Juraj Králik: Why we are not a part of Black Friday this year

Dear friends,

From the first day of the ZAJO brand, which dates back to 1996, my goal was to create high quality and safe clothing, available to ordinary people. I consider safety in the mountains to be a basic human need that cannot be denied to a person just because he cannot afford it. If a real storm hits a person in the wrong place in the mountains, at the wrong time, it is necessary to be prepared, as we are talking about human life.

Therefore, from the first days, we produce clothing in the highest quality we can at the moment, we use the best technical materials available on the market and we try to offer the final product at a price that is in terms of price/value, I dare say, absolutely unrivaled...

We have managed to increase this mission this year. We have converted the costs we have saved by closing some stores into the prices of every single product. Therefore, some products are several tens of euros cheaper than a year ago. Again, thanks to this, we are much closer to our goal, to our highest value - to offer every person the highest quality, which in the case of mountains also means safety. If I find a way to push this further in the future, I am ready to do so without hesitation.

Another factor that I will focus on significantly with the ZAJO brand is the durability of our products. The materials from which we make them are a prerequisite that our jackets, as well as other clothing and equipment, can serve for years, with proper care, even for decades. You often reach us and send us photos of your ZAJO things that have served you faithfully for over two decades. This was crucial on the first day of the brand's existence, and it is equally crucial to me today. I want to create clothes that will last, warm-up, and protect, not goods that need to be changed year after year.

Black Friday is a day we have attended to some extent every year. I dare say that we may even have been a pioneer in Slovakia, although at that time we did not yet fully understand what the term Black Friday itself meant. That's why we handed out leaflets on Friday the 13th, thinking that this is how it should be done :-)

However, Black Friday as such never corresponded with our philosophy. We have never inflated prices artificially, so sales and discounts have never been our usual strategy. In the last 5 years, we had only two - during the change of our logo and during the first weeks of the Covid-19 crisis, when, like many other brands, we had to unexpectedly adapt to completely different conditions. Simply put, not quite standard situations.

Inflating prices would be against what I'm trying to achieve, so they were always set fairly.

This year we are also ready to do something extra for you and we work hard on it every day. I'm super thankful for your support and I want to show it.

But officially we are not a part of Black Friday this year.

It's up to each of you how you spend this day and weekend. Whether you become part of this shopping madness and buy somewhere else. Or buy from us at prices that are fair throughout the whole year. Or you don't buy anything at all and decide to spend time differently.

I and several employees will probably be, as usual, somewhere in nature. Enjoy the silence, solitude, reflect on the past period, and let the mind rest. Wherever you are, nature is certainly not far away. I invite you outside.

See you out there!

Juraj Králik