Inside Mountain Hardwear's Product Design Lab

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You might think that all Gore-Tex ski jackets are designed the same. There’s a hood, a few pockets, perhaps a powder skirt, and some fancy waterproof zippers–and designers pick and choose between a few available options and call it good. That might be true for some brands, but in the case of Mountain Hardwear, it couldn’t be further from the truth. Sure, picking the right zipper is a part of the process, but long before any of that ever happens, the design team sits down with athletes like Vivian Bruchez and Sean Pettit to talk about what they truly need for their pursuits.

This year, Mountain Hardwear released their latest Gore-Tex Pro outerwear kit, built with direct input from boundary-pushing French professional ski mountaineer Vivian Bruchez. If you haven’t heard of him yet, well…he’s about as real-deal as it gets. The kit is called the Mythogen and is the jacket and bibs are available in both a men’s and women’s fit.

I actually got to spend a week last spring skiing with Viv in his hometown of Chamonix alongside Mountain Hardwear product designer Will Hagna learning about and testing the new kit. Aside from the plethora of pastries and great times après-ing in town, the most memorable part of the trip was how Viv threw us into the deep end of his home range and we really put the new jacket and bibs to the test.

That involved a few days of classic Chamonix high-mountain freeride ski mountaineering: we ski toured across the border from the top of the infamous Aiguille du Midi across giant glaciers to munch on delicious Tiramisu in Italy, before powder skiing nearly 6000 vertical feet back to town. Turns out that was just Viv and his guide friends testing us–the following day we roped up and ascended a few short pitches of rock climbing to cross yet another international border and ski all the way into Switzerland before returning to Cham via train.

On that trip, I got a glimpse into how the Mountain Hardwear design team works directly with their athletes to build cutting-edge products like the new Mythogen jacket and bibs. Hagna, an avid freeskier himself, worked hand-in-hand with Bruchez to iterate and perfect everything on the kit-from hood shape, pocket placement, and zipper type. From testing the gear firsthand, I can attest that no detail was left untouched.

What really stood out was the fact that to the Mountain Hardwear team, the world itself acts as a design lab. There’s only so much you can do testing gear in a controlled environment in a manufacturing and factory space, and the design team has learned some lessons over the years. The brand was founded in Berkeley, California on Halloween night in 1993 (comparatively young when taken in the grand scheme of big-name outdoor brands), and hasn’t been afraid to take some risks on their product.

This isn’t the first time Mountain Hardwear worked directly with Bruchez to develop a kit: a few years back, the brand launched the “Viv” Kit, a jacket/bib combo that essentially acted as a field-testing prototype for the new Mythogen. It was a leap for the climbing-oriented brand to develop a hardshell kit for ski mountaineering that showcased a looser, freeride-style fit.

Despite loving skinny skis, hop turning with ice axes in his hand, and huge vert days, Bruchez is a tinkerer and absolute gear nerd, always stripping down apparel, packs, and other gear to the bare minimum to save weight and optimize functionality. However, he also loves the style of a looser fit. He loved the fit and feel of the older Viv Kit, but with the new Gore-Tex Pro fabrics hitting the market this year, the design team figured they could update the kit to be much more waterproof and able to handle the worst conditions out there.

As Hagna pointed out in a presentation during the trip, they won’t embark on a project unless their sure that they can go all-in on designing something truly badass. That’s led to apparel and equipment that’s trusted by athletes in harsh environments like the top of Everest, the summits of Antarctica, and more recently, the gnarliest and most unforgiving ski terrain in the world. The key? Trusting the process and taking advantage of the best design lab testing environment there is: the mountains.