
In fact, 85% of Amundsen Sports garments are sewn in Europe, from European-made fabrics. Moreover, 85% of the brand’s sales are in Europe too, which means the products travel relatively short distances to reach consumers – dramatically reducing their overall carbon footprint. And as Jørgen also points out, European production ensures European standards when it comes to working conditions and rights, as well as quality control and supply chain transparency.
“We are so tired of all the damaging noise in our industry about green initiatives that often do not matter in the big picture. It seems to be the biggest players – and the biggest polluters – that scream the loudest about their green initiatives. We try to focus on what actually matters, which is making fewer products”.
“We do not believe in the ever-growing fabricated need for super-specialist clothing for each of your outdoor activities. As long as your products are versatile, long-lasting, and stylish, you do not need a big outdoor wardrobe! Outdoor enthusiasts are usually not just climbers, freestyle skiers, hikers or campers. They are usually exploring a multitude of activities in the wilderness. It is nature that drives them, not just the activity. It is therefore vital that your outdoor garments are versatile enough to be used across most activities, conditions, and situations.”
“Similarly, we do not think you need new clothing just because a new colour or fit is trending, or because you plan to undertake a new type of activity. We strive to design simple, honest, and back to basic products with a timeless design and colour palette”.
“In terms of product, it's definitely to look at the new bio fibres that are coming out. Because ultimately, product development always starts with the fabric. Then in terms of distribution, we are still biggest in our home market, here in Norway. We need to crack the US market and do more in the rest of Europe. And then, of course, when it comes to categories, we are keen to expand our footwear and really get that category rolling. At some point we would even like to pick up the watches again too”.
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