Mountain Hardwear, founded in 1993, is a California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 (USA) -based company that manufactures outdoor clothing, backpack

Backpack

A backpack is, in its simplest form, a cloth sack carried on one's back and secured with two straps that go over the shoulders, but there can be exceptions...

s, sleeping bag

Sleeping bag

A sleeping bag is a protective "bag" for a person to sleep in, essentially a blanket that can be closed with a zipper or similar means, and functions as a bed in situations where a bed is unavailable . Its primary purpose is to provide warmth and thermal insulation...

s, tent

Tent

A tent is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over or attached to a frame of poles or attached to a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using guy ropes tied to stakes or tent pegs...

s, and gloves. Columbia Sportswear

Columbia Sportswear

Columbia Sportswear Company is a United States company that manufactures and distributes outerwear and sportswear. It was founded in 1938 by the late Paul Lamfrom, father of present chairperson Gert Boyle. The company is headquartered in Washington County, Oregon, in an unincorporated part of the...

 purchased Mountain Hardwear in 2003. The company is headquartered in Richmond, California

Richmond, California

Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was incorporated on August 7, 1905. It is located in the East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a residential inner suburb of San Francisco, as well as the site of heavy industry, which has been...

.

History

In 1993, a small group of former employees of Sierra Designs decided to form Mountain Hardwear. In addition to working in the outdoor industry, the Mountain Hardwear founders were avid outdoors people themselves and included Jack Gilbert, Paul Kramer, Mike Wallenfels, Paige Boucher, Ingrid Harshbarger, Claranne Knittel, Roberta Hernandez, and Alan Tabor. Newly-formed Mountain Hardwear had the challenge of bringing technologically-advanced products together to form a product line.

Mountain Hardwear's first sponsored athlete, Ed Viesturs

Ed Viesturs

Edmund Viesturs, known as Ed Viesturs is one of the world's premier high-altitude mountaineers. He is one of only 26 people and the only one from the United States to have climbed all eight-thousander peaks...

, the first American to climb all fourteen 8,000 meter peaks

Eight-thousander

The eight-thousanders are the fourteen independent mountains on Earth that are more than high above sea level. They are all located in the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges in Asia....

 (8000ers), helped develop several of the company's products. Two of those original products are still in the line today: the Exposure Parka http://www.mountainhardwear.com/Product.aspx?top=1621&prod=398&cat=1660&viewAll=False and the down

Down feather

The down of birds is a layer of fine feathers found under the tougher exterior feathers. Very young birds are clad only in down. Powder down is a specialized type of down found only in a few groups of birds. Down is a fine thermal insulator and padding, used in goods such as jackets, bedding,...

-filled Sub Zero Jacket http://www.mountainhardwear.com/Product.aspx?top=1621&prod=3014&cat=1662&viewAll=False. Viesturs no longer endorses Mountain Hardwear equipment.

The company currently has over 90 people in their California office, more than 35 sales reps and associates across the United States and Europe, and representatives in Canada, Asia, South America, Australia, and New Zealand.

Retail locations

Mountain Hardwear opened its first retail location in Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

 in April 2008. A Seattle, Washington

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

 retail store opened on December 5, 2008.

Sponsored athletes

Mountain Hardwear sponsors a number of athletes. Most are alpinists, climbers, or skiers. Sponsored athletes include:

Andrew McLean, Andrew Lock

Andrew Lock

Andrew James Lock OAM is Australia’s most accomplished high altitude mountaineer. He completed his personal mountaineering project to be the first Australian to climb all fourteen "eight-thousanders" in October 2009. In all he has climbed all 14 8000m peaks, with 18 personal 8000 metre summits,...

, Bruce Cornell, Dawn Glanc, Erik Weihenmayer

Erik Weihenmayer

Erik Weihenmayer is the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, on May 25, 2001. He also completed the Seven Summits in September 2002. His story was covered in a Time article in June 2001 titled Blind to Failure...

, Ethan Pringle, Matt Moniz, Freddie Wilkinson, Jake Meyer

Jake Meyer

Jake Meyer is a British climber. He achieved fame by becoming the youngest Briton to climb Mount Everest in 2005, aged 21 years 4 months. The record is now held by Rob Gauntlett who was 19 at the time...

, Jamling Norgay , Janet Bergman, Jim McNeill, Julia Niles, Kenton Cool

Kenton Cool

Kenton Cool is an English mountaineer, alpinist and UIAGM mountain guide. Kenton is one of Britain’s leading alpine climbers with record hard first ascents and nine successful Everest summits, including leading Sir Ranulph Fiennes' 2008 and 2009 Expeditions...

, Kevin Mahoney, Mike Libecki, Neil Gresham, Robert Jasper, Ryan Boyer, Tim Emmet, Ueli Steck

History of Innovation

• 1993 Mountain Hardwear founded
• 1995 First window
  Window
  A window is a transparent or translucent opening in a wall or door that allows the passage of light and, if not closed or sealed, air and sound. Windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent material like float glass. Windows are held in place by frames, which...
  
   use in tent flies
• 1996 Pioneered Windstopper
  Windstopper
  Windstopper is a fabric laminate made by W.L. Gore & Associates. It is similar to Gore-Tex, except that it is only windproof and breathable, not waterproof...
  
   Fleece
  Polar fleece
  Polar fleece, usually referred to simply as "fleece," is a soft napped insulating synthetic fabric made from Polyethylene terephthalate or other synthetic fibers. One of the first forms was Polar Fleece created in 1979 by Malden Mills, now Polartec LLC., a new, light and strong pile fabric meant...
  
  
• 1997 Conduit waterproof/breathable membrane
• 1999 Welded technology first used in apparel
• 1999 Conical Waists (patent) on pants and rotated seams on shirts for backpacking
  Backpacking (wilderness)
  Backpacking combines the activities of hiking and camping for an overnight stay in backcountry wilderness...
  
  
• 2000 Pioneered Gore-Tex
  Gore-Tex
  Gore-Tex is a waterproof/breathable fabric, and a registered trademark of W. L. Gore and Associates. It was co-invented by Wilbert L. Gore, Rowena Taylor, and Gore's son, Robert W. Gore. Robert Gore was granted on April 27, 1976, for a porous form of polytetrafluoroethylene with a...
  
   XCR
• 2001 Partnered with Gore to develop Windstopper
  Windstopper
  Windstopper is a fabric laminate made by W.L. Gore & Associates. It is similar to Gore-Tex, except that it is only windproof and breathable, not waterproof...
  
   next-to-skin garment fabric
• 2003 First waterproof sleeping bags
• 2006 Exodus Backpack System
• 2008 Introduced 25D Hollow-core tent flysheets
• 2009 Pioneered OutDry 3D lamination technology for gloves

External links

• Official Website
• Official Blog