History of the Jack Wolfskin brand
What is the whole history of the Jack Wolfskin brand? This brand was founded in 1981 by Ulrich Dausein in Germany. Ulrich Dausein was a boy scout and loved adventure. While studying at the University of Frankfurt, he sold Palestinian scarves after school at the flea market on Frankfurt's Eisernen Steg . Once he had saved up about $6,000, he started selling tents, jackets and sleeping bags out of his roommate's apartment. He advertised this unofficial "shop" in the university printing house.
Based on his sales success, he opened a SINE store. It was one of the first outdoor stores in what was then West Germany. It offered outdoor clothing and equipment imported mostly from America and Taiwan, which were difficult to find at the time. At the end of the 1970s, the outdoors was still in its infancy. This meant that there was a very limited choice of equipment for the sport on the market. Dausien tried to expand the product range: "We offer cheap equipment for tourists as well as expedition equipment for connoisseurs of the Himalayas," he wrote in an advertisement in '79.
In 1980, he took a break from business and went on an adventure trip to the Yukon in northwestern Canada. One night around a campfire with friends, he heard the howling of a pack of wolves somewhere in the distance. The shrill sound snapped him out of his thoughts and he began to imagine a wolf prowling through the snow with only fur to keep him warm. The fur, Dausien thought, was his perfect protection from the elements. It was a revelation and Dausien had a vision for the brand to make it happen. Where did the brand name "Wolfskin" come from - and "Jack"? The place they traveled to was the place where American journalist Jack London found inspiration for his famous novel The Call of the Wild.
With this vision that suddenly met him in the wilderness, Dausien returned from his trip full of energy and founded the brand Jack Wolfskin. At first the brand was only sold by SINE, but before long it was lining store shelves all over West Germany. His main goal was the performance of his products, so he put them in the hands of those who performed the most demanding activities in the most extreme climatic conditions. Mountaineer Mischa Saleki was one of his first testers, whom Dausien supported on Himalayan expeditions in exchange for his expertise. German sled dog racing champion Aleksander Lwow was next.
These joint efforts resulted in the first major technological innovations. It was thus born from the beginning of high-quality equipment for life in nature. Another motive behind Dausien's obsession with clothing performance was his concern for the environment. He wanted to keep as little impact on the planet as possible from day one. Over the next 10 years, the brand continued to expand and gain an international reputation, its paw print logo a trusted sign of German engineering quality. Jack Wolfskin has more than 40 years of experience under its belt, from a single store in Frankfurt to more than 500 stores worldwide. Dausien, the man who started it all, is long gone, but the beliefs he espoused managed to permeate society deep enough to guide its actions to this day.
The brand is characterized by three pillars – performance , availability and constant environmental protection. Currently, Jack Wolfskin is one of the leading manufacturers of outdoor equipment on the global market, based in Indstein, Germany, in the Taunus region.
