There is no such thing as bad weather,” comedian Billy Connolly once opined. “There is only the wrong clothes.” While that may have been offered humorously, it’s not far off the ethos of leading Scandinavian outerwear company Galvin Green.

“Galvin Green is about making the golfer comfortable, whatever environment he is in,” says Mike Johnson-Hill, the company’s UK and Ireland managing director. “If you are feeling too hot, too cold or too restricted during the swing, they will all impact comfort, and therefore performance. All the fabrics and technologies we develop are designed to allow performance to flow, whatever weather you’re playing in.”

One of the company’s strap lines is ‘designed by golfers for golfers’. A series of neat touches throughout the range – water-repellent zips, reinforced lower backs to protect against bag rubbing and chest and neck tabs to control collar width and body fit – back this up. But for Galvin Green, at the heart of on-course comfort is the concept of layering. Every garment the company produces integrates into an overall multi-layering plan from compression base layers, through the cooling, breathable Ventil8-based mid-layers, to the intermediate Insula, and then on to the windproof Windstopper and waterproof Gore-Tex.

Changing seasons

The layering story naturally features strongly in Galvin Green’s Autumn Winter 2011 range, being delivered into shops now. Typically stylish with strong, modern colours such as the brown-red Pinot Noir, the broad inventory is a sophisticated blend of fashion and function.

At its core, literally, are two new compression base layers, the Edge for your top half and Elmo for the waist down. Retailing at £69, they set up comfort at skin level through the intriguing concept of what Galvin Green call Body Mapping.

“Compression garments work by compressing the muscles, which increases blood circulation and oxygen in your blood,” Johnson-Hill explains. “That keeps you warmer which improves your flexibility, and because you have warmer muscles, that reduces fatigue.”

Body Mapping, however, takes this a stage further. “It recognises that certain parts of your body need different fabrics,” Johnson-Hill continues. “The Edge top for example has an extra layer of compression material in the upper back muscle group, as keeping this area warm and supple is important; while under the armpits, which don’t need compression but do need more breathability, we use Ventil8. On the Elmo bottoms the compression is on the calves and the backs of the legs, again where warmth and flexibility is important.”

Galvin Green is conducting tests with golf conditioning expert Paul Darby to work out exactly how compression garments can help performance, in terms of aspects like endurance, range of movement and even balance. “First results are certainly interesting,” adds Johnson-Hill, "but we need to collect more evidence before making any claims.”

Other notable additions to the range are the armless, chest-pocketed Boyd Windstopper and sleeveless, half-zipped Insula-based Derek bodywarmer, retailing at £149 and £69 respectively. Research from Galvin Green has revealed that arms can be a lot cooler than the body without creating discomfort. “These garments do not restrict your arms and keep your core warm, so make a great layering piece,” Johnson-Hill believes. “I think we will be seeing more of these in the future.”

Elsewhere in the Autumn Winter 2011 range are familiar products like the Gore-Tex Astor jacket, Galvin Green’s most successful product. The Astor is a good example of how Gore-Tex Stretch fabric inserts are making increasing inroads into the brand’s inventory, in keeping with the concept of blending fit with movement – 25% of the back of the jacket is now Stretch fabric-based. Also using increasing Stretch in the Autumn Winter range is the half-zip Ardell, the Packlite top, the half-zip Argo and full-zip Almer.

While having the flexibility of adding or removing layers to control body temperature may make perfect sense, it might seem at odds with the snugger fit Galvin Green is known for. It’s a notion Johnson-Hill is keen to address.

 “It’s a bit of a contradiction to think that looser garments give you more room. You couldn’t, for example, swing easily in three baggy layers, because the fabric would bulk up. In fact the more fitted your garments are, the less restrictive they are to swing in and the better the layering system works – providing the cut is correct.”

In some respects Galvin Green has fought a battle against such ideas since it broke into the UK at the end of the 20th century. The brand’s ideal of layered, fitted outerwear, colourfully designed and confidently worn, is at odds with the baggy, sloppy-Joe look so beloved in the 1990s when American outerwear ruled the marketplace, and which remains in evidence today.

New attitude

Neither has the price of the technology needed to produce such technical garments helped, with Galvin Green among the most expensive products on the shelves. A series of slender, fitted performance layers has only been attainable through the development of breathable fabrics like Ventil8, which allow heat and moisture to escape even from tighter spaces thanks to using fibres with a bigger surface area.

But all evidence suggests that Galvin Green is changing attitudes. The brand attained market-leading status in waterproofs in 2008 and has continued in strides in other outerwear categories, with Johnson-Hill reporting steady year-on-year gains over the last decade.

Despite these successes, the brand is guarding its expansion carefully. Still privately owned by its founder Tomas Nilsson, the company at last decided to take over its UK operations early in 2009, in a bid to improve the customer service of its expanding UK operation after seven years of licensing through The Golf Business Ltd. Sales and marketing are run from the new UK base near Weybridge, Surrey, though with many of the same people doing the same jobs, Johnson-Hill feels the change has been felt more by Galvin Green’s staff than the retailer. Distribution remains direct from the Swedish warehouses.

The brand has just gone in to Canada, but Johnson-Hill reveals there are no plans to tackle the lucrative but unpredictable American market. “If you are at the premium end of the market, growth has to be managed in a very careful way,” he reasons. “You can’t afford to let standards drop. The huge volumes needed could compromise production standards – and there is always the fear that America, as such a big market, can swallow you up and spit you out, leaving you with huge inventories.

“I think the bottom line is that when things are going well, why change it? We are mainly a European brand, happy to focus on the more local guys.”

It seems Galvin Green is beginning to reap the rewards of sticking by its principles of quality, comfort and performance. “There are signs of growing confidence in the brand,” Johnson-Hill reports. “The entry point is the rainsuit. Once people who have purchased this see its quality, longevity, performance, they might move in to other areas like Windstoppers or Ventil8 shirts – and we are seeing some evidence of that.

“Our barrier has always been price point – we are not ashamed to say it’s not a cheap product. People need to be convinced they’ve made the right decision – and hopefully, this is exactly what we are doing.”