686 has made a name for itself with high-quality, technical ski and snowboard apparel. For over three decades, the brand has released and innovated upon a wide-range of creative pieces — reimagining the category every season. Now, the team is using that strong foundation as a jumping-off point. This spring, 686 is readying its first full-scale apparel offering. Looped through with all sorts of steady, lightweight pieces, the brand is calling its new collection the most thoughtful line it's released "off the snow." Building Better Experiences Ultimately, the brand wants this new collection to push fans to "Reimagine Performance." Equipped with everything from tech hoodies to featherlight cargo shorts, the new range is designed for climbers, mountain bikers, casual hikers and everyone in between. That said, the brand knows that to cater to a wide pool of outdoor adventurers, its designs must remain flexible, adaptable and ready for anything. That's why 686 centered this new line around travel and the outdoors while ensuring wearability around their home in Los Angeles. The team recalibrated its textile base to make way for an ultra-versatile new fabric it calls their Everywhere Fabric. We caught up with them to learn more. The Everywhere Fabric Core to the collection is the Everywhere Fabric . To create it, 686 asked designers to solve for a complex scenario: Picture you're packing for a trip around the world and you can only bring one pair of pants. You don't know what conditions you'll face, and you have no back-up if they get dirty, ripped, smelly or stained. What material would you choose for their construction? The team answered with a game-changing fabric made with 94 percent nylon and six percent spandex treated with a durable water repellent. The resulting Everywhere garments are breathable yet water and stain resistant, and boast a 40+ UV protection factor. Now, fans can find the material used across everything from the original Everywhere Pants to a DriRelease Tech Tee and Packable Hat . Technical Fabrics In addition to the do-it-all Everywhere Fabric, 686 leveraged four additional textiles to create this collection. The innovative Featherlight fabric takes the Everywhere ethos and pushes it one step further. Just as versatile as its predecessor, the resulting fabric was created for braving summer temperatures and equatorial latitudes. It's 33 percent lighter and boasts an even more breathable weave, to ensure you can feel cool anywhere . It's quickly become a favorite for mountain bikers and hikers who need that weightless feel to drive their peak performance. Next, Cotton Ripstop brings added strength to wider styles and elevates a classic ripstop weave with a comfy, cotton-spandex blend for free movement. Crinkled Nylon brings a quick-dry factor to the collection, and can be seen across several pairs of wide-leg, convertible zip-off pants. Finally, the new All Terrain Performance (ATP) fabric is made of recycled plastic bottles and boasts a four-way stretch. It's designed to dry quickly, breathe well and move through anything with you. They have accented all these fabrics with complementary tops ranging from a 2.5L GORE-TEX Paclite shell jacket to moisture-wicking, antibacterial drirelease® basic tees and polos. The Fabric of Us Beyond those five key textiles, The Fabric of Us also aims to highlight the mind space behind 686's design franchises. In effect, this means that each fabric was chosen not only to meet the designers' needs, but also those of 686's larger advocate community. Their diverse community of outdoors and city-based enthusiasts pushed the team to create something that could meet their needs from both a function and fashion perspective. The result? A collection that balances aesthetics with activity, and spotlights the importance of working with innovative textiles. The Verdict Each fabric in this collection was chosen for its specific technical attributes, yet can still strike that perfect balance between look and performance. The campaign highlighted — and personified — a variety of activities, to home in on a versatile lineup that can meet the needs of different gearheads all over the country. As a result, 686 calls these products "activity-agnostic," emphasizing that they're designed to perform at any pace, in any place. The brand hopes to use this collection as a baseline for all of its apparel moving forward — which means they're confidently setting the bar even higher, for the better. So if you're looking for a durable range of best-case-scenario basics, shop the new 686 spring collection today. Price: $30-$100 LEARN MORE