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Burgeon Outdoor Presents Polartec Alpha & Delta Apparel at their store & workshop in Lincoln NH
Jun 28, 2025
Burgeon Outdoor Presents Polartec Alpha & Delta Apparel at their store & workshop in Lincoln NH
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on our way north to Montreal we stopped
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in Lincoln New Hampshire in the White
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Mountains to visit Berson Outdoor they
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hand make their apparel here right up
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here in their store and in another
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location and we're going to focus today
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with Nick um on their Polar Techch Alpha
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and Delta very high performance fabrics
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that were originally developed for the
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US military special forces go ahead of
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our production side of things here in
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Lincoln and an hour north of here in
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Gorum we have another three seamstresses
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those six women make everything in house
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here and are the backbone of Virgin
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this is our Lincoln studio here with
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most of our products showcased for the
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summertime over here we have probably
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our hottest product which is Polar Tux
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Alpha Direct Hoodie um this comes in
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three different weights the 90 the 60
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and the 120 the 120 being your thickest
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heaviest and warmest one they still pack
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down incredibly small and pack really
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good warmth in a lightweight package the
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90 is probably our most popular product
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for the Alpha series it just has the
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most applications and uses that's the
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one I'm testing and it's been fantastic
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so far yeah yeah yeah and personally I
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run a little hot i like this 60 okay um
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extremely see-through and breathable you
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can see the breathability on the product
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just as you hold it up to the light so
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tell us tell us about uh the fabric and
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and how how it's put together cuz it's a
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really neat story yeah so Polar Techch
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Alpha is made right down the street from
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us in Hudson New Hampshire and after
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they make the fabric there they send it
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down to Tennessee to get brushed and we
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send it to a guy in Fall River that cuts
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it and we sew it all here in Lincoln and
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Gorum New Hampshire this product does
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not have to leave the East Coast from
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concept to closet which is a really cool
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and sustainable thing um that supports
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local jobs keeps manufacturing local and
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overall we just want to set a good
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example that you can manufacture locally
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sustainably and be involved in your
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communities and tell us the origins of
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Alpha Fabric cuz I've had it at within
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jackets this is my first sort of direct
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but um the direct yeah so it started as
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just polar techch alpha um it became
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available to the consumer market in 2012
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from Polar it was originally produced
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for US special forces in the military
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and after a little while they figured
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out that you didn't need to sew it to a
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face fabric or a backer fabric you
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basically have this suspended fishnet
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structure with micro pilling that comes
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off of both sides this gives you a
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really good warmth to weight ratio and
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if you throw a nice shell over it or a
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windbreaker you can really trap a ton of
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heat or you can just go with the hoodie
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and be able to dump all that excess heat
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i had it up on Wildcat and freezing fog
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and and um and a lot of wind and we we
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had gone up fast i put it right on and
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it was so cozy
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not windproof but boy it gave me a nice
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warm feel yes definitely on uh the last
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couple of days that we've had you
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probably want some breathability and
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yeah I know we got and Nick's gonna
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actually tells us he's going to be with
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uh is it John Kelly yeah John Kelly
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heading out later this afternoon after
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work to help pace John Kelly through the
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whites for two days on his Appalachian
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Trail supported fastest known time
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attempt cool and you've got the tough
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duty you're where are you going to go uh
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what what uh what segments you going to
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do for him with him probably most of New
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Hampshire okay um he's moving at about
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60 miles a day so uh he's probably going
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to be in Maine by the time I'm back at
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work on Saturday morning cool cool so
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it'll be fun exciting i'm sure I'm going
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to be a little beat up by the time I
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roll into He goes fast but looks like
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you're pretty fast too you got some
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spiffy Evo SL there yeah I got a new
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pair tell us about the Sun Seeker so our
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Sunseeker is our most popular product
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for this time of the year it's our
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lightweight breathable UPF protective
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sun hoodie it is made out of Polarex
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Delta fabric and this fabric gets really
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technical so it actually helps your
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body's natural cooling process if you
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see these raised ridges on the inside
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that keeps a little bit of air flow
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between your skin and the garment and my
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favorite thing about this fabric is even
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once you totally sweat it out you don't
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have that I just jumped in the pool with
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a t-shirt saran wrapped feeling on you
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it always feels comfortable even in you
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know high 90s and high humidity here in
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New England it's been my go-to all
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summer um we have it in eight different
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colors right now our two new colors over
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here are
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our Eden green and our summer sky ah
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that's what Dominique has yeah yeah yep
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she was testing out one of the summer
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skies for us so Polar Techch Delta
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besides um naturally amplifying your
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body's cooling process through the
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inside fabric will wick moisture away
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from you with the out outer fabric
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expelling it into the environment
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naturally in your body the structure
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that that does it yeah the two different
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structures yeah yeah now um tell us a
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little bit about uh just a bit more
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about the company i was reading you know
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how of course we're in Northern New
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Hampshire here and uh uh there's a a a
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devel economic development component and
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the employees are really well taken care
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of and also there's an environmental uh
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mission so tell us kind of some of those
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elements because it's really cool yep so
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our big thing here at Burgon is
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community involvement um 5% of our sales
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every year goes to our community
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nonprofit um involvement budget so to
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speak um New England Disabled Sports has
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been a good recipient of ours and we
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love working with them um their main
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objective is to get anybody with
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disabilities
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out enjoying outdoor activities that
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they love to do whether that's stand up
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paddle boarding or you know ski
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contraptions for anybody with
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disabilities um we're really really
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happy to be able to And then you take
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care of some of the trails i saw the
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bridal path over here yeah we do yeah so
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we maintain the
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Pine Link Trail Old Bridal Path and
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Willie Range Trail here in the White
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Mountains and whole Bridal Path that's a
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that's a big one that was a very
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historic one um Rudy the founder of
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Virgin was out doing trail work with
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four or five volunteers the other day so
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we'll post something on our social media
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and you know we'll have our Virgin
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community come together and help us with
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trail work um and that gets people
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involved in the community um that's what
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we're all about if we can make an
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example of community involvement and
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nonprofit work excellent so so but thank
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you very much this was kind of impromptu
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we were headed north and we're testing
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uh we're testing the uh the Alpha and
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the Delta so we said "Hey let's stop
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by." But Nick thank you very much what a
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wonderful story here at Bjon in Lincoln
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New Hampshire thank you Ez thank you for
7:36
coming