Arc'teryx explores suffering and intense pain as a brand hook

The rules of marketing clearly state that 'proper brand building entails positioning your value as a solution to a pain point'.

Arc'teryx have chosen to rip that page out of the manual and deliberately offer their brand (positioning as a luxury outdoor offering) as 'a good portal into the world of suffering and intense pain'.

Their insight... (which clearly presents an opportunity)... is that in fact, we're all a little tired of our frictionless lives and crave a deeper immersion into reality, and ultimately ourselves.

We yearn for the feeling of being lost on a mountain, the feeling of oxygen trying to murder us with every breath and the extreme agony of enduring more than 26-hours of trail running.

Luxury used to be about the easy life and chilling with a glass of Champagne, but when a brand like Hollywood Bets starts to occupy that frame, it somehow loses a lot of its elevated appeal.

To have the luxury of time to spend endless hours getting first-hand experience of physical pain on a mountain top, is understandably reserved for the rich-only - and if you are lucky enough to have that time, then putting yourself through hell, while wearing Arc'teryx, is a nice option.

For cheaper brands, Champagne showers and ridiculous dreams of supercar ownership is still the vibe. Luxury appears to have moved on to things that are more chillingly authentic.