Novosibirsk Down Jacket Brand for Yakutia Competes with Global Giants

The clothing brand ACOOT is hardly known to a wide audience in Siberia, even though it originates from Novosibirsk and its production is located in neighboring Kuzbass, in the city of Osinники (Kemerovo Oblast, Russia). However, it is quite well-known in Yakutsk, where a whole network of brand stores operates. How this complex structure came to be and why the brand owners do not plan to enter the home market was investigated by our colleagues from NGS.RU.

Wholesale trade of ACOOT products is handled by LLC «Berlot», which also holds the trademarks ACOOT and Berlot, according to Kontur.Focus. The sole founder of the company since 2011 is entrepreneur Eduard Minin, with no other active businesses registered under his name. Berlot«s revenue in 2024 amounted to 41 million rubles (approximately $410,000 at current rates), with a net profit of 1.9 million rubles (approximately $19,000).
Management of the factory in Osinники is handled by LLC »Albatross«, registered in Novosibirsk at the same address as Berlot. Its revenue in 2024 was 27 million rubles (approximately $270,000), with a net loss of 822 thousand rubles (approximately $8,200).

From «Sinar» to Down Jackets

In Yakutsk, there are currently five stores of the Sinar brand, well-known to Novosibirsk residents. Sinar suits can also be purchased there.

The down jackets of the ACOOT brand presented here look neither like a local brand nor something entirely foreign. Meanwhile, the company «Berlot», which produces them, is registered in Novosibirsk, on Serebrennikovskaya Street.

The history of the trademark began quite a long time ago, when stores under the brand of the Novosibirsk factory «Sinar» appeared in Yakutsk, said production manager Olga Merkulova. They never belonged to «Sinar», but sold its clothing there, among other things. This kind of «semi-franchising» was quite actively used in many regions: local partners received a ready-made brand and supplies of basic products, and the manufacturer got a constant sales channel.

According to Olga Merkulova, at some point the store owner realized that the local public lacked warm clothing in the stores that met local requirements but was not exorbitantly expensive. Not heavy expensive fur coats or jackets from a couple of world brands specializing in such clothing, but also not light down jackets in which you can«t go outside at -40°C (-40°F).

First, there was an idea to simply start selling clothing from the Russian brand BASK (founded in 1989), but it entered the Yakutsk market on its own. And then it was decided to try sewing down jackets independently.

The first collection was released in 2021 under the Berlot brand – under which men«s shirts were already produced, which the company still sells today (they are produced, however, outside Russia). That batch of 1300 down jackets was sewn partly at the Novosibirsk factory »Iсток« (a down products manufacturer), and by October it was all sold out, said Olga Merkulova.

The next year, they sewed one and a half times more down jackets, 3800, finding a new enterprise in Kemerovo Oblast, in the city of Osinники. This is one of the former production sites of the once large local manufacturer, the sewing factory «Kuzbass», which went bankrupt in the early 2000s. A year later, recalled Olga Merkulova, the previous owners of the enterprise offered to simply buy it. The deal was advantageous: the value of the factory is not only in the production lines but largely in the personnel. There is nowhere to get them ready-made «from the market».

The purchase of the factory allowed the enterprise to reach a production volume of about 5000 down jackets per year. They are not cheap even with discounts, which the company is forced to provide from mid-winter (otherwise the items might not be bought at all): the retail price of one down jacket rarely drops below 30 thousand rubles (approximately $300).

Technology Above All

However, this does not mean that by making these 5000 down jackets, the company will receive 150 million rubles (approximately $1.5 million) in its accounts. Part of the revenue will go to maintaining retail outlets, not to mention that the sewn items need to be sold. This year, for example, demand has noticeably decreased: people have started to save money.

Partly, however, the enterprise might have become a victim of its own fight for quality. In the production of down jackets, quite dense fabric from South Korea is used, which together with a number of technological techniques extends the product«s life to five–six years. So customers are in no hurry to change their down jackets for new ones.

Olga Merkulova can talk endlessly about the features of down jacket sewing technology. Here is the complex structure of the down chamber, creating additional barriers against cold, and fabrics of different composition and tactile feel (some for inserts in areas of greatest wear, some for lining). And the fabrics themselves: they must repel water but not overly weigh down the product, which already rarely weighs less than 2.5 kg (5.5 lb). And expensive hardware, which is now again bought from Japan, only now it has to be transported longer, with more intermediaries.

The company sews down jackets not only for adults; there is also a children«s collection. It also has many details like internal straps that allow in a room to at least remove the upper part of the jumpsuit from the shoulders. Or an external loop, by which you can not only hold the child but literally lift them like a bag – with the other hand occupied, this can be convenient when boarding transport or in other similar situations.

Production Difficulties

The idea of producing clothing in Russia seems uplifting, but reality each time demonstrates why it is becoming more and more difficult. The main problem is the absence of what is called production infrastructure. This includes both a set of enterprises where some operations can be performed or simply to poach employees, and the supply of everything that might be needed for production.

There is still a belief that China continues to be the world«s factory due to cheap labor. But this has long not been the case: a skilled Chinese worker earns more than a Russian one. But in China (and generally in Southeast Asia), any production has a choice of suppliers that are nearby, compete, and are ready to offer the best conditions.

An enterprise from Siberia not only has to transport almost everything from far away and pay for supplies at least six months in advance. Getting a small batch of the same fabric is extremely difficult: there is a minimum below which it is not interesting for the manufacturer to go. And a mistake can be costly: the wrong choice of color – and the model «stalls», people don«t buy it, no matter how much you tell them about the quality of seams and materials.

Goal – The Whole World

Now the company is trying to reach customers from all over the country, and in perspective to sell Siberian down jackets all over the world. The idea is clear: truly warm and reliable down jackets are needed by a limited number of buyers, even if they are ready to spend 40–50 thousand rubles (approximately $400–500) on one item. This, by the way, is not so much. Prices for down jackets of the Russian brand BASK, for example, now start from 50 thousand rubles (approximately $500), and jackets with down insulation from the international brand Canada Goose are even 150–190 thousand rubles (approximately $1,500–1,900).

That is, in principle, there are buyers for this clothing, but they are not very mass. And it«s not even about the price. In Novosibirsk, for example, frosts of -30°C (-22°F) and below no longer occur every year and last one–two weeks.

But even on these days, the solvent part of city residents often makes do with simpler clothing (though not necessarily cheaper). To go from home to the car or from the car to the shopping center or store, super-warm clothing is not needed. And walking in a quite heavy down jacket from ACOOT constantly simply makes no sense: the needs of an urban resident are fully met by lighter and more convenient down jackets or jackets.

Although, according to Olga Merkulova, there are enthusiasts here too. Moreover, such that after buying one item to try, they come for jumpsuits for children. In Novosibirsk, brand items are sold, for example, in the «Тиролия» store, and as the production manager says, buyers are often surprised that ACOOT is not some foreign brand.

Trade through an online store in perspective could attract buyers who are ready to both wait and pay more, if a person develops trust in the brand. But for this, it is necessary in some way to go beyond the local producer, more or less known only in one region. And convince buyers to choose a brand unknown to them instead of a Canadian or Russian one that has been on the market for more than 35 years. As they say, the task is, in principle, feasible, but very ambitious.

Traditional trade in clothing and footwear today is indeed experiencing problems. Last year, for example, an NGS observer recorded the exodus of shoe stores from Marx Avenue.