A Utah apparel company will be helping filmmakers at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival stay warm on the streets of Park City.
Cotopaxi, a sustainable outdoor gear company based in Salt Lake City, has signed on as a sustaining sponsor for the festival — and part of that deal includes providing a special edition of the company’s most popular jacket, the Fuego, to filmmakers and jurors.
“Most people know that it’s … three different color stripes that are across it,” said Brad Hiragana, Cotopaxi’s chief brand officer.
The limited-edition jackets, which were released Sunday, are topped in purple, with purple sleeves and collar. In one version, two stripes are yellow and orange, and the jacket is magenta below the stripes. In another, the yellow and magenta are swapped.
As a sponsor, Cotopaxi will also get space in one of the festival’s official lounges, where it will showcase products and network with visitors in the film industry. The company will also have merchandise for sale — such as the co-branded Bataan Hip Pack.
The pack is unique, Hiragana said, because it’s part of the company’s Del Día collection — with each pack made with a unique color combination, never re-created.
The Del Dia line is sustainable, Hiragana said, made “with deadstock material, meaning that is materials, fabrics, that might otherwise go into landfills.”
Cotopaxi also has a store, called the Cotopaxi Basecamp, at 333 Main in Park City, across from the Egyptian Theatre, one of Sundance’s signature venues.
Mary Sadeghy, director of partnerships for the nonprofit Sundance Institute, said teaming with Cotopaxi is practical, since the festival takes place in the mountains and “everyone needs a jacket.”
It’s important, Sadeghy said, for “each class of filmmakers to have a memento and a collectible item that is celebrating that moment in their career — of getting accepted into the festival and being on the mountain to premiere their film and introduce it to audiences, and all that fun stuff.”
It’s Cotopaxi’s first year providing jackets to Sundance filmmakers. From 2013 to last year, a rival company, Canada Goose, was a Sundance sponsor.
Hiragana said the partnership between Cotopaxi and Sundance, two Utah-based organizations, was a natural fit.
“The connection there really is about seeing, appreciating and learning about other cultures, communities, perspectives of people — whether that’s a neighborhood over or a country around the world,” he said.
The commemorative jackets, he added, are “really showing our commitment to honoring the stories that are connecting and inspiring people around the world to make it a better place.”
