With its new Deep Space Leggings for women, FORLOH is bringing performance advances to a broader market
Maranda Ratcliff is an accomplished bowhunter who has harvested elk, deer, antelope, and countless other species across the western US. She’s also an ex-collegiate power lifter and fitness coach who spends long hours in the gym prepping for hunting season and other adventures in the mountains outside her Billings, Mont., home. “Some people have this idea that you’re either an outdoorsperson or you’re someone who likes to do your workouts inside,” she says. “But the truth is, if you want to excel, you have to be both. Gym work builds the foundation for being strong and fit enough to pull off those big days and weeks in the mountains.”
From that premise was born FORLOH’s new Women’s Deep Space Leggings, which blend the utility of a base layer with the fit and style of outerwear. The goal was to create a garment that is as comfortable in town as it is in the backcountry. “For people like me who both hunt and hike and work out in the gym, it’s really nice to have a crossover piece that can do it all really well,” says Ratcllff. “Why spend $100 for leggings for each of those activities, when this single pair will do it all?”
The Deep Space Leggings will in fact do well more than your average pair of tights. They are constructed of FORLOH’s Trizar yarn, a material first developed by NASA for use in infrared tiles on the Space Shuttle, which does double duty to both reflect heat back to the skin for an insulative effect while simultaneously pulling moisture away from the body to the fabric surface to speed evaporation. Ratcliff says the fabric is highly versatile, adding warmth on cold days but providing a cooling effect when it’s hot out. The leggings also get FORLOH’S proprietary combination of Polygiene Stays Fresh and Odor Crunch, two antimicrobial and anti-stink treatments applied at the molecular level. These technologies neutralize bacteria created by sweat and break down external odors.
That might sound like a lot of technology for a simple pair of leggings, but daily life can be just as demanding as hunting. Says Ratcliff, “I’ve worn them all day around the house and then to the gym for workouts, sometimes for days in a row, and they don’t bag out and they don’t get stinky.”
Ratcliff insists that’s a major improvement over gear she’s used from other companies. “I was sponsored by a few big, well-known apparel brands in the athletic space before. Not only did you have to wash those companies’ tights after every use, I’d constantly see seams ripping out and fabrics going threadbare after a short time,” she says. “FORLOH is bringing true advancement to a segment of the market that has been more about cosmetics and appearance.”
FORLOH intends to continue this path of bringing technological innovation to any market that needs it, whether that’s new developments in its hunting line, lifestyle applications such as leggings, or anything in between. “Wherever we see a gap in the market, we are going to address it,” says Megan Gulbranson, a marketing spokesperson at FORLOH. “Our aim is to use our technologies to better people’s experiences, no matter what the arena.”
Ratcliff says FORLOH’s leggings have definitely made her life easier—except in one way. “I now have both the base layer and the leggings, and both are so good that it’s sometimes difficult to choose what to wear,” she says with a laugh. Between the high-waist tailoring and the more compressive fit, however, Ratcliff says she’ll likely lean toward the leggings more frequently. But, says Ratcliff, “You can’t complain about being spoiled for choice.”