Company History
How it started
In 1971 Martin Hoekmans, Mirjam Vos and Bart Verbeek, three experienced
mountaineers, returned from an expedition to the Annapurna when
they decided to start their own company in climbing gear. By November
1972, a small company opened its doors in the Dutch town of Nijmegen:
K2 Extreme Gear. The experience of these three pioneers and the
knowledge and creativity of the sizeable R&D department quickly
placed K2 Extreme Gear on the map.
The early years
K2 Extreme Gear started by manufacturing carabiners, ascenders and
descenders. Even with this small range of products, K2 received
an award in 1974 for being “most innovative in the industry”.
Rapid growth characterized the first few years. New products were
gradually added to the product line and soon the first subsidiaries
were opened. In 1976 in Paris, France; in 1977 in Bolzano, Italy;
and in 1979 in Bern, Switzerland and in San Francisco, US. Soon
K2 Extreme Gear started to cater for rescue services and relatively
new disciplines such as ice climbing and canyoning as well.
A changing company
After an initial decade of enormous expansion, it was time to refocus.
It was felt throughout the company that customer satisfaction and
research & development had to be reinforced. This approach led
to closer contact with customers and created a new tradition: the
organisation of expeditions with prominent mountaineers to test
our products in extreme conditions. By the end of the eighties it
was clear that K2 had built up an excellent reputation with mountaineers
worldwide, which continues today.
Further growth
During the 1990s, K2 only enhanced its image and many expeditions
were now equipped with K2 Extreme Gear. A major happening was the
partnership in 1995 with Patagonia, an excellent manufacturer of
outdoor clothing. In 1997 K2 Extreme Gear opened an all-round expedition
and testing centre in Kathmandu (Nepal), together with Patagonia.
K2, now and in the near future
K2 has successfully made its way into the new millennium and is
now a large international company receiving positive reviews from
happy customers worldwide. In the coming years we will continue
to serve our customers to their utmost satisfaction with the high
quality, thoroughly tested products they know us for. |
