UKC

The buzz at ISPO on Monday was all about the BIG news from Wild Country - rumours were going round that it had been sold. I managed to get the details from a delighted Martin Atkinson who told me that the Italian company Salewa had bought Wild Country to strengthen their gear range.

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/news.php?id=4420

In reply to UKC Gear:


Very interesting, I guess they are buying Wild Country for the name and market entry. Technical expertise My arrse, all of Wild Countries key products are made and designed by DMM.

Does Salewa make its own stuff? I know they have cams and nuts in the Salewa range, the nuts look like the typical serial copied zero-g nuts.

In reply to Scarab: Salewa makes very good soft products. I have a down bag by them and its great. They make some hardware but its crap. This is good news for wild country as they have been asleep at the wheel for a while, and Salewa are pretty turned on when it comes to marketing on mainland EU.

In reply to Scarab: Salewa harnesses are by the same factory that make Mad Rock harnesses, say no more!!

In reply to Fattboyy:

Well please say a little more as I don't get your point. I presume you are saying that there is something wrong with mad rock harnesses - but what exactly?

In reply to TobyA:

Have to admit that I havent had a look at these for years, but they always had an inferiori quality feel about them. This doesnt mean that they werent safe, buti n coparisons to other brands....


Yeah, Salewas core stuff is soft goods, feels like the hardware is mainly made and designed by others and just added to their range...

In reply to Scarab:
Scarab, your comments are ill informed, somewhat wide of the mark and fairly disengenuous to everyone who works at Wild Country.
Wild Country manufacture some gear at DMM as well as some other places but like in most manufacturing processes we create drawings and models - using an independent designer - from concepts and ideas that Wild Country personnel create.
Wild Country has a wealth of experience and technical knowledge and consistently has produced innovative and exceptional gear. Some recent examples would be Zero Friends, Rockcentrics, Helium biners - all of which were world beating and superb technical concepts.
If you were correct and Wild Country had no technical know-how did you think DMM just invented some world beating products and then gave them to Wild Country to sell?
For sure Wild Country have utilised DMM's manufacturing skill but as several of DMM's people were shareholders in WC then that's not surprising.
However, the ideas and the concepts through to the drawings are always done before the manufacturing process is started - and that is a large part of the 'technical expertise' - to come up with an idea and get it into a position where it can be manufactured.
Wild Country is a vibrant and skilled company with committed personnel who value creativity and take immense pride in their work and their ability to innovate and create new and exciting products - something for which we are renowned.

In reply to UKC Gear: Buy British by DMM? Or did they sell out too?

In reply to Tom Ripley Mountain Guide: Tom, this really isn't the place. Richie's overlords wouldn't stock me for six years, it happens.

Anyway, since when did DMM stock "Go pretend to know something about climbing"? I thought they kept out.