We’ve been somewhat inspired by the La Sportiva x Picture Organic Clothing collab to do a bit more research on the history of the Italian footwear connoisseurs. Amidst all the hype that’s been around outdoor clobber in recent years, La Sportiva have done a pretty good job keeping a low-profile, and we respect that. Before their partnership with Picture, they’d only done one other collab. What this says to us is that they’ve been locked in, focusing on producing the best climbing gear possible.
If you speak to any serious climber about their favourite climbing shoes, there’s a 50% chance they’ll mention a La Sportiva model. The other 50% are likely to mention Scarpa. In a way of getting our heads round why La Sportiva is one of the most respected climbing brands, we’re going to have a quick look at the brand history alongside some nice images.
It all started in 1928, when founder Narciso Delladio was hand-crafting wooden leather boots for the lumber-jacks and farmers of the Dolomites. The boots were such a hit with the agricultural communities that during the Second World War, Delladio was asked to produce mountain boots for the Italian military.
The boots were liked by the soldiers, but the brand lay relatively dormant until the ’50s, when Narciso’s son, Francisco, vowed to take La Sportiva into the skiwear market.
However, the journey into producing ski boots was short-lived for the brand, as in the ’70s plastic boots were introduced. Making things from plastic isn’t the Italian way and therefore the La Sportiva lads couldn’t meet the demand to produce plastic boots, they also couldn’t meet the demand for leather ski boots though, as no one wanted them now far cheaper plastic alternatives were available. It wasn’t all bad though as in 1970 La Sportiva kitted out a load of Austrians to tackle Lhotse in their revered Alta Quota boots.
Not left fully satisfied with this sizeable achievement the boys were still scratching their heads about where to take the brand next. Francesco and his sons, who now also worked for the company, went in search of a new market to take themselves into and stumbled across the activity of rock climbing.
Obviously people have been climbing rocks since the dawn of time, but during the late ’70s and early ’80s rock climbing was beginning to become recognised as a hobby for the average person, rather than just for those with kamikaze tendencies.
La Sportiva jumped head-first into the climbing market and produced their first climbing shoe, The Mariacher, which featured the incredibly ’80s paint job of bright yellow and purple. It’s easy to laugh at now, but the distinctive colours quickly became synonymous with quality in the climbing world, and it wasn’t long before La Sportiva was considered to be one of the industry big boys.
The brand continued to grow rapidly during the ’80s in stone-touching circles, fuelled by the release of the first ever, modern slipper style of climbing shoe, which became immensely popular. You’ve only got to look at the number of photographs showing people clowning around on rocks wearing purple and yellow footwear from that era to understand the reach of the brand.
In 1985 La Sportiva weren’t happy with just designing footwear for climbers whilst on the rock, they wanted to design footwear to help climbers approach the rock. This led to them designing their first approach shoe, the Boulder-X, which is still in production today, with very minor changes.
The introduction of indoor climbing gyms in the late ’90s and early 2000s only served to increase La Sportiva’s success, and properly presented them to the world market for the first time. This led the brand to invest heavily in production and pretty soon La Sportiva was a name that could be spotted in climbing gyms across the globe.
The brand continued to design shoes for pretty much every type of climbing available, including the TC Pro in 2010, that Alex Honnold wore during his death-defying free solo ascent of El Capitan, perhaps the most impressive climbing feat of the modern day. If someone is trusting a pair of shoes when they’re 2000ft high on a vertical stone wall without any ropes, you know they’re the best of the best.
Fast-forwarding to the present day and La Sportiva are still producing many of their same cult models, alongside mountaineering boots and outdoor gear for most activities. Given the rise of climbing within traditionally fashion-motivated communities, we at Proper wonder if it won’t be long until we see people turning up to business meetings in bright purple and yellow climbing shoes. Probably not, but we wouldn’t be surprised if La Sportiva branding begins to pop up more and more in the Northern Quarter.
Now that we’re finished boring you about the old stuff, here’s some of our favourite new stuff up for grabs from Outsiders Store:
