Klaus Obermeyer is 106 Years old today and is still as passionate about the outdoors and skiing as he was when he was 3. Mountain Town Magazine wrote about him in 2013, soon after we first began publishing our magazine. It is amazing to think I wore Obermeyere when I was a teenager and my kids all had Obermeyer winter kits when they were young.

Here is the article we produced, that chronicles many of his achievements. Written by Sydney Fox Truitt, it is a fascinating read!

Klaus Obermeyer has been passionate about skiing for over 80 years despite the fact that when he began skiing there were no chairlifts in Europe, there was no insulation for outerwear, and no effective sunscreen. At 94 years old the ski industry leader joked that he only felt 92 and he skis every day to make sure he doesn’t forget how since as you know it’s easily to forget things as you age.

German-born Obermeyer worked as an aeronautical engineer for Dornier and Messerschmitt during World War II but found himself running a ski school for American officers on top of the Neblehorn in Oberstdorf, Germany immediately following the war. “I think the war brought the people of Germany and the USA closer by having the chance to get to know each other ski together and sharing the beauty of nature after the war was over”, Obermeyer says with his typical humor. Soon after he fell over and when he got up he was in Aspen… as his version of the Story goes. He began teaching skiing with his friend, Friedl Pfeifer who had recently opened the Aspen Ski School.

Obermeyer wanted to share his passion for the sport he enjoyed so deeply, yet he often found that his clients became cold and quit. This left him without a paycheck. He needed to find a solution to keep a roof over his head, so he began brainstorming and soon spent his nights in his attic cutting up the down comforter his mother sent along with him, (because any continent with North in its name must be frigid) to make the first insulated jacket. He wore it to work where he stayed warm and comfortable all day. His students quickly began to offer to buy the jacket right off his back.

 

It was time to begin manufacturing the jacket. This proved to be fairly difficult as he quickly found that no one in the market was making insulation. The simplest solution was right under his feet and he decided to sweep up the cast off material from the floor and stuff the jackets. All of the insulation fell to the bottom, it wasn’t long before they were sewing seams throughout the garment to keep insulation in place and in 1948 the first insulated jacket came to market under the name Sport Obermeyer.

 

His list of innovations did not stop there. Throughout his life he has had a hand in developing or improving dual construction ski boots, high altitude sunscreen, ski sweaters, ergonomically shaped gloves, turtle necks and zip turtlenecks, flow boots, quilted parkas, mirrored sunglasses, nylon wind shirts, the boot fit press, stretch ski pants, and two prong ski breaks to name just a few. Klaus Obermeyer has been integral in shaping the ski industries as we know it today as he says the ski industry was in its infant stages when he became a part of it so it’s easy to be an innovator, yet it was as creative mind, engineering background, and willingness to find a way, no matter the obstacles that rocketed him to the Pinnacle of the ski industry. Add in his ever-present humor and he found the ultimate combination for success.

Obermeyer’s resourcefulness came from a childhood spent on his family farm in southern Germany near the Austrian border. Nothing on the farm was wasted, from crops grown on their land, to the warmth from the animals, which they used to heat their house by building the house on top of the barn. They insured the environmental circle was always complete, because if it was broken, each element of the circle suffered – from the animals, to the crops, to the humans who relied on both for sustenance. When Obermeyer built Sport Obermeyer headquarters in Aspen, Colorado in 1980, he stayed true to his resourceful nature. The building not only used renewable resources for power, but aimed to reduce overall energy usage. The south side of the building is a Trombe Wall which uses glass to trap ultraviolet waves and then transmit the heat into the building slowly heating 60% of the building. This wall also fully heats the indoor lap pool which is always open to employees.

Additionally, the company built a hydroelectric plant on an existing dam near Durango which makes electricity for about 5,000 homes. Klaus’s overarching philosophy is to make efforts as a community to respect and preserve this Earth that we live on. With this as a guiding principle and his ever forward thinking personality he has remained at the top of the ski industry for over 75 years. So get out there and enjoy the sun sparkling on the snow the laughter from the chairlift and maybe catch a little air to experience one of class’s favorite feelings, zero-g, even if just for a second and, and classes words slow down sometimes and look at the beautiful landscape maybe you can find a rabbit or weasel jumping around just enjoy the fact that you are out there.

 

As seen in Mountain Town Magazine’s Winter 2013/14 Issue.

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