Jack & Jones will soon be carving its first turns on the ski slopes. The budget retailer owned by Danish group Bestseller has entered the market for mountain sports performance apparel, presenting to buyers its first Fall/Winter 2025-26 skiwear collection. An initiative that has been driven by Jack & Jones’s French subsidiary.

“For the last five years, we have been collaborating in France with the high-altitude restaurants of the La Folie Douce chain, creating an apparel range for their employees. They asked us to design a ski suit for them, and we also offered it to Jack & Jones retailers in several countries, where it has worked very well. This led me to urge our parent company to develop a real skiwear line,” said Jara, head of sales on the French market for Jack & Jones. Jara was involved in defining the style codes with the group’s design office in Denmark, as well as testing the products on the slopes.

The Jack & Jones Ski line is extensive, and consists of some 50 items, including the various colourways. It features five pairs of trousers, six jackets, performance underwear, sweatshirts, fleeces and t-shirts, as well as accessories like hats, gloves, skiing goggles etc. “We’ve positioned the line at entry level, with aggressive prices (from €89 for jackets and €59 for trousers), and a medium performance level (a 10,000 index for waterproofing, and 5,000 for breathability),” said Jara.

“The idea isn’t to compete with the private label brands by the likes of Decathlon or Intersport, which are well-established and more classic in design. We’re going for more directional, eye-catching looks and motifs,” he added. For example, orange and black high-altitude prints, marbled effects, bright colours like yellow and sage green.

The line has a 2.8 margin coefficient and is intended for Jack & Jones’s traditional retail network, especially major chains like Intersport or Sport 2000, but also for independent retailers in cities and resorts. The collection is being presented to retailers throughout February for delivery in October 2025, and was recently showcased at the Sport Achat trade show in Grenoble, in the French Alps. “It was the first time we attended [the show], and we made good contacts. Many were amazed at the prices we quoted. We’re targeting occasional consumers, for whom going skiing is already quite a spend (transport, accommodation, etc.) and who therefore don’t want to go bust buying their outfits,” said Jara.

Bestseller is commercialising this France-driven skiwear collection in 15 markets, including Italy, Spain and Greece. Next winter, it will also be available at Jack & Jones monobrand stores. In France, the brand is distributed via 1,200 independent retailers and some 50 monobrand stores. The latter’s number is growing, and the plan is to have 80 addresses in France by the end of 2025.