Climbing Narcissist » Industry

Lacking Vision

Narc — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:49:16 +0000

Interesting thoughts from LT11′s Jordan Shipman as he reflects on feedback gleaned from their coverage of 2012 SCS Nationals:

Based on my experience in the industry, it seems to me these companies have demonstrated little to no interest in supporting these professional-scale events. The desire to invest in the future of our sport is marginal at best.

Lacking Vision from Climbing Narcissist

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Putting The Blast In E-Blast

Narc — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 12:20:39 +0000

But is climbing media destroying the sport? Here again I take issue with Beal’s assertions. Sure, there are plenty of examples of terrible writing, self promotion and feel-good bromides but overall climbing media’s endorsement of the culture of consumption is tame or, conversely, anti-consumption.

Jeff Jackson puts the blast back into Rock & Ice’s Tuesday Night Bouldering E-Blast with this response to Peter Beal’s pot-stirring post from last week.

Interesting thoughts as well from Justin Roth:

Whenever I disagree strongly with an argument, I take it as a sign. It means that argument has hit a sore spot. And any sore spot we have within us is worthy of further examination. Beal’s critiques, and the less-than-tactful means he chose to express them, certainly made an impression on me.

Putting The Blast In E-Blast from Climbing Narcissist

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Outside Voices

Narc — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:47:40 +0000

Interesting thoughts from Peter Beal in his latest shot across the bow at the current state of affairs in the climbing industry:

To read the offerings in magazines and online is to recognize that there are no prominent outside voices, pun intended, who are willing to rock the boat in any meaningful sense, to call into question the numerous dubious assumptions built into the marketing-focused image of the sport that is achieving dominance today.

Outside Voices from Climbing Narcissist

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DiGiulian Signs With Five Ten

Narc — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:08:37 +0000

Sasha DiGiulian ends her long relations with Mad Rock and signs with Five Ten:

I had a fabulous relationship with the people there [Mad Rock], but I came to the decision that in order to pursue my career, I had to find a shoe more compatible for my personal preferences. I found this shoe with Five Ten and I am very enthusiastic about this momentous change.

Given the year DiGiulian had and her relatioinship with Five Ten’s new parent company it’s hard to see this kind of move as a surprise.

DiGiulian Signs With Five Ten from Climbing Narcissist

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“Let Me List Some Of My Recent Accomplishments”

Narc — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 12:05:29 +0000

The then 14-year-old Chris Sharma in a 1996 letter to Prana about a potential sponsorship deal:

By sponsoring me you will be getting tons of free advertisement

Kind of like this post??

“Let Me List Some Of My Recent Accomplishments” from Climbing Narcissist

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Final Update On Mike Lyons Case

Narc — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:08:37 +0000

Consider this a final update on the most unsavory story of 2011, the story of youth climbing coach Mike Lyons sexually assaulting a girl on the team he coached. Multiple outlets including The Baltimore Sun have reported that the 31-year-old Lyons pleaded guilty to one charge and faces eight years in prison after admitting to the charges against him:

Michael J. Lyons, 31, choked back tears as Howard County prosecutor Kim Oldham told Judge Louis A. Becker III that as an instructor and the former head coach of a competitive climbing team, Lyons had sex with the girl several times this year, though he knew it was wrong.

Another coach at the same gym, 20-year-old Daniel Montague, also faced charges stemming from an incident with the same girl, however he received a suspended 18 month sentence:

Judge Richard S. Bernhardt sentenced Montague to 18 months in jail, with all of that jail time suspended. Montague will be put on probation for two years, must complete 100 hours of community service, cannot have any contact with the girl and no unsupervised contact with any female under the age of 16, and is not allowed in or near any Earth Treks facility. He will not be required to register as a sex offender.

…snip…

Bernhardt said that there is no “one size fits all” approach for cases, contrasting the case against Montague with that of Michael J. Lyons, a 31-year-old Rockville man and former head climbing coach at Earth Treks. Lyons, who also worked at the Columbia facility, pleaded guilty last week to having sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl, who was the victim in both cases and has since turned 15.

Final Update On Mike Lyons Case from Climbing Narcissist

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Adidas Group To Buy Five Ten For $25 Million

Narc — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:35:57 +0000

It’s an interesting time for the climbing industry as companies continue to consolidate or be bought outright. Last year Black Diamond and Gregory were bought by a holding company and brought together under the Black Diamond name, while today the adidas Group is announcing that they’ve agreed to purchase my favorite climbing shoe company, Five Ten, for $25 million in cash¹.

The press release seems to indicate that Five Ten will continue to operate as a separate brand, but it will be interesting to see how things develop moving forward. What do you think??

