Anchorage Daily News

Alaska women might kick butt, as the saying goes, but in the bitter cold, that's where they need some extra insulation.

What Alaskan -- man, woman or child -- doesn't occasionally suffer cold-butt syndrome?

"Women seem to have a bigger issue," said Katie Gilbert of the Alaska Mountaineering & Hiking store.

Ten years ago and thousands of miles away in Sweden, Sissi Kewenter created a solution for cold butts (and legs) that she now calls the SKHOOP. It's pronounced S-K-hoop.

It's an insulated skirt, stuffed with either synthetic fill or down, that zips on and off. It comes in several different sporty-looking styles. The cheapest is about $100.

The skirts' Anchorage fans, mainly women, aren't really sure how to pronounce SKHOOP, but what do they care, it's cute and comfortable. Not frumpy at all. They are of course spreading the word to all of their women friends.

During the recent cold snap, SKHOOP skirts -- which so far are not retailed anywhere else in North America -- have been a top seller at some of Anchorage's independently owned outdoor shops.

"Dudes are coming in and buying them for their wives," said Natasha Price, the special-orders coordinator for Skinny Raven Sports. The store has sold about 170 so far this season. Alaska Mountaineering has sold more than 100.

Susan Morgan, a state worker, became the owner of a SKHOOP skirt on Jan. 2 after griping to a downtown friend about the cold and how she needed snow pants.

Oh no you don't, Morgan's friend said, showing off her own insulated skirt. Several blocks away, more SKHOOPs were lurking conveniently on racks at Skinny Raven.

"I went there right away, tried it on, was instantly 20 degrees warmer, and told them I wasn't taking it off so they'd have to scan the tag while it was on me," Morgan said.

necessity = invention

Kewenter was struck with the idea for an insulated skirt after she grew tired of being cold while walking to the mailbox in her pajamas.

"You don't go out without a jacket when it's cold. You don't like to freeze on your body! And for me it is the same with the skirt. I don't like to freeze my butt off," Kewenter said in an e-mail.

Now she sells thousands of SKHOOPs annually in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Switzerland.

Alaska has the first retail locations in the United States. The skirts went on sale here in 2007.

"I think it is perfect to sell my product in North America!" Kewenter wrote in her e-mail.

a hit with teachers

You may have seen the skirts around town. Women, children and even some men are sporting them while walking their dogs, attending ski races, grabbing coffee and even on nights out at parties or restaurants.

Elementary school teachers are big fans. Melanie Janigo, a teacher at Chinook Elementary, owns two and she knows 20 other teachers who have them.

"In my building at school, a lady wears it all day like a skirt," Janigo said.

Janigo zips hers on for bus duty and for recess patrol in the winter. She also wears the SKHOOP to the gym over her exercise clothes.

She sent a plaid, short version of the skirt to her daughter in Juneau, "to wear with Xtratufs," Janigo said.

Swedish connections

The reason that SKHOOPs came to Anchorage first and not some fashion-forward northern Lower 48 city is because of a friendship.

In the 1980s, Kewenter lived in a Swedish ski resort town, Are, with her friend and roommate, Osa Detrick.

Detrick later moved to the Lower 48 to fly corporate jets. In 1997, she came to Anchorage and she is now married with a young daughter. She's no longer flying jets but she's an avid skier and hiker, and she also makes kiln-fired pottery.

A few years ago, Detrick and Kwenter began talking about the possibility of selling SKHOOP skirts in Alaska.

Detrick brought back a few from Sweden and gave them away to her outdoorsy friends -- sort of like stealth advertising.

Last year, she persuaded stores to stock the skirts, which are now for sale in Anchorage, Homer and Juneau shops. Detrick imports the skirts and provides them to the stores. She also sells them on her own Web site, www.snosmart.com.

skirts for men

Some Anchorage men with chutzpah have started wearing the SKHOOP around town.

"I think you have to be a pretty confident man to wear a skirt," Detrick said.

Some well-known Anchorage male athletes are sporting them: Dick Griffith, an Anchorage endurance runner in his 80s and Adam Verrier, a former Olympic skier.

"You don't look very manly to wear them, for sure," said Griffith, who occasionally sports a woman's full-length SKHOOP skirt.

His was a Christmas present from Detrick, a good friend.

"It takes a lot of guts to wear one. It takes more guts than anything else," Griffith said.

He said he wore his skirt around town last summer, "just to make people wonder what's going on."

Verrier doesn't see anything weird about wearing a skirt. He wears his knee-length unisex SKHOOP volunteering at ski races in Anchorage and Fairbanks.

"I've worn a lot crazier things," he said.

"It's not like it's thong underwear."

"It's kind of like a blanket that you don't have to hold on to. It's like a sleeping bag or a lower-body parka. I think it's very practical," Verrier said.

Find Elizabeth Bluemink online at adn.com/contact/ebluemink or call 257-4317.

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