Can’t get to the Dolomites? Outdoor sportswear house Oberalp Group is bringing the high life to you

Though it started life as a technical-gear supplier, Italy’s Oberalp Group is reaching new peaks – quite literally. Still a key sports-brand distributor, the Bolzano-based company now owns a stable of notable mountain and outdoor brands. These include Wild Country, Evolv and the brand responsible for about half of the group’s revenue, Salewa.

Founded in Munich in 1935, Salewa has been part of Oberalp since 1990. The label aims to keep producing what it calls “equipment intended to change the game”, which includes everything from crampons to jackets. The brand also plans to use its Dolomites home as a backdrop to promote its lifestyle initiatives, capitalising on the increased popularity of outdoor brands such as Patagonia and North Face. With a healthy history of mergers and acquisitions, and a move into diversifying revenue streams with climbing gyms, Oberalp Group’s CEO, Christoph Engl, tells Monocle how he’s moving the business forward.

You’re headquartered near the mountains. Are your employees your testers?
We have 300 people here in Bolzano, where everyone is a tester. Some do it in a professional way; others are simply using the gear for hiking. Our employees are our first customers.

What role do climbing gyms play in your portfolio mix?
Oberalp Group wants to be recognised as having the most relevant mountain brands in the world today. A few years ago, we [noticed] that we were not covering the whole field, so we acquired Evolv in Los Angeles and decided to invest heavily in climbing gyms as a franchise product, [which we now] call Salewa Cube. 

Fifteen years ago we built our first climbing gym. At the time it was a novelty to have a climbing gym at our HQ, which is open to the public. It was conceived as a training centre for those going climbing in the Dolomites but it developed into something different: we now have 100,000 visitors a year. Of those, only 15 per cent are going out climbing. For [the rest], this is the mountain. If somebody wants to invest in this business, we will help them. We are planning to open in Varese and, at the end of the year, in Como. In 2027 we want to open about 10 spaces in key Italian cities. 

Do you see these new gyms as a brand extension?
We had a lot of internal discussions about the brand architecture because Evolv is [our label] that has climbing shoes in its portfolio. On the other hand, the awareness of Salewa in Italy – and this climbing gym in Bolzano – is high, so we decided to maintain this name as we develop, and Salewa Cube has become a new brand.

What needs to happen before you look at international expansion? 
We have a lot of requests from other companies outside Italy. Right now we need to concentrate on the established products that we have here but the plan is to export this idea to other countries. When it comes to franchise, it needs to be beneficial for all parties. 

You talk about the franchise model but the trend seems to be moving in a direction of owning one’s own retail channels. Do you have a target for an ideal split?
We opened our first [Salewa] shop 24 years ago in Finale Ligure, an area that was popular with climbers. Since then we have opened more than 100 shops in Europe, covering Salewa, Dynafit and Lamunt – about 60 per cent are franchises and 40 per cent are managed by us. We’re not only looking at distribution through [physical] retail. We have an e-commerce presence and we must learn from the customer’s [online] experience [through] their comments and reviews. We also have Mountain Shop, our biggest expansion. It’s a multi-label space and within it, we can’t only be distributing our own brands but also our competitors to serve the needs of the customer depending on the branch’s location. So that might mean more fashion products in Cortina and more climbing gear in Chamonix. 

Are you looking to increase your acquisitions? 
Every month we have two or three brands on our table that could be acquired. We receive a lot of offers and we must be wise about selection and how the company should develop. Sometimes it could be a strategic opportunity or the fulfilment of a certain need. For instance, we were looking to acquire a women’s brand but we didn’t find one, so we founded Lamunt. 

Salewa recently celebrated 90 years. Do anniversaries matter?
They do. Not many brands reach this age; many disappear long before this milestone. For our 90th anniversary, we created an audio file called “Pure Mountain”, outlining our future plans. We recorded it on a small chip and will listen to it again in 10 years when we reach a century. The most important thing now is how we get to 100.