Damart: all about the famous Thermolactyl brand!
Catherine BézardTuesday March 20th, 2018updated on Tuesday March 20th, 2018Previous Next
Since 1953, the Roubaix brand warms the body in a flash Thermolactyl. Today, it frees itself from its old-fashioned image through concept stores, collaborations and unifying advertising campaigns.
In its emblematic red color, the lightning logo crosses the D of Damart. Maison Standards, a label for ethical and responsible basics, is the latest collaboration signed by the Roubaix giant with ten pieces, all in Thermolactyl. Like Levi's iconic 501, the 102 T-shirt is part of the collective memory. Present in all closets, it awakens in older people the memory of a strange scent (after exercise) and stunning electrostatic effects. In the 1970s, not a single snow class schoolboy would have braved the cold without his orange floral jersey, according to the Flower Power mood of the time.
Innovation, key to success
More than 400 million Thermolactyl have been sold since 1953 worldwide and when the thermometer drops, 40,000 are sold per day. Flagship of the industrial success of the North of France with 1,300 employees in France (including 600 in the shops) and 400 internationally, the Despature family is still at the head of Damart, whose parent company is the Damartex group. With an average shopping basket of €64, Damart totals annual turnover of €467 million, half of which is achieved through distance selling (including 20% on the web) and the other half in stores (92 in France, 2 in the UK and 57 in Belgium). A success story under the sign of innovation. Heirs to a drapery and weaving factory founded in 1850 in Roubaix and faced with the decline of the textile sector, three brothers, Joseph, Paul and Jules Despature, are looking for a brilliant idea to save their business. It is blown to them by their old aunt, who, victim of rheumatism, swears only by the virtues of triboelectricity. With neighbors, a subsidiary of Rhône-Poulenc, they invent Thermolactyl. By a skilful alchemy, the micro-friction of the fabric creates in contact with the skin an energy which generates an electrostatic heat. Their first store has no inventory, only offers samples, and orders are delivered by mail. Damart flies away! Barely put on the market in 1958, its Thermolactyl was selected by radio Europe 1 among the most innovative things there is. It is the only textile in this hit parade featuring: the liner France, the works of Simenon, the records of Edith Piaf and Georges Bécaud, or even the Bic tip!
The complicity of the creators
First high-tech textile made in France, it brings together all generations, becomes Thermolactyl Color Block in 2013, continues to seduce with the complicity of stylists (Andrea Crews, Tina Tictone), informed bloggers and fashionable brands, such as Modetrotter behind this winter's illustrated down jacket. The lingerie priestess Chantal Thomass convinced her fellow septuagenarians and her admirers who snatched up sweatshirts, jackets and dresses stamped with the label's codes. The photos were taken in the brand's own studios, installed in the old factories, boulevard des Fourmies, completely renovated. In the past, textiles were made there on very special knitting machines (equipped with 700 needles for the 700 threads needed for the 102) that the brand has kept in its new factory now relocated to Zriba in Tunisia and where 130 employees work. Nicknamed DA, the brand's new headquarters houses, on gigantic platforms, the purchasing and sourcing cells, the teams of stylists, pattern makers and the seven others dedicated to digital.
Damart gets a makeover
At 25, avenue de la Fosse aux Chênes in Roubaix, the first major works have begun. Inside and out, Damart is getting a makeover. "She was a very nice old lady, but she had to be modernized", insists Christine Pageot, the general manager who has taken up the challenge of modernity since 2011. In her fifties, dynamic and jovial, she puts her imagination at the service of this facelift stars, the type not to offend loyal customers, the oldest and the most pampered: instead of reductions, Damart prefers small gifts that create this closeness, specific to the history of mail order. For the 60th anniversary of the brand, a short story competition was launched in partnership with Pleine Vie and the Cherche Midi editions on the theme “60 years, so what? ". Yes and so ? On October 2, 2017, Damart staged a senior model for the first time. The “Unretouched photo” advertising campaign appears in magazines on the same day that the new regulations come into force requiring that artificially embellished photos be mentioned in each advertisement. The Roubaix brand has always treated with humor its advertising slogans engraved in memories. As early as 1965, with the (paid) complicity of Henri Salvador, she hijacked one of her hits: “Work is health, Thermolactyl is to preserve it”, then invented the unbeatable “Froid, moi? Never ! appeared in 1971 in the first television spot.
Style first
On a rack, Mathilde Pettier, Product Assortment Director, displayed the most innovative pieces among the 650 ready-to-wear references. “Younger customers are looking for style and comfort. We have to accompany this transformation”, she insists, unfolding on the table the second skin underwear Thermolactyl Sensitive degree 2 made in an intelligent material that regulates heat and stress. Among the other best-sellers, the Perfect Fit jeans whose integrated sheath refines the silhouette and provides life-saving support. Damart dresses all women, since it is the only brand to work on all models according to seven different types of morphology. New challenge for the brand? Shoes with soles that better support the heels, absorb shocks and a refreshing material, the Ocealis. Very creative atmosphere on the ground floor where twenty people take care of Damart's new image. Marjorie Buyse, the newly recruited artistic director, placed the models of the next catalog on the walls of her glass jar. A visual cataclysm that accompanies the makeover of points of sale, such as the 2.0 store in Brussels “Louise” and the concept store “Faidherbe” in Lille. Inaugurated last November, it offers over 455 m2 a "personal shopper" lounge, a Lab by Damart where do it yourself workshops are organized and upstairs, there are the DamartSport collections and the latest capsules. With a flick of the iPad, sales associates quickly find the right model, the right size, or the right color. Who said Damart was old-fashioned?
Photo credit: DR, DALIM-LILLE, FLORIAN LEGER
