K-Way

Key takeaways

K-Way belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect K-Way to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of K-Way from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

K-Way is a brand of waterproof clothing, famous for its nylon windbreaker jacket that fits into a fanny pack, invented in 1965 in the North of France by Léon-Claude Duhamel. After declining, the brand was bought by an Italian company in 2004, then relaunched as a fashionable product, with an increase in the range of items sold. The K-Way word has become an antonomasia, a common name which started to broadly define such type of garments.

History K-Way was created in 1965 by Léon-Claude Duhamel, son of a trouser manufacturer in Harnes in the Pas-de-Calais. One rainy day, while he was at the Café de la Paix in Paris, he had the idea of a small, light and compact protection. The same year, the company Sofinal, a fabric manufacturer in Belgium, proposed a new product to his father, Léon Duhamel, coated nylon. Léon Duhamel suggested to his son Léon-Claude that they think about an idea for a practical application of this new product on clothing. Léon-Claude's idea was to free children from their heavy and uncomfortable rain gear and to be able to fold this kind of coated nylon windbreaker into a fanny pack, all with a choice of bright colours and a colourful zip. When it was launched, he called his nylon windbreaker "En-cas" (for rain) and the pouch was separate from the garment. The following year, Léon-Claude Duhamel renamed his "en-K" to "K-Way" after months of debate, under the impetus of the Havas agency, headed by Mr. Castaing (the term "way" was more fashionable, evoking the American way of life ), which gave it an international dimension. The advertisements spoke of a light and colourful product, and implied an American origin. 250.000 were sold in 1966; in the following years, sales increased and the product evolved. In 1968, following the sudden death of Léon Duhamel, his son Léon-Claude, his daughter Jacotte and his son-in-law Yves Moinet continued the business and made it prosper. From the 1970s onwards, the K-way was a huge commercial success: more than two million units were sold each year. The brand partnered with the French Alpine ski team and developed a range of winter sports clothing. The brand reached its peak at the dawn of the 1980s when Sophie Marceau wore a K-Way in the movie La Boum. In the 1980s, the brand was to be sold to the Blue Bell group, then owner of Wrangler; but the French government blocked the sale. In 1985, due to strategic differences, Yves and Jacotte Moinet left the company's management committee and left the reins of the business to Léon-Claude. The brand then tried to establish itself on the other side of the Atlantic but it was a fiasco. From 1988, sales fell, profitability was no longer there, competition and copies had been flooding the market for several years. In 1991, the Pirelli brand bought the K-Way company, which was then close to bankruptcy. In 1992, K-Way was a partner of the French ski team for the Winter Olympics in Albertville. That year, a fire broke out in the Pas-de-Calais factory. The production of the K-way was permanently relocated to Portugal and the countries of North Africa. Around 1995, the brand became a generic name and fell inexorably; thus the company went from a turnover of 500 million francs in 1992 to 100 million in 1996, the main cause being Asian competition. However, since its foundation, 45 million copies have been sold. Subsequently, in order to react to these cheap Asian products, the company tried to sell more elaborate clothing but, due to the tough competition, sales stagnated. In 1996, an Italian bank, Sopaf, took possession of the K-way brand. The brand was taken over in 2004 by the BasicNet SpA group, an Italian company based in Turin and also owner of the Kappa, Robe di Kappa and Superga brands. The relaunch was first carried out in Italy before the end of the 2010s and then a few years later in France.

Popular culture In the film La Boum released in 1980, the heroine played by Sophie Marceau wears a navy blue K-way and thus influences teenagers. In 1993, comedian Dany Boon wrote and performed Waïka, a successful sketch about the K-way in which he had this line: "It's waterproof but inside you're soaked through".

See also Jacket – garment Parka – Fur-lined cold weather overgarment Capote (garment) – Traditional North American garment Goggle jacket – Hooded windproof type jacket Hoodie – Sweatshirt with a hood Mackintosh (raincoat) – British name for a raincoat made of rubberised fabric

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with K-Way

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what K-Way claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to K-Way before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about K-Way ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of K-Way

In research: K-Way appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses K-Way in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: K-Way is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Clothing companies of France, Coats (clothing), French brands, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for K-Way outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study K-Way in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what K-Way means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain K-Way out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is K-Way in simple terms?

K-Way is a brand of waterproof clothing, famous for its nylon windbreaker jacket that fits into a fanny pack, invented in 1965 in the North of France by Léon-Claude Duhamel. After declining, the brand was bought by an Italian company in 2004, then relaunched as a fashionable product, with an increa…

Why does K-Way matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study K-Way?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on K-Way.