Here’s the full press release:

Herzogenaurach / Redlands, California, November 03, 2011 – The adidas Group today announced that it has signed a share purchase agreement to acquire Five Ten, a leading performance brand in outdoor action sports. The adidas Group intends to purchase the entire Five Ten business, which includes all of the issued share capital of Five Ten USA. The total purchase price is USD 25 million in cash at closing and contingent payments, which are dependent on Five Ten achieving certain performance measures over the next three years. The transaction is expected to close in the next couple of weeks.

As part of its Strategic Business Plan Route 2015, the adidas Group expects sales in the outdoor segment to exceed € 500 million by 2015 based on organic growth. Through the acquisition of Five Ten, the adidas Group will be even better positioned towards the goal to become a leading player in the outdoor market.

“We are very excited to join forces with Five Ten. Five Ten is a leading brand in the technical outdoor market and within the outdoor action sport community. Climbers, mountain bikers and other outdoor athletes around the world highly value their products,” said Rolf Reinschmidt, Senior Vice President adidas Outdoor. “Five Ten has continuously been at the forefront of innovations and shares the same passion for athletes as we do at adidas. It represents an excellent addition to the adidas Outdoor portfolio and will allow us to expand into complementary market segments. This acquisition underscores our clear commitment to the outdoors and our ambition to play a leading role in the outdoor industry going forward. I am very much looking forward to working on this journey together with Charles Cole, Founder and President of Five Ten.”

“The deal provides exciting prospects for Five Ten. Supported by the adidas Group, we can finally reach the full potential that the ‘Brand of the Brave’ has to offer,” commented Charles Cole, Founder and President of Five Ten. “Here at Five Ten, we like the philosophy of adidas’ founder Adi Dassler, with his focus on product quality and in doing whatever is necessary to give the athlete the advantage. adidas has the same principles of putting athletes and performance first that have guided Five Ten for nearly 30 years and we are thrilled to be partnering with them.”

Five Ten has been at the forefront of innovation in the technical outdoor market since the day Stealth, a revolutionary high-friction rubber compound, was created in 1985. Today, the Stealth product family includes more than half a dozen award-winning compounds that provide the highest friction to athletes in various conditions. The Five Ten Elite Team consists of some of the world’s most exciting athletes such as Dean Potter, National Geographic’s 2011 athlete of the year, JT Holmes, champion big-mountain skier and Suz Graham, the most versatile and progressive female action sports athlete in the world.

adidas is the athletic brand in the outdoors. It has a long history in innovative outdoor products including highlights such as the ‘Super Trekking’, the first light trekking shoe, being worn by climbing legend Reinhold Messner for his first Everest ascent without oxygen support in 1978. Its award-winning TERREX collection offers lightweight, technical equipment to athletes in the outdoors. The tradition of adidas founder Adi Dassler, who worked individually with athletes to make them better, continues today. adidas Outdoor has teamed up with top outdoor athletes like the Huber Brothers (Climbing, Germany), Beat Kammerlander (Climbing, Austria) and Barbara Zangerl (Climbing, Austria) as well as prestigious organizations such as Zermatt Alpin Center (Switzerland) and Ragni di Lecco (Italy).

About the adidas Group
The adidas Group is one of the global leaders within the sporting goods industry, offering a broad range of products around the core brands: adidas, Reebok, TaylorMade, Rockport and Reebok-CCM Hockey. Headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Germany, the Group has more than 46,000 employees and generated sales of € 12 billion in 2010.

About Five Ten
Five Ten is a family-owned company that is dedicated to making the best outdoor sports footwear available. It offers innovative products to athletes in categories such as climbing and mountain biking. Five Ten was founded by Charles Cole in 1985, is located in Redlands, California and employs 37 people. In 2011, annual net sales are expected to be approximately € 16 million excluding distributor business in Japan and Korea.

Update: Not mentioned in the press release is Five Ten’s intention to maintain production of their rock shoes and a few other products in the U.S.. They will also apparently be trying to bring other production back here as well.

Maybe now they can afford to waste some money and bring back the original V10s?????? ↩

Adidas Group To Buy Five Ten For $25 Million from Climbing Narcissist

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ARI Equipper Of The Year

Narc — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:02:40 +0000

ARI Equipper Of The Year from Climbing Narcissist Get the ClimbingNarc iOS app in the App Store to enjoy all this site's content on your iPhone or iPad No related posts.

ARI Equipper Of The Year from Climbing Narcissist

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AAC Launches New Guidebook Finder Tool

Narc — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:25:54 +0000

The American Alpine Club has been making a big push of late to expand their membership with a specific focus on getting more rock climbers to join. I’ve personally been on the fence about joining, but new features like their recently launched Guidebook Finder tool may help put me over the edge.

