Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2012, K2 has made it known that the company will introduce a men's and women's winter sports outerwear program that will complement its current all-mountain, park, and backcountry focused hard goods offering. A complete product creation team has been assembled, and the launched is expected for 2013.
  
Mark Valdez, who spent the past 20 years in sourcing, product development and production with Nike, joined K2 as apparel director. David Peterson, a ski industry veteran who has spent the last 16 years merchandising at Eddie Bauer, has been named category merchandising manager. And Diane Sheehan Egnatz, Sr. is outerwear developer.
 
"K2 is established as a global leader due to its unique and fearless attitude, athlete-driven mentality, and long-time commitment to building high-quality, innovative products," said Anthony De Rocco, K2 Sports President and CEO. "K2 will stay true to form by introducing an outerwear line where our fun attitude meets performance."
 
Athlete and filmmaker Eric Pollard has signed a long term contract as K2 Outerwear's first flagship athlete. Pollard, who resides near Portland, Oregon, is heavily involved in the look, fit and function of K2's initial apparel collection, says the company.
 
"I am excited to get the opportunity to help shape every aspect of the K2 outerwear program," Pollard said. "Working through each stage of the product development is key to creating something fresh. It is easily the most well prepared release I have ever been a part of. When we finally introduce the line I will already have been working toward it for close to two years."
 
K2 has signed a license agreement with the GORE-TEX brand to collaborate on product development. K2 will preview the collection with its dealer base spanning more than 60 countries beginning late 2012.