1922 the Company KOMPERDELL was founded in Vienna, the company manufactured Hiking- resp. Walking- and Billiard Poles of hazelnut wood. In those days Hiking-resp. Ski-Poles were still something exotic, but this was to change fast. The small turnery in Vienna developed into an enterprise with fifty employees in 1928 already and very soon belonged to the leading producers of Skipoles.

The 1st Bamboo poles conquered the market and replaced the Hazelnut poles which had been used so far.

After the Second World War the approach to leisure time activities changed, sports and activities outdoors became important. People could move around more easily and had money to spend thanks to the economic boom of these years. And KOMPERDELL was able to benefit too from these circumstances. In 1948 the first metal poles were manufactured.

Toni Sailer, “the black Blitz from Kitz” is the big winner at the Olympics in Cortina. He won Gold medals in the disciplines Downhill, Giant Slalom and Slalom, using KOMPERDELL stainless- steel ski poles. And he remained close to KOMPERDELL his whole life, as the passionate golfer he was, he used KOMPERDELL golf-clubs.

The production-output increased continuously and for the first time more than 150.000 pair of poles were produced per year. The light-weight Aluminium became important and the stainless steel- and wooden poles were replaced by much lighter Aluminium ones.

The Austrian success story continued: Franz Klammer won the Gold Medal in Downhill Racing at the 1976 Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck – also using KOMPERDELL poles. Having won 25 downhill races he is the most successful downhill skier in World-cup history, followed by Peter Müller (Switzerland) with 19 victories. He has won all classical downhill races, the Hahnenkamm race in Kitzbühel 4 times, the Lauberhorn race in Wengen 3 times and at the Saslong in Val Gardena 4 times. 1975 he won in Wengen with a record lead of 3.6 sec.

A close and satisfying cooperation with all athletes under contract always has been and will be KOMPERDELL’S main concern, no matter if the athlete is in the centre of attention or a little bit off the beaten track. The feedback we get inspires our efforts and improves our products. Many well-known personalities of the ski- and mountaineering scene are forever members of our “Hall of Fame”.

These were the years of Aerobic and Breakdance, Steffie Graf and Boris Becker, Michael Jackson and Nena, leather ties, mesh shirts, anti-nuclear-power-movement and Tschernobyl. KOMPERDELL is trendy and rocks the market with their neon-coloured poles. Customers love those loud poles which are constantly sold out. But KOMPERDELL does not neglect technology, their team works hard and new developments are made. Telescopic poles are produced and research is done as to further develop their performance. New materials and innovative techniques are tested. KOMPERDELL’S first shock absorbing, “anti-shock” poles are hi-lighted in newspaper articles as “a gag”.

Annemarie Moser-Pröll returns with Gold she won with KOMPERDELL poles from the Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid. Already in the 60-ies and 70-ies KOMPERDELL has been exclusive supplier of the Austrian Skipool.

The Roiser family (owners of Camaro company) takes over KOMPERDELL. Working exclusively in water-sports, the successful company was looking for a second source of income and the possibility to use the synergetic effects of having a summer- and winter business under one roof. The pole-production was transferred to the beautiful Salzkammergut, to St. Lorenz near the Mondsee – where the traditional family business is still situated today. The production was substantially modernized and re-organized.
As the daily newspaper “KURIER” wrote in 1983 – KOMPERDELL will be the leader on the international market when it comes to technology in the field of ski- and telescopic poles. newspaper article Kurier 1983

Starting the company in 1968 was due to the passion of Erich Roiser for water sports. At the start they manufactured in a small building in Mondsee. After 3 years already – in 1971 – the company Camaro had to move to a rebuilt farmhouse. On 400 m2 they started serial production with 5 members in the team. Only 8 years later, in 1979, CAMARO had to move into substantially larger buildings – a production site with connected office building - where the company still operates today, in St. Lorenz on the Mondsee. As the company grows so does the staff and additions are made to the existing buildings. An important milestone for the further development of the company was in 1983 with taking over KOMPERDELL. Today the company employs approx. 200 people and produces more than 800.000 pair of poles.

Cell phones became more and more popular, the first 4-colour copier came on the market and Windows started to conquer the world with its software systems 3.0 and 95. KOMPERDELL too invested much time, money and manpower into the research for new materials and technologies. The market was ready now for excellent products and to pay a fair price for them– business boomed. Extra light poles made of the new material Carbon, new efficient spring systems (Anti-shock ON/OFF), exclusive grip concepts (Contour Grip) conquer the market. KOMPERDELL products are well accepted internationally and inspire the markets. Always try to be one step ahead – this is KOMPERDELL’S maxim.

Thomas Roiser brings new verve to the company when he takes over the management of Camaro/KOMPERDELL in 1997. Having grown up in a family of sports enthusiasts for whom new developments and business were important, he got to know - at a young age already - sports and its possibilities in business. Fully motivated and with a team of young sport-enthusiastic members he led the company successfully into the future and developed the international and overseas business.newspaper article company profile Alpenverein 1998

Carving and Snowboarding became trendy, winters got warmer and the pessimists of the industry predicted the near end of the skipole. Technologies and materials in the field of Touring- and Trekking poles were continuously improved and research was promoted. Neoprene-padded straps, contour grips (an invention made by KOMPERDELL) and Carbon poles were now considered standard equipment. The same year KOMPERDELL starts to develop protectors, at first for motorsports only. A few years later also winter-sports discovered the importance of safety and protectors as a consequence.