The Guidebook Finder is one more way the AAC is implementing goals set in its Five Year Strategic Plan, announced in February. One goal of the Plan is to provide tools that give climbers better access to climbing information and Library assets. The Guidebook Finder is a next step in expanding digital access to the world-class AAC Library.

The new tool gives Members an easy way to find, reserve, and check out over 600 guidebooks to 200 different climbing areas in the United States. Guidebooks (or other collection items) are mailed to AAC Members for free—up to ten books and five DVDs at a time.

While not an exhaustive collection, the AAC’s library does have a pretty wide selection of books, and the new Guidebook Finder tool is a great way peruse and check out books. If you find yourself travelling to a lot of different climbing areas and you don’t want to have to buy a book for each area, this benefit alone could make joining the AAC worth the money.

New Guidebook Finder tool from the American Alpine Club

AAC Launches New Guidebook Finder Tool from Climbing Narcissist

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News & Notes – 8/17/2011

Narc — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:31:47 +0000

News…

Jorg Verhoeven had a good week recently redpointing Hades (5.14d) at the “God Wall” in Nassereith, Austria and sending The Never Ending Story (V14, although V13 is getting mentioned a lot these days) in Magic Wood, Switzerland.
Adam Pustelnik and Nico Favresse teamed up to make the first repeat of the much-hyped multi-pitch Orbayu on the Naranjo de Bulnes formation in Picos de Europa, Spain. The climb was first done in 2009 by the Pou brother Eneko and Iker with difficulties suggested up to 5.14c/d. In this report on Black Diamond’s website Favresse and Pustelnik confirm the quality of the line but humbly suggest that most of the pitches felt easier with difficulties “only” up to 5.14a or b. Best wishes to Pustelnik as he was badly injured in a ground-fall attempting a new route after the Orbayu ascent.
According to her 8a scorecard Audrey Sniezek redpointed her first 5.13d in Porn Star at Washington’s Little Si.
I had to double-check my calendar to make sure it wasn’t April Fool’s Day after Jonathan Siegrist posted some pictures of a huge swoop of blue limestone south of Salt Lake City called The Hoop. That rock can’t be in American can it? Apparently it is, and Siegrist had made the trip there to do some work on a video project for Arc’teryx. Like a true professional he managed to throw down a repeat of Chris Sharma’s “savage, delicate and powerful” Moose Licks (5.14b) after four tries.
Sasha DiGiulian blogs about her win at the European Youth Cup in Imst, Austria.
Since breaking his back in a fall in Rifle last summer Josh Wharton won the 2011 Ouray Mixed Climbing comp, enchained three summits in Patagonia and now he’s done the FFA of the Dunn-Westbay route on the iconic Diamond of Longs Peak:

On the day of the free ascent I stumble and fall, and generally epic before sending the crux pitch on my third try of the day. Above, I fall again, cramping and fighting wet rock on numerous sections of tricky 5.12. The rope gets pulled and I manage to put it all together for the first free ascent. I’m tired for a week.

…and Notes

The Access Fund is looking for your feedback on a series of grant proposals
The 2011 Bouldering World Cup wraps up this weekend in Munich, Germany. Scheduled to compete for Team America will be Daniel Woods, Alex Puccio, Courtney Sanders, Sasha DiGiulian and Audrey Sniezek. Watch the comp live starting Friday at IFSC.tv.
Speaking of amazing looking rock
The Outdoor Retailer Trade show has come and gone. I don’t know if I’ve just been conditioned by my overlord Steve Jobs to want to run out and buy new products the second I see them or what, but I find the product cycles of the outdoor industry to be a bit frustrating. Some interesting products are being unveiled but it seems like you are lucky if they are actually released within 12 months of being unveiled. That said, for an overview of some products you might see at some point in the future check out the OR recap from Splitter Choss as well as part 1 and part 2 of DPM’s coverage.
Today is the last day to enter for a chance to win a free download of Better Than Chocoloate
On Saturday, August 27th the Rifle Climbers’ Coalition will be putting on the 2011 Rifle Rendez-S.P.E.W in conjuction with the annual clean-up day. More on how you can compete in the elaborately thought out game of S.P.E.W. here.

In southern California? Head out to Carlsbad to meet Steph Davis and Chris Sharma tonight at the SoCal premier of Chuck Fryberger’s latest movie, The Scene.

Comping up September 2-5 is the Skaha Climbing Festival in Penticton, BC, Canada. The event will have the usual array of clinics, competitions, gear demos and appearances by Will Stanhope and Beth Rodden.

News & Notes – 8/17/2011 from Climbing Narcissist

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