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Whistler brand sells well

True Local merchandise makes successful debut at Crankworx
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Adele Larkin

True Local merchandise — Whistler’s own name brand logo wear — made its debut this past week as an official sponsor of Kokanee Crankworx. And according to the folks at Garbanzo Bike and Bean, the products sold well throughout the event.

“The bulk of our sales over the weekend were from the Crankworx product. I would say that out of all the product we sold throughout the week, about 80 per cent of it was the Crankworx stuff,” said Shayne Venables, retail associate at Garbanzo. He added that the retail outlet sold out of most sizes.

Jamie Carroll, another retail associate at Garbanzo, agreed that the product sold well, adding that sales over the event were up at least 5 per cent from last year.

Products featured the traditional Kokanee Crankworx logo, multiple corporate sponsor names, and the municipality’s stylized ‘W’ logo, which is part of the Whistler True Local project.

Hats and women’s and men’s T-shirts were priced at $29.99, and jerseys and hoodies were selling for $79.99.

“Bright colors were the most popular items by far. Green were super hot this year, and definitely sold the fastest,” said Venables.

Carroll also said that the jerseys were a popular item this year, selling out half way through the week.

Carroll added, however, that while the Whistler logo was a nice addition to the merchandise, combining the logo with a tag line was perhaps too busy.

“Right now it says, in three font, ‘Whistler, B.C., Canada, July 21–29’. I guess the writing does help associate the logo with Whistler, but it is just too much. If it was just the logo, it would look a lot better,” said Carroll.

Venables added that the municipality’s logo is not as recognizable to non-local consumers as the Whistler-Blackcomb swoosh.

Tangent Design Inc. was the licensee enlisted by the Resort Municipality of Whistler to sell the product to retail merchants.

John Rae, the RMOW’s manager of strategic alliances and marketing, said that the municipality is also in the process of licensing other True Local merchandise to local companies.