Russian Down Jackets for Yakutian Frosts: Why Unknown at Home?

The ACOOT brand is hardly known to a wide audience in Russia, even though it was conceived in Novosibirsk, and its production is located in neighboring Kuzbass, in the city of Osiniki. It is only fairly well-known in Yakutsk, where there is a whole network of the brand«s stores. How this complex structure came to be and why the brand owners do not plan to enter the domestic market was investigated by the reviewer NGS.RU.

Wholesale trade of ACOOT products is handled by Berlot LLC, which also, according to Kontur.Focus data, has the trademarks ACOOT and Berlot registered to it. 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 (approx. $410,000 at current rates), with a net profit of 1.9 million rubles (approx. $19,000).
Management of the factory in Osiniki is handled by Albatros LLC, registered in Novosibirsk at the same address as Berlot. Its revenue in 2024 was 27 million rubles (approx. $270,000), with a net loss of 822 thousand rubles (approx. $8,200).

From «Sinar» to Down Jackets

In Yakutsk, there are currently five stores of the Sinar brand. Heard of them? Actually, few have heard of it outside Yakutia. They sell down jackets of the ACOOT brand — they look like something between a local brand and something 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 Oksana Merkulova. They never belonged to «Sinar», but sold, among other things, clothing from that brand. 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 — a constant sales channel.

According to Oksana Merkulova, at some point, the store owner realized that the local public lacked warm clothing in the stores that matched the climate and needs, but was not insanely expensive. Not heavy expensive fur coats or jackets from a couple of world brands specializing in such clothing, but 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 they decided to try sewing down jackets themselves.

The first collection was released in 2021 under the Berlot brand — under which they already produced men«s shirts, 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 »Istok« (a producer of down products), and by October, it was all sold out, Oksana Merkulova said.

The next year, they sewed one and a half times more down jackets — 3800 pieces. For this, they found a new enterprise in the Kemerovo region, in the city of Osiniki. This is one of the former production sites of the once large local producer, the sewing factory «Kuzbass», which went bankrupt back in the early 2000s. A year later, according to Oksana Merkulova, the previous owners of the enterprise offered to simply buy it. The deal was profitable: the value of the factory is not only in the production lines, but to a greater extent in the personnel. There«s nowhere to take them ready-made »from the market.«

Purchasing 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 (approx. $300).

Technology Above All

The price does not at all guarantee that, by making these 5000 down jackets, the company will receive 150 million rubles (approx. $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 economize.

Partly, however, the enterprise might have become a victim of its own fight for quality. In the production of down jackets, they use quite dense fabric from South Korea, which together with a whole range of technological techniques extends the product«s lifespan to five–six years. So buyers are in no hurry to update their proven down jackets.

Oksana Merkulova can talk endlessly about the features of down jacket sewing technology. Here there 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 places of greatest wear, some — for lining). And the fabrics themselves: they must repel water, but not overly weigh down the product, which itself rarely weighs less than 2.5 kg (5.5 lb). And expensive fittings, which are bought in Japan, and now they have to be shipped longer, with the involvement of many intermediaries.

The company sews down jackets not only for adults; there is also a children«s collection. It is also thought out to the smallest details: for example, there are internal straps allowing to slip the upper part of the overalls off the shoulders — so as not to undress the child completely in a room or transport where they entered briefly. Or an external loop, by which you can not only hold the child, but literally lift them like a bag — with the other hand busy, this can be convenient when boarding transport or in other similar situations.

Production Difficulties

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

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

An enterprise from Siberia not only has to bring almost everything from afar 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 down. And a mistake can be costly: the wrong choice of color — and the model «stops,» 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 buyers from all over the country, and in perspective, sell Siberian down jackets all over the world. The idea is clear: truly warm and reliable jackets are needed by a limited number of buyers, even if they are ready to spend 40–50 thousand rubles (approx. $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 (approx. $500), and jackets with down insulation from the international brand Canada Goose sell for 150–190 thousand rubles (approx. $1,500–$1,900).

That is, in principle, there is a buyer for this clothing, but it is not very mass-market. And it«s not even about the price, but about the climate and lifestyle. 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 dwellers often manages with simpler clothing (although 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 constantly in a rather heavy down jacket from ACOOT simply makes no sense: the needs of an urban resident are quite covered by lighter and more convenient down jackets or jackets.

Although, according to Oksana Merkulova, there are enthusiasts here as well. Moreover, such that, having bought one item to try, they come for overalls for children and are surprised that ACOOT is not some foreign brand, but our own, native.

Trading through an online store in perspective can 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 framework of a local producer, more or less known only in one region. And convince buyers to choose a brand unknown to them instead of Canadian or Russian, existing on the market for more than 35 years. As they say, the task is, in principle, feasible, but very ambitious.