The World's Most Refined Mountaineering Equipment

Please could you tell us about the values of the brand and its strap-line “Maximum safety, minimum impact" in relation to product development?

Isabelle: Maximum safety has always been the default starting position for development. There is a lot of outdoor equipment that's made primarily for recreational purposes, but Klättermusen has continually developed equipment for active professionals and outdoorspeople. Our user-base reflects that commitment, which means that our equipment must be reliable in the most challenging situations.

“Impact” can and should be considered in several ways, from leaving nature as pristine as you found it, to the lifecycle of your equipment. We always try to look at the wider picture and address the entire lifecycle of our equipment to improve every stage of production, from sourcing materials to their refinement and assembly.

What ties together production and reliability, or impact and safety, is our commitment to durability. Equipment that is safe will be durable, and durable equipment will last longer, therefore, minimising the impact of production. We are as happy as our users when we see 20-year-old kit out in the field.

Gonz: We’ve made tremendous efforts and developed new methods to minimise our impact as much as possible. And by involving ourselves in the development of new fabrics and new industrial processes to make them more sustainable, we’ve been able to improve the performance of our fabrics far beyond what is readily available. Our drive toward sustainability has helped propel performance and durability in our products that would have been difficult or impossible to accomplish otherwise.

Could you tell us how you use post-consumer waste and pioneer new production processes?

Isabelle: Sourcing materials is an important part of sustainable production, and by using post-consumer waste we can help lessen the amount of waste sent to landfill. We use old fishnets and carpets as sources of polyamide, and PET bottles as sources for polyester – which are fairly well-known technologies. Perhaps less well-known is a process for recycling wool from old fabrics that creates a material that both looks and functions the same as virgin wool. These processes require more advanced methods than virgin materials, but they offer us opportunities to improve the performance of the fabrics when compared to off-the-shelf fabrics.

Who wears Klättermusen products?

Gonz: Our equipment is for everyone who appreciates and cares about nature. We have produced equipment that is still in everyday use after 20 years. We are proud makers of equipment that has a legacy and can be handed down from generation to generation. This means less production and less waste – which is good for everyone. Our sales help to finance new research and development of more sustainable and recycled materials with even better performance and durability. What I think is less well-understood is that by choosing to buy sustainable products, customers help move the industry toward sustainability; the industry isn’t really able to do it on its own.

What do you hope to see in the outdoor industry in the future?

Isabelle: The outdoor industry should be helping to change and reshape the entire garment industry. Outdoorspeople are more sensitive to sustainability issues in general, and the industry as a whole needs to work harder to use this as leverage to force much-needed changes. The move toward production completely free from all types of fluorocarbons has been a huge improvement, but there are still enormous legacy issues in the textile industry that are incredibly hard to transcend until there is industry-wide change.

What do you see for the future of Klättermusen and its products?

Gonz: The ambition of Klättermusen has remained the same for over 40 years: creating the most durable, reliable and sustainable equipment possible. What has changed is the growing appreciation among the public at large for the uncompromising ethos that has driven Klättermusen for all these years. Professional users have always appreciated the understated reliability and technical know-how of Klättermusen equipment. The scientific efforts made to push sustainability further in production have lent us a certain amount of respect among people who are actively involved in environmental and conservation efforts. These are very niche groups, and we are now trying to better communicate our philosophy to the public at large.

Isabelle: We look to the past to see our future. Our principles and ideas have proven themselves over time, and as the world is coming around to seeing things more like Klättermusen, we are ready to share the knowledge and wisdom we have gained over the years. One of our missions has always been to inspire others and show that it’s possible to do things in a different way. We hope to keep inspiring people to find better solutions, and one of our biggest challenges is how to educate people better about sustainability and make consumers more aware and conscious of these issues.

By sticking firmly to our principles, we have always persevered, even when it appears that everyone else is going in a different direction. So we intend to keep going our own way, making the best possible equipment we know how to.