Chouinard Japan, Black Diamond, Osprey... Ask Sakashita Naoe, representative of Lost Arrow, about meeting drama-like brands that are woven from the relationship of a once-in-a-lifetime event (part 2)
Written by Yasushi Hisatomi
[Part 1] covers the new attempts set out by Lost Arrow, one of Japan's leading mountaineering equipment import agents, and [Part 2] covers the behind-the-scenes story of the founding of Lost Arrow. In this second part, we ask about various episodes hidden behind Lost Arrow's encounters with the outdoor brands he has been selling.
What we can see at the same time is the unmistakable truth that Lost Arrow's brands, which are now in the world and have grown in both quality and quantity, were not the result of being chosen solely for business purposes from the beginning, but were built up by deep bonds and trust between people who both had strong beliefs and passion for nature and mountain culture, created by chance and inevitably through deep bonds and trust.
table of contents
Chapter 3: The Crisis of Choinard Equipment and the Birth of Black Diamond
Lost Arrow was founded in September 1984, but I think Black Diamond was born five years later, at the end of November 1989.
For several years, Choinard Equipment had been in serious lawsuits. A guide and a woman climbing the rocky area unravels the rope for the toilet, and after returning, the rope reconnects to the harness. As soon as I started climbing, the harness came off, and the accident occurred when I fell to death.
Her parents sued the accompanying guide, saying that the cause of the accident was lacking guidance and attention from the guide.
However, the guide was penniless. It turns out that even if they win the lawsuit, they will not receive compensation, and then they sued the guide association to which the guide belongs, but it turns out that the guide association also has no assets.
This time, we are suing harness manufacturer Choinard Equipment, citing that the accident is caused by incomplete product instructions. As the claim for compensation exceeds the company's assets, Choinard Equipment, with the advice of a lawyer, decides to go bankrupt by itself.
Even if a company that cannot pay compensation is forced to go bankrupt, a new question arises about how to protect the lives of its employees. The factory, machinery and equipment were available, but the company requires immediate working capital to launch the new company. Peter Metcalf (one of the founders of Black Diamond), who was in charge, expanded to his employees, acquaintances, friends and business partners, recruiting investors for the new company, but he didn't reach the amount he needed, and Peter also called me. "Can you help me somehow?"
I said, "How much do I need?" Peter: "It's $260,000." I said, "There's no way there's such a huge amount of money." Peter: "I want to do something in two weeks. If you can't, everyone loses their jobs and the brand dies."
I said, "Okay," and hung up the phone.
Without thinking of any other options other than breaking through the front, I immediately visited the bank's branch manager and asked for a loan of $260,000. Naturally, he replied, "This company is going to go bankrupt soon. I think it's very reckless. We can't lend it to you."
"This takes the lives of dozens of people and the survival of my company is also dependent on each visit," he explained repeatedly. On the fourth day, he suddenly realized, "It's not good, but I'll lend you it with my authority."
I don't know why, but it was a strange turn of events. The week after the call, I was able to send the funds to Peter, and at the very last minute I managed to get the Black Diamond Company to be born. The penance of paying back this money every month at a later date will last for several years, but that's another story.
My contribution was about one-tenth of the total, so I took on the role of BD director without any compensation on my way to Narita, but it was unexpected that it would last for 20 years.
At the time, our four major overseas clients were Scarpa, Zipron (ski pole), Toua Ski and Bear (rope). If news of Choinard's bankruptcy was spreading to Europe and the transaction was suspended at their discretion, it would be irreversible, so when I called Peter to confirm whether they had contacted the companies, they said, "No one other than Bear has done so yet."
"I'll book a flight soon, so I'll meet up in Munich in three days," he tells Peter. When the two first visited Toua, they suddenly announced, "We heard the news of bankruptcy, so we have already decided on another agency."
Anyway, I headed to Zipron to go next. My old friend, President Giuseppe Pronzatei, was the champion of the European Glider Championship, and after listening to our explanation, he said, "I understand. Can you contact me when the new company starts working? I'll wait until then."
After giving a polite thank you, we headed to Scarpa. Scarpa also responded favorably and was aware that the agency rights would continue. As a result, only one company could have stopped trading. It also feels like something frustrating that Toua, who informed us of a cruel decision, went bankrupt a few years later.
