Portal
Launched in February 2025 by four directors Patrick Stangbye, John Roberts, Barrie Bloor and Colin Meredith, Portal is an activewear brand that offers multifunctional collections designed around movement, drawing on experiences in cycling, running, and hiking. Rather than focusing on a specific discipline, the brand develops its products around the broader concept of "movement," balancing function, comfort, and style. In this interview, we had the opportunity to hear more about the principles behind their product design and the direction they aim to pursue as a brand.
(Khakis)
We’d love to hear how Portal came to be. With four directors from different
backgrounds, we’re curious about what brought you together to start the brand
and what experiences led to that decision.
(Portal)
I guess the idea behind the brand is not something new, but has always been
part of how we and many other people live their lives, but the brand itself
was born 2 years ago.
We knew each other either as friends and professionally for some time before
we decided to start the brand. But the first realisation that we worked
together well as a team was during a consultancy project that we all worked on
together for another brand. We spent time running and riding together during
the project and found we had similar ideas, the project ended and we decided
to start building something together, we haven’t really looked back since.
The combination of our different skillsets and perspectives, along with a
shared vision I think is what makes Portal what it is. We didn't set out to
make a version of something else but instead create something that was for a
lifestyle that we live, and felt that no one else was providing us with the
product that we really wanted or needed.
(Khakis)
Portal goes beyond outdoor activity wear, presenting clothing as a tool for
movement. What does the brand’s slogan, “Physical and emotional tools for
human movement”, mean to you as a team?
Also, when designing a
collection, what key principles or considerations do you focus on?
(Portal)
OK if we break that down a little bit. Human movement for us is about using
your body to move outside, hence the multi sport element to what we do -
running, cycling and hiking is all unified behind the idea of movement rather
than a single activity, this is really key for us as being people that do all
of these activities we feel that movement is a more correct term for defining
our lifestyles, rather than a “runner” or a “cyclist” for example. The brand
can be for anyone who does these activities, but we make our product and brand
relevant for movement, not just single activities.
Tools refer to the products that we create, every product serves a purpose and
is an enabler of movement, they solve problems and help people to move. We do
not launch a single product that does not facilitate movement.
Physical and emotional builds on both aspects of movement in terms of both the
way that your body physically moves and how it makes you feel. Some products
for example might work really well, but may not make you feel good in terms of
how they look or feel when you wear them, we want ours to do both. Equally the
way that our brand is communicated, we aim to strike a balance of both
function and emotion.
(Khakis)
When field-testing your first collection, were there any products that stood
out to you the most? We’d also love to hear if there were any unexpected
discoveries or memorable moments during the process.
(Portal)
We aim to create a wardrobe for us and other people that live life around
movement and with that we always start with a clear need for a specific
product, for example with our Traka Pant we wanted to create a pant that we
all felt comfortable wearing all day in but that was also capable to run, ride
and hike in. It’s the same with the bib short, it’s ok to ride or commute
short distances without a bib short but when you hit a certain distance or
duration of time a bib short is a really essential piece.
We don’t set out to make something different or unique, we just aim to create
something that we want or need, which ultimately ends up being unique because
no other brand offers the types of products that we make for the use case we
design for.
On an individual product level there were a lot of things we discovered
throughout the field testing process. I guess the key one, for me at least,
was the amount of prototypes we ended up testing throughout the process.
Normally in a big brand we might do 3 prototypes, we went to at least 5 and
testing each one for many hours each between the four of us. I think that came
from our determination to make the products as good as we possibly could, but
also when you are building a brand from nothing we are really starting from
nothing so it took more time to build systems and ways of doing things with
our factories and in our team too.
(Khakis)
Looking ahead, what are some things Portal hopes to experiment with? Beyond
expanding the product line, are there any new directions the brand is excited
to explore?
(Portal)
I guess for us we have started as we mean to go on, we have lots of new
products in the pipeline and plans to activate the brand. We’re just really
excited to keep building now.
The one thing that really hit us when we launched the brand was how our
community really wants to engage with the brand, so we plan to build on that
in multiple ways.
Portal creates products for moving individuals, not limited to runners or cyclists. In this interview, we highlight the approach of the four directors embedded in the design process of Portal's products. Discover Portal's collection for freer movement, now available at Khakis.
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