Home → Blog → Company News → Polygiene and Stone Glacier Present at Scheels University
For Polygiene, helping brands communicate the value of our best-in-class solutions to end consumers is central to what we do. We want consumers to understand the benefits associated with our technologies. And we want them to have the information required to make an objective and informed purchasing decision. Because if they do, we believe they will choose Polygiene-treated products.
As part of this process, we work directly with brands to refine marketing messaging. But we also work with the retail staff who perform in-store roles, providing them with training and information they can relay to customers. We want our partner-brands’ representatives to know how Polygiene works and why it is so beneficial. And we want them to be able to communicate those facts.
Recently, I joined Polygiene partner and hunting gear specialists Stone Glacier to present on its technical apparel and the role Polygiene plays in it. This was not your run-of-the-mill presentation, though. We were attending Scheels’ Technical Hunting Clothing and Footwear University – a fantastic multi-day educational program that sees the sports and outdoor omni-retailer take their staff through all the product categories they stock.
The Scheels University really resonated with Polygiene’s own emphasis on the importance of retail staff expertise. Employees are often active users of Scheels-stocked products, and the brand’s management recognizes the value of this to customers and the business. This was clear when I spoke to Pat Bahr, Scheels’ Lead Sales Leader. “Scheels Universities help to ensure our sales associates understand the products we carry well enough to be true experts when interacting with our customers. The partnership with vendors that train at the events helps grow our expertise and make Scheels different in the eyes of our customers.”
Similar to the Scheels team, Stone Glacier employees are also experts in their chosen industry. Passionate hunters, they know exactly what does and does not work out in the field. Founder and Lead Designer, Kurt Racicot, built the brand based on his experience hunting mountain sheep in the backcountry and a desire to develop the lightest but toughest backpack possible.
The dream didn’t stop there. Technical apparel and sleep systems soon followed. And so did Polygiene technology. Ideally suited to an activity where scent management is crucial to success and users spend significant periods out in the wild, it enables hunters to carry less by keeping their gear smell-free and fresher for longer.
At the Scheels University event, I joined avid outdoorsman and Stone Glacier team member, Andrew Whitney. He also recognized the value of having product-specific expertise in the presentation. “Nick from Polygiene contributed technical knowledge and great insight into why Polygiene is an asset to a technical layering system. We all know Polygiene, but having an expert explain the science behind the technology added significant value.”
I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to spend time with our brand partner Stone Glacier, and thoroughly enjoyed presenting to the Scheels team. Personally, one of the key takeaways from the experience was just how essential detailed technical expertise is becoming in the sports and outdoor categories. Customers engage with brands that can offer specialist expertise and businesses are responding by investing in staff training. It is increasingly clear that technical clothing and equipment that incorporate advanced textile technologies like Polygiene benefit enormously from clear, confident, and informative messaging. And that doesn’t just come from high-level marketing messaging. In fact, it starts with retail employees.
If you have questions about how Polygiene can support your brand with sell-through and increase your products’ value, please reach out to Nick Brosnan at nick.brosnan@polygiene.com.