Peter was the first company and apparently understood that his company was in a crisis.
When I returned to Munich, I felt truly relieved, saying, "Thank you, I'm saved." I parted ways with him as I headed to the airfield, saying, "Well, I'll go to Ventura again," at 7pm at Munich Central Station. For some reason, it's dark and almost empty in the heart of Munich. All restaurants and bars across town were closed. The only one open was McDonald's. So I ate a Mac for the second time in my life, and was surprised when I was told, "Today is Christmas Eve on the 24th. Everyone is back home. There are no other restaurants open."
This year, I had the opportunity to climb together on the rocks of Gunks, New York, with my three friends from the Choinard Equipment era, Peter, Las Croon and Kim Miller.
What became a hot topic at night was the numerous incidents that occurred when BD was born. In particular, the first January OR show was austerity, with nine men and women staying together in a hotel room, including me, Peter and Malaya. And everyone also got a lot of laughter at Mac at Munich Central Station on Eve.
Chapter 4: Meeting Lost Arrows and Outdoor Brands
Boreal
In August 1983, he met Rick Hatch, a sales manager at Choinard Equipment (in 1981) and changed to Patagonia sales. He showed me a climbing shoe called Fire. The friction was amazing, and all Yosemite climbers started wearing them. With Rick, I visited my old acquaintance Mike Graham (founder of Gramicci and creator of Portalage) and received a variety of information about Fille, including how he became the first US agency for Bolière with John Barker, his incredible friction and speed of widespread use. I immediately contacted Spain twice, but no response was received. I called Mark Valence, founding president of Wild Country, which was the importer of Fille in the UK at the time, and asked for a recommendation to the president of Bolière. He was close friends with him, climbing the rocks of Stahnezi and the Scottish ice walls together.
Perhaps the recommendations from friends from both the UK and the US made a success, and the first feeder was sent in the fall of 1983. It was amazingly sticky as it was heard. Since then, Bolière has created a golden age leading the global climbing shoe market for over a dozen years.
In the summer of 1984, I visited the headquarters and factory in Bolière, a little inland from Alicante on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. The president is Hesius Garcia. He was a small man a year older than me, but he was intelligent, energetic, honest and respectable. Since that first visit, we have been in a friendship for nearly 40 years. During this time, he was selected as the best small and medium-sized enterprise internationally active in the EU countries, and became a businessman who has been awarded twice by the King of Spain. However, he collapsed from colon cancer around the age of 70, and after the surgery he was unable to get out of bed and gradually became dementia, causing him to be rejected. A few months before his death, he met in his hospital room with the consent of his family. After I held my hand and spoke to him unilaterally for about an hour, I occasionally flushed my face, perhaps remembering my voice, and smiled, raised my nails so hard that I could bleed, and squeezed my hands back several times. Speaking to his wife, Maria and their two sons, "It seems they know it's Naoe, and they haven't seen such a statement of intent in a while."
Hesius in the past was Lynn Hill. John Barker. Wolfgang Gulich. Hirayama Yuji. These include the following, we have had heated discussions with legends from the climbing world of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s about the next generation of climbing shoes. The birthday of eldest son Hesius Jr. He founded the company in 1975, and next year marks 50 years since its release. Although the opportunity to drink the red wines of his hometown of Almantha, which Hesius boasted, has been lost, next year I hope to be able to share the memories of the late Hesius with his excellent successors, his eldest son Hesius Jr. and his second son Jorge. One of the benefits of a mountaineering equipment agency is that through work, I have made real friends around the world and have been able to date them for a long time.
Lowe alpine
In 1981, when I was invited to the British Mountaineering Council's annual meeting and gave a lecture on "On Mountain Climbing in Japan," I was in the same room as well as famous American climber Jeff Lowe. He was also invited to speak to "Climbing the Colorado Ice Wall," and while he was there he talked about climbing during his stay, he said, "I work for a company called Lowe Alpine Systems, run by my big brothers."
When we met for the first time in three years, it seems like our brothers are looking for a Japanese agency. If you're interested, why not come to the booth at ISPO (European largest sports goods exhibition)?"
