ROCKon

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A QUIET REVOLUTIONbegan in the world of rock

climbing in the fall of 1982. John Bachar

laced on his first pair of Firé rock shoes given to him by Boreal’s

Miguel Angel Gallego. Although the shoe itself was nothing

fancy, the outsole was made of a phenomenally sticky rub-

ber. The following spring, Bachar and business partner Mike

Graham imported 265 pairs of the off-white leather shoes

from Spain and began selling them in the Yosemite Moun-

tain Shop in California’s Yosemite Valley. Word of mouth

spread like wildfire and before the shop opened that fateful

morning, a long line of climbers had formed and within two

hours, every pair had sold.

No product since the introduction of Wild Country’s spring-loadedcamming devices in 1978 had created such a sea of change in rock climbing.By the spring of 1984, it seemed as if virtually every climber in the UnitedStates either owned a pair of Firés or was planning to buy them. The otherrock shoes on the market were quickly rendered obsolete and manufac-turers scrambled to introduce their own sticky rubber shoes.

Since then, we have witnessed the rise and fall of numerous rock shoebrands. The most recognized brand may be Boreal, which owned a

THE

ROCK SHOE

MARKET

CONTINUES TO

evolve

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significant share of the U.S. marketup until the late ’90s. Today, Boreal,still a leading player in the

European climbing scene, is now littlemore than a footnote in the United Stateswith no U.S. distributor and only a fewretailers importing directly from Spain—consumer demand is a miniscule fractionof the glory days.

Some failures were ill-consideredventures by shoe companies that left manypeople wondering, “What were theythinking?” Merrell and Reebok’s foraysinto rock shoe manufacturing quicklycome to mind. The most recent to pull theplug was Montrail, which notified retailerson March 2, 2007, that its short-lived rockshoe experiment was ending—the newsof which was met with a collective yawn.

MARKET PLAYERSMost in the climbing industry agree thatthe bulk of the North American rock shoemarket continues to be ruled by Five Ten,La Sportiva and Mad Rock. While theLeisure Trends Group tracks outdoorindustry sales of rock shoes, there is noclear consensus on which brand domi-

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c l i m b i n g

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nates and each company has its own spinon the numbers.

Charles Cole, president of Five Ten, toldGearTrends®, “Our intelligence indicatesthat while Five Ten and Sportiva are stilljousting for the No. 1 position, Mad Rockhas dropped drastically in popularity inmuch of the U.S.”

Joe Garland, president of Mad Rock,countered that his brand “is still the largestin terms of sales in North America.”However, he did acknowledge that,“growth was slower in 2006. Our salesoffice move, warehouse move and staffchanges probably hurt us more than anyparticular competitor.” Insiders tell us thatboth the New England and PacificNorthwest markets have slowed consid-erably for the company.

Jonathan Lantz, marketing director forLa Sportiva, said that the Italian-ownedcompany dominates in the high-end rockshoe market. “We have our Chinese-madeprice-point shoes to be competitive, butour premium models, such as the newSolution, are what get the attention.Ultimately, consumers who are firsttempted by low price will upgrade for betterperformance and quality.”

While these major players are prima-rily watching each other, other contenderscould step up and become more of a factor.In particular, Scarpa—long known for highquality—has recently revamped its rockshoe line with technology improvements.Additionally, the brand has leverage withoutdoor specialty shops that carry its back-country ski boots. And now that Koflachhas abandoned the plastic mountaineeringboot market, Scarpa is even more impor-tant to climbing shops. (Asolo and Lowaare the only other brands that offer plasticclimbing boots.)

Mammut is another brand with goodquality rock shoes, an extensive productline and serious marketing dollars.Specialty shops have incentives to carryMammut rock shoes because of all theother gear and clothing Mammut offers.

For specialty retailers seeking brandsto set themselves apart, Acopa is one lineof high performance rock shoes that isn’tfound in big-box stores. Designed by JohnBachar, this niche company offers qualityshoes at reasonable prices.

Among the other players in North

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Many of you have been asking for it, and SNEWS® hasdelivered—RSS feed capability for all of ourcontent. Now, you can be in-the-know aboutindustry events, news, stories and more, as soonas the story goes live. Yet another reason SNEWS®

is your outdoor industry news leader. To learn more, goto www.snewsnet.com/rss.

DO YOU RSS? WE DO!

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America are Evolv and Red Chili, both ofwhich have loyal adherents. Since Evolv issold in most REI stores, the shoes havebecome more common at crags and gymsaround the country. Red Chili is distributedby Excalibur, which also distributes DMMand Wild Country climbing gear, so mostclimbing shops have access to the line.

TREND WATCHWhile $80 rock shoes are still common—and the typical purchase price of first-timeclimbers—GearTrends® is hearing that themarket has swung back toward shoes in the$120 area. Reportedly, experienced climberswho were tempted by shoes under $100 havebeen disappointed in either performance ordurability. As one industry pundit put it,“Everybody tries the cheap shoes…once.”

While the influx of inexpensive Asian-made shoes and discount Internet saleschanged the market in a profound way,neither killed rock shoe sales at thespecialty retail level as some had feared.

One trend that several companiesmentioned to GearTrends® in interviewsis a resurgence in more comfortable shoesfor trad climbing. According to Cole atFive Ten, “We are seeing surprisinglystrong sales of the Piton—a multi-pitchshoe designed for cracks. We alwayswondered if there’d be a swing of thependulum back to trad climbing. … It surelooks (from shoe sale numbers) as ifpeople are gearing up for crack climbingagain.” La Sportiva’s Lantz told us heagreed that traditional shoes are doingwell, pointing out that its Mythoscontinues to be one of its most popularshoes even after 15 years on the market.

Women’s rock shoes are continuing togrow in popularity as well. Most compa-nies report that they are still seeing steadysales increases.

While there have been innumerableincremental improvements in rockclimbing gear, the introduction of the Firérock shoe 25 years ago has proven to bethe last true revolution. Everyonecontinues to hope for a really fresh productto come along that will shake up the sport.But, in the meantime, the rock shoemarket continues to evolve.

» To read all the back issues of GearTrends®,go to www.geartrends.com/magazines. R

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