Two skiers in helmets and goggles stand in front of a blue glacier ice wall

THE STRATUS EXPERIMENT

STRATUS was founded on a question and a rejection. We were curious what technical gear could be if we ignored ideas that had become standard, and we rejected the premise that performance requires a compromise in sustainability.

Sustainability is a moving target and we’ve stopped expecting to be solved. Too often what gets sold as sustainable is a minimum requirement being met, a trailhead sold as a summit, out of convenience and profit. We’d rather keep asking, and keep choosing the harder route, because the right decision and the hard decision are usually one and the same.

Canmore, Alberta is our test ground, with Banff National Park and Rogers Pass within reach: year-round backcountry skiing, complex terrain, vast temperature swings, and high winds, conditions that magnify the smallest shortcomings in equipment. Thermoregulation, moisture control, and airflow are inherent problems here, and we enjoy solving them, naturally.

STRATUS is a means to find the edge of what’s possible when performance, natural materials, and design are held in equal regard.

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Eliminating
goggle fog

Our first problem lived in a few centimeters: the gap between a face covering and goggles.

Warm, humid breath travels upward and fogs the lens. Pull the fabric down and the face is exposed. On a short resort run, that’s an annoyance. Hours from shelter in deep cold, it decides whether you can see the terrain ahead or keep frostbite off your skin.

Close-up of a skier in pink-tinted goggles and a black STRATUS mask in falling snow

We developed a two-layer construction that directs breath away from the goggles, using merino wool for warmth, comfort, and its natural antimicrobial properties.

Today it’s worn by athletes across the world, including those that race the Iditarod Trail Invitational, 1,000 self-supported miles across Alaska in winter, who move, eat, and sleep in it for weeks at a time. At that limit, there are no small details. A few centimeters of fabric becomes the difference between a clear line of sight and a race-ending mistake.

A skier in a STRATUS beanie, neck warmer and headlamp, in falling snow at night

If a few centimeters could matter this much, every other piece of equipment deserved closer examination.

STRATUS is a means to find the edge
of what’s possible when performance,
natural materials, and design are
held in equal regard.

  • Performance
  • Natural materials
  • Design
Close-up of SuperCell™ fabric beaded with water droplets

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Material
investigations

Sheep grazing on a hillside under snow-capped mountains, in black and white

We’re hyper-focused on materials, form, and their relationship in harsh environments.

STRATUS uses natural fibers over synthetics wherever possible, and a primary goal of the experiment is to make products that outperform them. With intentional design, that’s achievable more often than most people realize.

Factories have regularly pushed us to add synthetic fibers because it makes production easier. We continue to resist the easiest route.

Balaclavas, neck warmers, and beanies are often treated as accessories that don’t deserve much thought, but we examine every yarn and every seam, and the same attention extends to packaging, even if it only spends a few minutes in your hands, because synthetic materials spend centuries decomposing. More broadly, we see a lot of gear that settles for what's standard and changes slowly, and the curiosity to keep pushing past that is what we'd like people to feel from us.

The extra work is often absurd, but we like Type II pursuits.

Two skiers in goggles and helmets on a snowy ridge, one close to the camera

// 03

Rise above

Clouds regularly settle through the mountains and valleys around Canmore, bringing the atmosphere we’re named after down to the valley floor.

The weather here dictates what we wear, where we go, and how quickly we return. It also drives the STRATUS experiment: each season brings new conditions, new reasons to reconsider a detail, and another chance to climb past what we knew the year before.

A skier in a red jacket and blue goggles turning through deep powder
A skier descends a steep powder slope under a deep blue sky

As the brand grows, so does our capacity to deliver on our sustainability mission by pursuing new fabrics, constructions, and ideas. The people wearing STRATUS extend our field testing, and their feedback shapes each iteration — an extension of our research and development.

Together, we Rise Above industry standards.

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  • Obscured
In the press

“STRATUS nailed it with its anti-fog design using a magnetic closure that accommodates your favourite goggles or an integrated mouldable nosepiece.”

— Ski Canada Magazine

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