Honders Sport en Mode, the Dutch agency that sells Maier Sports, Zanier gloves and Boeji boots in the Netherlands, started last month with a new Dutch brand, Dezert, which describes itself as a mixture of functional and casual clothing. The brand was launched last year by Sandor Mantje, who owns two large-scale fashion and outdoor stores on Texel. Dezert focuses on outerwear, mid layers and pants with durable materials, including Polartec. Another characteristic is that it offers a mark-up of about 2.5 to retailers, much more than the average for outdoor apparel in the Netherlands. Honders is targeting about 45 outdoor and lifestyle stores in the country, and Dezert is preparing to search for agents in other countries, particularly the U.K. and Germany. Separately, Honders has also started selling Gerbing's, a Dutch brand of gloves with electric heating. Honders works together with Heslinga Sport en Mode, an agency operating from the same showroom, which has a distribution deal with Sportalm and just added ActLive, the ski range by Marithé and François Girbaud.