KOMPERDELL goes online – at that time not an obvious undertaking – the company realized the trend and presented their products in the world-wide web. The development of ever lighter materials for the poles was a major concern. Extra light carbon tubes, innovative grip materials and revolutionary shock-absorbing systems increased the comfort of KOMPERDELL products.

In the new millenium KOMPERDELL set new benchmarks with telescopic poles made of Titanal.HF – the highest-density aluminium alloy ever existing. Together with Austrian partner companies KOMPERDELL pursued raw material research. Thanks to this joint venture we succeeded for the first time to produce Titanal.HF in form of welded tubes. The same year KOMPERDELL started to produce protectors in cooperation with KTM - the leading producer of off-road motorbikes -whose riders put the protectors to a veritable test.

Nordic Walking, the new fitness-wave which started in Scandinavia is booming. KOMPERDELL not only has the right poles for it, but also offers functional Nordic-Walking wear made of Power Sensitive Material.

KOMPERDELL presents ladies’ poles, because they realize that women have special demands. Why carry needless weights and waste energy, when KOMPERDELL offers the lighter, slimmer and more compact solution. Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner too – one of the most successful lady mountaineers – is enthusiastic and convinced by the KOMPERDELL Teleskopic poles and joins the KOMPERDELL PRO-TEAM

KOMPERDELL develops the hardest carbon pole so far. It withstands strain up to 200 kg, is extra stiff, robust, resistant and - light. In a newly developed production method the carbon fibres are arranged differently, this makes the material harder but still light. KOMPERDELL protectors become more and more popular, they win at several tests and the ladies’ vest is nominated for the Volvo-Sports DESIGN AWARD.

KOMPERDELL presents a world novelty- seamless bonding gloves. A completely new production method, SEAMLESS BONDING – a special process of gluing and welding - joins the individual parts of a glove without one single stitch. The enormous advantage of this method is the non-existence of pressure marks -caused by stitching – and the elasticity of the seams.

On May 1st 2008 at noon, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner reaches the peak of the Dhaulagiri (8.167m). She is the first woman who has conquered 11 of the 14 - 8.000m peaks without using artificial oxygen. KOMPERDELL is very proud to have such an outstanding athlete on their team.

XA-10 UNDERWEAR is introduced to the market as totally new product-line for KOMPERDELL. Protectors, the Seamless Gloves and now the underwear are produced by sister-company CAMARO. This combination of a clothing industry with a hardware production company leads to successful synergies. Different awards confirm the success and the top quality of the products. In 2009, KOMPERDELL has more than 3.000 dealers as regular customers.

AND KOMPERDELL is still on the ball, proven systems are optimized, new designs created and new ingenious detail-solutions are developed. The Sabre Grip, the perfect connection between hand and pole, the slope-style-poles, cool – bold and colourful, the Power-lock II adjusting system- increasing the holding power by 90%- as well as new especially safe and comfortable children protectors and much more.

On March 3rd, at the HEADQUARTERS of KOMPERDELL in Mondsee, a special Summit Meeting took place. Top mountaineers like the extreme climbers Alex and Thomas Huber, as well as the extreme mountaineers Ralf Dujmovits, Viki Groselj and Hans Kammerlander accepted the invitation in order to give interviews and information to the representatives of the media and to members of the company. review summit meeting
On Tuesday, the 23rd of August 2011, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner reaches the peak of the K2 (8.611meter). It took several attempts, but with this Gerlinde is the first woman to have conquered all 14 – 8.000m peaks of the earth – without using artificial oxygen..

This year KOMPERDELL presents the Expedition Series. Up to now Trekking-poles have not been as light, foldable to such a small unit but still as stable as the Expedition-Series. They are the new top companions of our athletes at their expeditions. Success stays with us - at a readers’ choice done by Ski Magazine, the new Cross2 protector is awarded the Innovation Price 2012.

Together with our partner AMICAL alpin we created a way supporting the „real heroes of the mountains” – the sherpas in Nepal. Today most mountaineers trust their services and so we want to support them! The idea started during a visit of our top athletes Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner and Ralf Dujmovits in our premises in Austria. Both have been in our team for more than a decade and support several funding projects in Nepal as building schools and hospitals. Gerlinde and Ralf introduced us to AMICAL alpin and that is how it all got started: more

From the hazel-nut and bamboo pole of the 30-ies, the stainless-steel tube of the 50-ies, the high density aluminium pole of the 70-ies and 80-ies to the new materials like Titanal.HF and the light and breakproof carbon tube of today. Ever since the foundation of the company, more than 80 years ago, 100% of all KOMPERDELL poles have been produced in Austria in order to secure top quality and consistency.