It's the jacket you see more on the streets of Ballarat than any other when the city battles winter, but you might not be seeing any new ones for a while.
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Clothing chain Kathmandu will today join those retailers temporarily closing stores in Australia due to fewer people shopping.
Kathmandu's Ballarat store is located in Mair Street and has about 170 stores in Australia and NZ, and more than 100 Rip Curl stores.
It is understood about 2,000 Australian store and head office staff, with the exception of a skeleton crew, will be stood down without pay for four weeks.
Kathmandu had already closed stores in regions including Brazil, Europe, New Zealand and North America.
The board has suspended dividend payments to shareholders.
The Kathmandu workers join a growing number of Australians stood down from their jobs without pay.
On Thursday, Premier Investments - which owns the Smiggle, Peter Alexander, Portmans and Just Jeans stores - stood down 9,000 workers around the world.
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Jewellery chain Lovisa and Athlete's Foot owner Accent Group on the same day temporarily closed 400 stores and 500 stores respectively.
Accent, which also owns the Platypus and Hype shoe chains, will stand down a reported 5,000 staff.
Mosaic Brands - the owner of Noni B, Rivers and Katies - said it will stand down 6,800 employees across 1,300 stores while Michael Hill Jewellers earlier this week announced it would shut 300 stores, including 165 in Australia.
The travel industry has suspended larger numbers of workers.
Qantas has stood down 20,000 of its 30,000 workers, and Virgin Australia has done the same for 8,000 workers.
Flight Centre says an initial 6,000 of its global sales and support staff globally will either be stood down or made redundant in the company's latest bid to preserve a future.
- Australian Associated Press
