Elho, who was known for producing risk-taking, mold-breaking skiwear in the 1970s, is coming back after 20 years of inactivity, and nearly a year before the official release, it is already on the twisting back of Swiss free champion Andri Ragettli.
Berlin-based art director Donald Schneider, the imaginative mastermind behind H&M’s ground-breaking partnership with Karl Lagerfeld in 2004 and whose eponymous creative firm in Berlin has since revved up several companies via buzzy superstars and “hype” advertising, is spearheading the restoration.
While preparing for upcoming competitions this spring, Ragettli has been sporting Elho’s efficiency jackets and “jet pants,” giving his 631, 000 Instagram followers a balm on the historic European brand whose rebel roots date back 75 years.
Schneider said over Zoom, shrugging on a streamlined, veiled dark bomber jacket with searing coral-colored lining and arching zippers,” Our idea is that all the products are useful, but they look so great you’ll want to use them in the city.” There are n’t many brands in that niche, so we’re connecting performance and style in a very credible way.
At the ISPO trade show in Munich from November 28 to 30, a significant meeting for winter sports retailers, Elho will announce the achievement bomber jacket in the connection type and in collaboration with the artist’s estate.
The 25-item start collection for men and women includes a variety of accessories as well as brand knits, base layers, insulated jackets and fleece separates.
Swiss skier Schneider recalled that” all the great, fresh, entertaining people were wearing Elho,” which pioneered bright colors on the cliffs, and ski pants that fluttered out over the boots rather than being tucked inside.
Schneider, however, is eager to project the company’s mindset of rebelliousness and daring into the modern era more than revive old trends.
In his capacity as the “re-founder” and executive chairman of Zurich-based Elho, Schneider put together a team that includes Grand Studio and Claudia Hofmann, seasoned style consultants and stylists who have worked for Bogner, as well as performance and technical equipment specialists.
Grand Studio has even taken on the task of bringing Elho into the eco-age by utilizing a wide range of high-performance, bio-based textiles, the majority of which are found in Taiwan and Japan.
Along with a few minority traders, Schneider parked himself in front of busy ski lifts to observe what people were wearing when he purchased the Internet for Elho about one year ago. They were essentially all wearing the same “no- form look” in “boring” colors, which Schneider believes to be an emulation of snowboarding and skiing.
He therefore noticed a gap for catchier skiwear. He pointed out that Elho generated close to 250 million Deutsche Marks, or roughly 125 million dollars, in profits at its height in the late 1980s.
He discovered Ragettli, a operated, brave sportsman who describes himself on Instagram as “random dude with great goals,” who he has been following for years on social media, to be almost the perfect ambassador for the task.
His supply is jam-packed with gobsmacking mountain maneuvers, such as quad corks with five or six spin and scenes of him dipping into a frozen lake for 30 minutes or carelessly jumping off of bridges into rivers.
On YouTube, TikTok, and other systems, a new display of interior parkour that involved him jumping out of bed and into the pool while holding an Ovaltine bottle has garnered hundreds of millions of views.
Ragettli explained that freestyle athletes are evaluated based on the methods they pull off, which included various turns and rotations, in an appointment with WWD.
The most important thing is what you do on the hill, but it’s also your style and appearance. But yeah, for me, it’s crucial to look great and dress stylishly, he said in an interview.
The 25-year-old has been testing Elho models and exclaimed,” It’s awesome!” It is both extremely fashionable and extremely technical.
Ragettli gave Elho his opinions on specific performance details, such as advising that the zippers on ski pants be placed on the outside seams because boots frequently collide while snowboarding and can harm clothing hardware.
He is getting ready for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, as well as the City Big Air opposition in Beijing and Copper Mountain, Colorado.
According to Schneider, most clothing brands market their products when they are on the market, whereas the publicity marketing strategy begins much earlier, with business-to-business communication, popular jobs, and community building prior to the launch.
Ragettli revealed his relationship with Elho earlier this week on Instagram.
In October 2024, the redesigned Elho will go live on a dedicated web store, where Schneider expects to make about 70 % of the sales, with the remainder coming in from retail.
To control Elho and target star department stores and great specialty retailers in fashion and outside clothing, Kevin the Woods in Zurich is an example of the latter. He hired Berlin sales agency Melagence, which represents brands like Veilance by Arc’teryx and Perfect Moment.
Elho jackets, he noted, will cost about 700 euros and display a Velcro patch on the sleeve for fastening the company’s initial logo crest, or an understated tone-on-tone version for those who dislike overt branding.
According to Schneider, Elho intends to focus on general records in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria for its first year of operation before expanding to Europe and the United States in its second and third years, respectively.