Path-dependent Foundation of Global Design-driven Outdoor Trade in the Northwest of England

This article explores path dependency in the design-based outdoor clothing and equipment sector in the northwest of the United Kingdom in the 1960s. The industry developed a strong export market and remains strong internationally. The article offers several key insights that promise to transform our...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Rose, M., Love, Terence, Parsons, M.
Format: Journal Article
Published: National Taiwan University of Science and Technology 2007
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/44842
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author Rose, M.
Love, Terence
Parsons, M.
author_facet Rose, M.
Love, Terence
Parsons, M.
author_sort Rose, M.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This article explores path dependency in the design-based outdoor clothing and equipment sector in the northwest of the United Kingdom in the 1960s. The industry developed a strong export market and remains strong internationally. The article offers several key insights that promise to transform our understanding of the improvements that have taken place in design practice in some industries. In particular, the article focuses on the social, economic and technological factors that shaped the potential for successful design and manufacturing in the outdoor clothing and equipment sector in a region suffering from social and economic collapse. It also examines the role of users as designers and business founders. The region this article examines was a vital centre of the Industrial Revolution. The article shows that skills and knowledge originating in the Industrial Revolution have been vitally important to the development of today’s design-driven industries. The cases presented here involve internationally competitive mountaineering equipment firms. Mountaineering clothing and equipment design was originally based on function and lead-user innovation. Innovative functional products emerged when firms with knowledge and technology originating inthe Industrial Revolution combined their skills with lead-user sporting expertise to generate a user-driven design process. One core finding of this study is that fundamental changes have occurred in the relationship between manufacturers and customers that are vital to design success today. This marks a departure from past practice.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-448422017-01-30T15:16:51Z Path-dependent Foundation of Global Design-driven Outdoor Trade in the Northwest of England Rose, M. Love, Terence Parsons, M. Design Processes Physical Geography Path Dependency Design Evolution Lead-user Innovation Mountaineering This article explores path dependency in the design-based outdoor clothing and equipment sector in the northwest of the United Kingdom in the 1960s. The industry developed a strong export market and remains strong internationally. The article offers several key insights that promise to transform our understanding of the improvements that have taken place in design practice in some industries. In particular, the article focuses on the social, economic and technological factors that shaped the potential for successful design and manufacturing in the outdoor clothing and equipment sector in a region suffering from social and economic collapse. It also examines the role of users as designers and business founders. The region this article examines was a vital centre of the Industrial Revolution. The article shows that skills and knowledge originating in the Industrial Revolution have been vitally important to the development of today’s design-driven industries. The cases presented here involve internationally competitive mountaineering equipment firms. Mountaineering clothing and equipment design was originally based on function and lead-user innovation. Innovative functional products emerged when firms with knowledge and technology originating inthe Industrial Revolution combined their skills with lead-user sporting expertise to generate a user-driven design process. One core finding of this study is that fundamental changes have occurred in the relationship between manufacturers and customers that are vital to design success today. This marks a departure from past practice. 2007 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/44842 National Taiwan University of Science and Technology fulltext
spellingShingle Design Processes
Physical Geography
Path Dependency
Design Evolution
Lead-user Innovation
Mountaineering
Rose, M.
Love, Terence
Parsons, M.
Path-dependent Foundation of Global Design-driven Outdoor Trade in the Northwest of England
title Path-dependent Foundation of Global Design-driven Outdoor Trade in the Northwest of England
title_full Path-dependent Foundation of Global Design-driven Outdoor Trade in the Northwest of England
title_fullStr Path-dependent Foundation of Global Design-driven Outdoor Trade in the Northwest of England
title_full_unstemmed Path-dependent Foundation of Global Design-driven Outdoor Trade in the Northwest of England
title_short Path-dependent Foundation of Global Design-driven Outdoor Trade in the Northwest of England
title_sort path-dependent foundation of global design-driven outdoor trade in the northwest of england
topic Design Processes
Physical Geography
Path Dependency
Design Evolution
Lead-user Innovation
Mountaineering
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/44842