They are also well-known mountaineers known as the "Three Brothers of Mike, Greg and Jeff." After Jeff's introduction, the chairman and eldest brother Mike, who is in charge of international sales, asked, "Actually, we have received applications from around 20 companies requesting agents. Would you like to participate too?" I answered "YES," and was given a homework assignment saying, "So could you write a report from Zack about the Japanese market?" At that time, I had very little knowledge of Zack, but I did my own market research and compiled the results. At the time, Lowe Alpine's backpack was by far the most popular brand in both the US and Germany.
I called the microphone and asked, "We've done the report, but I'd like to meet up and explain it in person," and headed to the headquarters of Lowe Alpine Systems, near Boulder, Colorado. They read the report, and after a few questions and answers, they received a compliment saying, "This is the best report I've ever had," and said, "I've decided on it." I thought it was okay to decide that soon, but my mountaineering background and Jeff's recommendations that I submitted at the same time may have been the deciding factor.
They said, "Let's go up to El Dorado," and climbed together using the trial comedy devised by his second brother, Greg, and parted ways with the promise of "meeting at your Tokyo office next March." President Greg is also a well-known inventor who invented the concepts of Portalage and Friends, and brought footfang and tubbler picks to the mountaineering world.
Mike then came to Japan in March and came to the office, which was a former 20 tsubo billiard venue, and seemed surprised, asking, "Are you really doing it here on your own?" But when he replied, "That's right," Mike said, "I've already decided, so it's fine." Then he asked, "By the way, when are you planning to release it?"
I was once again surprised when I replied, "I'm going to climb the four peaks of Choratze, Tauche, Amadabram and Chuoyu starting next month, so I'll be off in April and May, but I'll start in June. I'll do my best." Ten years from now, the office and warehouse will be 550 tsubo.
Meanwhile, Greg and Mike find a mysterious old map left behind by the Indians at a second-hand bookstore in Boulder, and become obsessed with finding the old gold mine site, and sell the so-established Low Alpine Systems to a British company. I heard that the sale was used to buy a large amount of heavy machinery and after years of struggling, the gold mine was unable to be found and went bankrupt.
Jeff, who has performed in abundance in the climbing world, suffered a strange disease in which the muscles in his entire body gradually become more prone to shrinking, making him difficult to walk and become a wheelchair, making it difficult to talk. I visited Jeff's house in Ogden, Utah twice to visit him with friends such as Michael Kennedy, Jim Donini and George Lowe, and he passed away a few years ago. The ups and downs of life for Mike Greg and Jeff's three Lowe brothers were indeed dynamic.
Osprey
I met Osprey at the 1988 OR show (Outdoor Retailer, the largest outdoor exhibition in the North American region). At the time, the venue was held in Reno, Nevada.
In a small booth, there were only two people, founder Mike Pfotenhauer and a female assistant. The moment I saw the backpack lined up in the booth, the shape was beautiful and its presence stood out. I remember feeling "this is fine" and then I started talking to Mike from there.
Even on the second day, I was curious about the microphone design and Zack, so I visited Osprey's booth again. I forgot how the story was going on, but the microphone asked me, "Could you give me some advice?" "I'm actually thinking of selling the company, but I want to hear your opinions." I was surprised by the consultation, but when I asked him, "Why are you making such a wonderful product?" he said, "It's fun to design a backpack, but running a company is difficult, so if possible I want to concentrate on design."
When I saw the idea that "selling a company will help you concentrate on design," I said, "I think that's probably not the case. If I bought a company, sometimes I'll accept your design, but I argued that they should make something like this, and that it's not like this, and in the end, they might not be able to create the backpack you want to make. Many people who buy a company want to make more profits, so you should stop." He then said, "I see," and decided to continue playing Osprey from there.
In fact, he has continued to ask me about selling the company several times since. The second offer was from a company I know very well. "I say I'm guaranteed my status as a designer, and I think I'll take it because it's a good offer, but what do you think?" I also responded, "I'm saying this as a friend, but I think it's better to stop. The reason is exactly the same as what I mentioned a dozen years ago, and it's a little different from what you think of Zack and this company. So I think the outcome will be the same as I mentioned before." He heard this and thought again, and chose to continue with Osprey.
