“I remember that specific ski tour when I started to think about a collection that is dedicated to active women who love the mountains as much as I do, but who are at the same time seeking for something more special… more feminine… with more attention for their needs.” With this snow memory, the founder of LaMunt, Ruth Oberrauch, unknowingly began to write the beginning of the new brand for the female perspective of the mountains. But the crucial moment came a few weeks later when, on a weekend in snow covered mountains with friends, she discussed and tested her thoughts with them. It was this very exchange between women that gave birth to LaMunt, the premium mountain sports brand created by women for women. We want to give a voice to their specific needs and be an inspiration them to go into the mountains in their own ways. These conversations and discussions have become part of our DNA, LaMunt doesn’t exist without these two components.
For this reason, it was natural for us to create conscious moments of sharing and exchanging thoughts with other women, thus this is how our LaMunt Crew came alive. It’s a group of like-minded women from different backgrounds that are united by their passion for the mountains and being outdoors – even if they live the mountains in very different ways. They are women who inspire us. They an important element in our brand development, they are sparing partners and a point of orientation – testing our products beforehand, giving us feedback, thinking how to support us and give new impulses. They are the enlarged LaMunt team, so that we drive our product decisions based on women‘s real needs. Different voices matter to us for the best product experience.
We meet with the LaMunt Crew at least twice a year, to share our experiences in the mountains but also to work on new ideas, brainstorm together for our product development and inspire each other.
Our 'By women for women' approach is based on 4 pillars:
ENCOURAGEMENT for each other to thrive & cheer each other on. The mountain is for everyone who loves, respects and likes to discover it in their own ways. It is our goal that all the mountain loving women can feel at their best in this magical place. Empowering others helps us also empower ourselves, as we see so much strength in the women around us and in our LaMunt Crew. Our objective: We want to give women the mountain gear to feel at ease, give them a voice and be an inspiration to show that the female perspective of the mountains is possible.
LISTENING, you inspire us! It is incredible to hear the Crew members different stories, where they came from, how they started going into the mountains, their greatest adventures and plans for tours. We simply cannot do what we do without your input and experiences. We look every day forward to learn more about your needs, expectations, challenging issues and biggest frustrations with the outdoor clothing you use to go into the mountains. We want to get to know your views and learn about your mountain me-time. Your honest feedback, your spark, your unique voice is needed to create a great product experience.
CO-CREATION, an active exchange with our LaMunt Crew is important for us, that is why we create events where we can connect and share magic moments. They are a mix of active hiking and exploring what the mountains mean to us and product development workshops. This winter we had the opportunity to get together for such a workshop in the Starkenfeld Hut in South Tyrol, Italy. Coming together is always a huge joy as the LaMunt Crew members and our team come from different corners – the big city, mountains and everything in between. The hike up to the hut gave us time to catch up on everything and brought up the first exchange about the new FW22 winter products and their qualities. Those conversations continued as we immersed in an extensive workshop that we broke up in different groups: fit solutions & wearing comfort, pockets (yes, it was a requested topic!), colours and product communication. The atmosphere gave room for collaborative work sessions to improve our samples, articulate ideas, create new concepts for the future, and understand what the current needs are. We were curious to hear about all the LaMunt Crew’s activities in the mountains, their way of experiencing high altitude, what they appreciate about the alpine environment, the colours they would like to wear, but also technical details such as the best size & fit and position for their pockets or where they notice a greater use of their equipment. We want to create a space to share experiences and knowledge about products and the mountains (both good and bad), where every opinion and thought is welcome. All these thoughts will be taken into consideration in the development of our further collections.
TESTING our samples as the LaMunt Crew gets products even before they arrive in store so that we can listen to their feedback and adjust last things for the production. For us as a team it is super interesting to learn what each Crew member uses as criteria compared to ours, what they look into and their different (sometimes unexpected) use cases. They test our gear on a variety of levels and that makes the feedback so valuable.
From these first few months of the brand's inception and the weekends spent with our LaMunt Crew, we have taken home and into our hearts lessons, but above all is the feeling that we are going in the right direction – the involvement of a diverse group of women is key for us and we look forward to continuing to pursue our goal: making sure you feel completely at ease while going into the mountains to explore them and yourself
