The Adirondacks are fast becoming a vacation destination not unlike the Hamptons, the neighboring Catskills, and Hyannisport.
Dan Kelleher, Co-Founder of Adirondack Field headquartered in picturesque Lake Placid, New York, has cultivated a style benefitting the ‘Forever Wild’ culture and cosmopolitan scene that has become the region, with plans to export the model back to the big cities of New York, Los Angeles, and beyond.
Haute Living:Â What were the motivations for founding Adirondack Field? When was the company launched and where are you situated?
Dan Kelleher:Â Our company was launched out of Lake Placid, which is the largest municipality in Adirondack Park. And Adirondack Park is the largest protected landscape in the United States, east of the Mississippi River.
It’s a patchwork of 130,000 people living amongst 3 million acres of wilderness and wild forest lands that are protected as ‘Forever Wild’ by the New York State Constitution.
We launched this company because we wanted to export the ethos that is the Adirondacks – And when I say the ethos that is Adirondacks, I’m harkening to the history of the Adirondacks being the original vacation destination in the United States.
Back in the Gilded Age, and even really into the mid-1800s, financiers, and industrialists from New York and Boston were coming up here to enjoy the bucolic and rugged landscape that is the Adirondacks. And they were hunting and fishing and exploring what’s often referred to as America’s first wilderness.
Haute Living:Â What makes your style particularly unique in a competitive American fashion environment? Is Adirondack Field akin to boating wear? Is it hiking? Does it appeal to tourists to the region? Who do you think is your audience?
Dan Kelleher:Â Our two brand pillars are people who have a love and affinity for the Adirondacks and have some sort of connection here.
I mentioned that we’re really building upon the leisure of visiting the Adirondacks, and so we’re targeting the 16 million people who come here on an annual basis. So that’s one segment of our marketing strategy that appeals to our audience.
And then the second component of it is reaching the people who care about environmentally responsible manufacturing, particularly manufacturing in the United States.
So, all of our products are cut and sewn domestically. We have supply chains built. We’re going to be doing a jacket line in New York. Our t-shirts and hats are all made in North Carolina and our flannel shirts are made in California.
And so, we think that the folks that care about American manufacturing and its power to alleviate poverty and drive wealth for people who don’t necessarily have higher education backgrounds will also come over to our brand.
Haute Living:Â Tell us about Lake Placid and the Adirondacks at large as travel and tourism destinations to live, work and play.
Dan Kelleher:Â Lake Placid itself is nestled in the High Peaks, which are the 46 tallest mountains in New York state. And we kind of look like a Swiss village in the middle of the Adirondacks, situated between two major recreational lakes.
We’ve hosted the Olympics twice because of our mountain resources and our prolonged winter. It’s a place where people come to visit – we’re kind of like an ‘every-person’s’ destination, but that also comes with a rich history and catering to a large component of the wealthy industrialists and financiers from New York City and Boston coming up here.
So, people are staying everywhere from a $ 20-a-night campsite up to several thousand dollars-a-night rooms at The Point or the Lake Placid Lodge, for example.
It’s a ‘work hard, play hard’ mentality. People will take a 16-mile hike early in the morning, and be back by 2:00 or 3:00, go out on a boat, or just go to a public beach, and then they will hopefully go to dinner or out to a party on the lake!
Haute Living:Â Are you involved in any of the major sporting events or social events taking place in the region?
Dan Kelleher: We are a sponsor of the Barkeater Trails Alliance, a group that builds and maintains over 100 miles of multi-use trails throughout the Adirondack Tri-Lakes, from Saranac Lake and Paul Smith down through Lake Placid to a town called Keene. Those trails are used for mountain biking, cross-country skiing, running, trail running, hiking, and more.
Our brand also seeks to build on the idea of conservation and use of the Park’s unique recreational resources. But that said, we do sponsor local athletes who are in the USA development programs for sliding, so that’s luge and skeleton. And then we also work with school kids who play lacrosse or hockey.
Haute Living:Â Where do you envision your brand expanding from here?
Dan Kelleher:Â Our home base is in the Adirondacks, but by selling online, we can see really where our customers are primarily coming from. And we’ve sold in 30 out of 50 states so far but with the largest concentration of customers coming from both the Bay Area in California and then New York City and its suburbs.
And so, I think where we’re going is trying to meet the needs of those folks, particularly those in New York City for their leisure wear, wherever they may be traveling.
We’re pitching ourselves not just as ‘after-athletic wear’ when you come to the Adirondacks, but after-athletic wear anywhere you go.
We traveled recently to Antarctica with Ice Axe Ventures, which takes 100 people to Antarctica to go skiing every year. And it was very cool to meet a lot of people who don’t necessarily live up here but have ties to the Adirondacks.
And after seeing that Ice Ax Ventures picked up our line and are adding that to the offerings that they sell to their customers, who they take around the globe on cool ski trips as well as surf trips, we believe we’re really omnichannel.
We already do wholesale – We have our retail store and we have online but ultimately I think we want to build out our brick-and-mortar infrastructure and we’ll start going into New York City and maybe into the Catskills as well.
Written in partnership with Adirondack Field
