Anne, Okaïdi Market Director in charge of coats explains this technical label that helps customers find what they need.

Okaïdi uses the CLO label on these coats: What is it?

The CLO label (from the word “clothes”) is a universal label that measures the heat insulation provided by clothing.  It is provided by an external independent laboratory that carries out the measurement tests. On the children’s clothing market, Okaïdi is the only brand to test its coats.

Why did you want to do this test?

Okaïdi wants to create products that really help to protect children. That’s why, for example, all our long-sleeved items have a hood, essential for protection from the rain, the wind and the cold! This triple protection presides over all our decisions. So, we wanted to measure the efficiency of our products in this area and provide a simple technical label that would help our customers choose. The goal: be sure that children were warm enough in their Okaïdi coats. For winter 2019, 100% of our quilted coats have been tested. And to make the result of this test immediately comprehensible for our customers, we translated it into snowflakes:

• 1 snowflake: the coat provides protection up to -10 degrees
• 2 snowflakes: the coat provides protection up to -20 degrees

How is this test useful to our customers?

The first criterion for buying a child’s coat is protection from the cold. The CLO label is an objective indication measured by an independent laboratory that provides our customers a clear label and a guarantee of the efficiency of our products. And its representation by a number of snowflakes makes the technical aspects of our offer accessible to our teams, who use it to advise on products to match a child’s requirements as closely as possible, and to our customers, of course.

Has the CLO label changed how you work?

The tests it requires have helped us identify how we can improve and trace how cold affects every detail of each product.  This has challenged every aspect of their design. For example we have reduced the number of seams on some down jackets, changed some padding, made ribbing on the cuffs standard for extreme cold weather items and even included inner “skirts” like the ones in ski jackets, to keep the cold out. Not forgetting the hidden detail that is widely appreciated: our pockets are lined with soft fleece!