Five Ten

Yep, here's my obligatory "five ten just got bought by some German bitches" post. As most of you already know I'm sure, Brian is on the ball with the big news and is letting everyone know that Five Ten was bought by Adidas.

I'm always enamored with news like this. Always. I find this side of the industry super interesting. What I love the most about it is the guaranteed reaction from everyone in the climbing industry:

"lame...no more 5.10s for me"
"Sell outs!!!!"
"Booooo! The 1% strikes again!"
"I love my 5 10s, this is horrendous. I wont wear anything made by Adidas!"
"the consolidation of the industry continues. long live the small independent brands!"
"Before you know it, we'll be seeing 5.10 in Walmart similar to when The North Face was bought by a publicly traded company. It is now all about the bottom line for 5.10, which will most likely (unfortunately) lead to it's downfall. Baaaad move, guys."
"obviously they don't understand the customer. nike will take over lasportiva next then it will be LA sportiva."

All of the above quotes were taken off of deadpoints bookface wall. It happens whenever any company is bought by another, in any industry. It happened to Gregory/BD in the exact same way.

And what's the takeaway from Gregory/BD nearly two years after the fact? All the Gregory reps are still Gregory Reps. The offices moved to Salt Lake. Both companies are posting record growth and are putting out some of their most innovative and useful product in years.

That said, my first thought was similar to the sentiments above. It's always worrysome so see your favorite company go from being small, family owned and independent, to being owned by a multi billion dollar conglomerate.

I hope that in the end things will work out and nothing major will change. I hope that this will allow 5.10 to have better processes and better sourcing abilities. Above all, I hope this allows them to have more innovative product at a wider range of sizes.

And yes Brian, they should bring back the original V10.