Since the early days people have been making their own outdoor gear and selling it to mates. If you have enough mates the word goes around and hey presto you have an outdoor gear company. Things have moved on a bit. These days there is more competition and less independent shops to sell the equipment. If the few buyers there are don't like your gear then you have no hope. Well we think we have got the solution, we are a small company with big plans. We hope you like what we do.

The Tall Story

The Alps have inspired us for the last 20 years. At one time they were sandwiched between the covers of glossy coffee table books, but as we grew up and cheap flights made them more accessible than Scotland we started to explore them ourselves. Not only were they everything we had expected; the terrifying vertical walls, the bottomless crevasses and the saw toothed peaks but we also discovered a softer side, green meadows, forested hill sides, sun warmed lakes, tasty bread and cappuccinos.

Kenny got a bit carried away with the whole idea. He left his job and moved out to Italy. The rest of us stayed in the UK but with 1 foot in the Alps things could be a lot worse. Every time we make a trip out we bring something back. It started with a few bottles of wine, some baskets of cheese but then developed in to a new attitude which then filtered into our product range. Now our inspiration is to build outdoor equipment in a way that everyone can use, kit that works on all levels.

The Short Story

There was a time when we had a lot of time free, so we stumbled into the outdoors. We worked in a gear shop, saved some cash, and got ourselves kitted out. We travelled, did some routes and life was good. Then our kit started falling apart, we were no longer students and we realised the cost of replacing it. As we waited to pick up yet another x-xtra large fleece in the sales we patched up our waterproofs and wore an extra jumper in our smelly sleeping bags.

During this time we realised that the passing years had taught us something, we had the experience to create something new.

And somewhere therein lays the real story of how Alpkit.com™ was born. Born out of the passion for outdoor activity and not accepting the costs involved in getting quality kit in our sacks. Four ordinary people trying to make some thing extraordinary. And why Alpkit.com™? it's just a name.. we go to the alps, we climb, we paddle, we board, we visit our in laws.. we produce kit.. we didn't want it to be complicated.

Nick, Chunk, Jim and Kenny