Hello dear readers,
A few weeks ago we packed up the car and headed south to Friedrichshafen, Germany for the 2015 Outdoor show. It was a long trip across Europe (and even longer to get back to the house), but the effort was certainly worth it. At the show we met gym owners, route planners, climbers, people behind other climbing hold brands, equipment suppliers, distributors and more. We were delighted to see such a good atmosphere between the shot brands. One afternoon, there was even a friendly bouldering session between the stands. It was cool to see so many dedicated and talented people, all with their own distinctive shaping style.
We were pleased to see how well received our shapes were and we appreciate all the feedback and encouragement we received. It’s clear we did something right with our shapes. The simple but beautiful and functional Scandinavian style seems to attract people. We have many ideas to expand our product line and we can’t wait to release the next batch of new shapes for everyone to see.
In terms of activity, it appears that indoor climbing continues to grow as a sport. We’ve heard a lot about new climbing gym projects and expansions and we wish all gym owners good luck with their projects. It’s great to see that the sport is doing well.
In some ways, the show provided more questions than answers, but it also gave us confidence that we are on the right track. We look forward to all new opportunities with you!
Our road trip went:
- 5600 km traveled
- 69 hours of driving
- 8 countries
- 3 ferries
- 11 days away from home
- Over 1,000 songs streamed from Spotify
- Lots of beer and bratwurst!
We would like to thank Finnish mobile data plans with unlimited data, Youtube for entertainment choices, Spotify for tunes, TomTom for the adventurous route (proposed shortcut via Kaliningrad), Germany for Autobahn, Ramstein, Kraftwerk and Lena, the city of Kaunas in Lithuania for making us feel like millionaires, Latvia and Estonia are enjoying a leisurely pace (road works) and finally, everyone who visited us at our stand!
Cheers,
The Kitka team