Technical fabrics. Which guy doesn’t like the sound of them in his gear? Still, what really matters is whether you can move and live in them and whether they make you look good. That’s something Boulder, Colorado-based Ninox (pronounced with a long “i”) gets and has turned into its mission. Until a year ago co-founder Greg Casals was your typical finance guy hopping from city to city for work yet actively searching for the one outerwear piece he could sport from his hometown to New York City. So he went and created one with Allie Thielens, a veteran designer and equally avid outdoorsman and skier. “We both really love performance and technically fabrics, but in the end we’re fashion people and we just felt there was this hole in the market,” Thielens explains.
Launched officially in October, the brand current offers four styles—two softshell layers, a puffer, and a hoodie—but if the products are any indication of what’s to come (we hear equally sleek chino trousers, henleys, tee and pullovers are in the works for next season), the future looks bright for this brand. Its fabrics, custom-ordered from renowned textile makers such as Schoeller from Switzerland and Charles Parsons from Australia for its softshells and puffer, are amongst the most advanced and environmentally sound. Ninox also works with Texas-grown organic cotton, spun and milled in North Carolina and manufactured in Los Angeles, for its hoodies. And for this holiday season it plans to launch a cotton-merino button-down shirt, which simply translates to one of the softest and luxurious everyday shirts you’ll ever wear.
Ninox prices aren’t bargain basement—they start from $149 for the “Weston” hoodie and go up to $579 for the field-like “Bennett” jacket—but as Casals reminds us, these are garments designed to stand the test of time. To keep prices as low as possible, Ninox sells directly to the consumer through its own online shop and by appointment out of its design studio. Says Casals, “Think of real nice performance fabrics that are non-logoed and in a modern modern style. That’s Ninox.”