The third time was an offer from a well-known outdoor manufacturer, but by chance the company was suddenly bought by another large company, and the acquisition disappeared. In the end, by maintaining the company for nearly 50 years, it was very good that Mike and Diane's ideas and senses were permeated within the company, creating a flat organization, Ospreism. Mike also went 70 years old and sold the company two years ago. Last year I stayed at his house in Colorado for two days and had the opportunity to talk about Diane about her future life.
The two live in Droworth, a small town with around 600 residents, near the reservation of the Native American Navajo tribes. In order to expand the factory, the company bought a spacesuit manufacturing factory in Gore, located in the remote Droworth area of Southwest Colorado, from Santa Cruz, a high-end California residential area, and moved to the home in 1990 with two elementary school children. The following year I was surprised when I visited the factory, but it was a village that looked like it was in an old western drama, with one bar, one hotel, one drug store, and one barber shop. That's the city center. When I opened the door to the bar, there were three customers. All of them were cool cowboys wearing spurt boots, and it felt like they had traveled back in time for over 100 years.
I remember being impressed, saying, "Both Mike and Diane are really brave."
Over ten years later, the whole family moved to Ho Chi Minh City, the Vietnam War region, and after four years of stay, they organized a local team of over 30 people, including Vietnamese-centric design factories, quality control, and material purchasing. I was impressed by Mike and Diane's decision to jump into the area, his sense of adventure, passion, and his ability to blend in with the local people.
Returning to the Navajo tribe, they needed cheap land and a large factory to produce Osprey packs, but they ended up hiring the skilled Navajo people. They all live in the Navajo Reservation, but most of the settlements are barren. They gave and forced relocated land without water and unusable land as reservations.
I want to grow vegetables or crops, but I don't have any water. The soil is also thin. So even if you plant something there, it won't grow. So to support them, Mike used the funds from selling Ospreys to dig into large creeks on the reservation, secured irrigation canals, and began breeding the crops. They are working to create a base where they can cultivate themselves in the event that they encounter a food crisis in the future and are unable to obtain food.
As with Yvon, and Doug Tompkins (founder of the North Face), American climbers and people in the outdoor industry are not sure if it's hippie ideas or Protestant ethics, but there's a spirit of contributing to society.
They certainly succeed in managing a company and establishing a brand, but I feel like they have a strong will to return the money they earned from that success to various things that are useful to society. I'm not as successful as they are, but I would definitely like to emulate that spirit. I'm getting a lot of inspiration from interacting with them.
Any brand is ultimately a "people."
What is the ultimate deciding factor for Lost Arrow to decide to date the brand? I asked at the end.
"When I was young, I used to use the product's presence and beauty as a standard, but now I'm a person.
Of course, there is a certain appeal to the products, but what's more important is the thoughts of the company's founders and managers. What kind of thinking did the founder start to create things? Is this properly reflected in the product? If there's no clear sense there's no way that the brand will last for a long time. Probably, there is something to be asked of the agents, and it won't last long unless they respond and stimulate each other, and develop mutual respect and friendship.
Naturally, many people prioritize the economy and profits in a short period of time, but long-lasting relationships ultimately end up choosing someone who has a consistent way of thinking, and to put it in an exaggeration, their way of life and outlook on life will be selected. ”
In the end
Even though these brands are now major, their roots are the innocent passion of people who are fascinated by nature, and outdoor culture has been woven through the deep connections between people who sympathize with this. I thought that this "purity" that cannot be solved by business alone is the fun and preciousness of the outdoors, an industry and culture, and the activities of the industry and culture, but after hearing the words of the representative himself about the birth of Lost Arrow and the encounters with the various brands surrounding it three times, this feeling has become a strong conviction.
At Outdoor Gearzine, we will continue to look after those who are trying to support this rich culture with deep respect and strong love, so please look forward to it.
Sakashita Naoe Profile
Born on February 6, 1947 in Hachinohe City, Aomori Prefecture. In 1970, he joined the Yamagaku Comrade Association. First ascended the North Wall of Januo in 1976. First ascended the north wall of Kanchen Junga in 1980. First ascending the north ridge of K2 in 1982. First ascended to the West Wall of Amadabram in 1985. Translated by Yvon Chouinard in 1979. In 1981, he went to the United States at the invitation of Chouinard and became friends with famous climbers. In the winter of 1982, Chouinard Japan was founded. In September 1984, Lost Arrow Co., Ltd. was established and has been the CEO to this day.
