Montbell is one of those brands that doesn’t seem to do things badly – whether you’re after a super lightweight down jacket, a bulletproof hardshell or just a quirky accessory to brighten your day, Montbell will have about 13 items that fit for the job. Ever since the good folk at Outsiders started stocking the brand, we’ve been salivating over every seasonal drop that comes out, but truth be told, our knowledge of Montbell doesn’t stretch all that far beyond its introduction to the Outsiders roster in 2018.
As you’d expect of a brand that does everything so well, it has a rich and lengthy brand history in which employees have tailored these design skills to perfection, led by their company’s founder and owner, Isamu Tatsuno. So in an attempt to get an understanding of just why Montbell is so good at everything they do, we’re going to have a look at Isamu’s life story, from becoming a historic adventurer to a 77-year-old owner of one of the most innovative outdoor brands of the 21st century.
Isamu was born in 1947 and started life quite a long way from the outdoors – in post-war Osaka. Due to his geographical location but also the lasting effects of the war, Isamu’s access to outdoor activities was limited, but determined not to succumb to boring urban living, Isamu took up a fascination with the outdoors.
This fascination manifested itself through an enthusiasm for rock climbing after he managed to get his hands on a copy of the ‘Heinrich Harrer’s White Spider: The Classic Account of the Ascent of the Eiger’ which detailed Heinrich’s account of being a member of the four-man climbing team that made the first ascent of the North Face of the Eiger mountain in 1938.
Enthralled by the tales of adventure he read in Heinrich’s literature Isamu set himself two pretty sizeable tasks – to become a world-famous climber and to start a mountaineering equipment company.
Well, it didn’t take Isamu all that long to make serious headway on his tasks, as in 1969 he found himself, a 21-year-old boy, a long way away from Osaka – standing at the bottom of the Eiger.
Less than a day later he became the second Japanese person to ever have summited the Swiss face. The first to summit the face was a man called Mitsumasa Takata, who unfortunately saw his climbing partner killed in the process.
Having learnt about this tragedy Isamu vowed that on his ascent he would utilise the mantra of being ‘fast and light,’ which he adhered to, as he summited the face in a mere 21 hours. This mantra would later become the main ethos for Montbell as well as ‘function is beauty’
Although he’d pretty much already achieved his first task, after the Eiger ascent Isamu was even more determined to set about achieving the second. He was left unimpressed with the sturdiness of all but one of the brands’ gear he used, that brand was Chouinard Equipment, later to be known as Patagonia.
When the people of Japan first caught wind of Isamu’s achievement in Switzerland they were obviously very proud, but also quite confused about why someone would go to such lengths to climb a piece of rock – there was basically no climbing scene in Japan at the time.
But in 1970 that all changed when a 23-year-old Isamu opened the first rock climbing school in Japan, which saw the initial recreational climbing scene develop inside the country. Of the first group of students Isamu took in for his school, one would later become the president of Montbell.
Montbell actually ended up being founded in 1975, before starting the business Isamu was working for a small company specializing in industrial textiles such as Kevlar and Nomex, a fire-resistant material. This gave Isamu the idea to use Montbell as a vessel to challenge the materials used to create outdoor equipment at the time and look further afield.
The first Montbell product was a sleeping bag – horrified by how un-fast and light traditional down sleeping bags were when they got wet, Isamu imported a bale of DuPont HolloFil from the U.S., one of the first ever manufactured synthetic insulations. He stuffed the material into a nylon sleeping bag casing to produce a bag that was highly compressible and didn’t weigh a ton when it got wet.
The sleeping bags were a huge hit in the Japanese outdoor market and they flew out. Around the same time, Isamu had developed a second fascination, this time with all things water sports. This led Montbell to be the first company to import polyethylene kayaks to Japan, and again, they flew out.
Isamu’s new hobby was referenced largely in Montbell’s designs as they began specialising in clothing for water sports, a great example of which being their famed Aleut Ocean Anorak.
Montbell shops were cropping up across Japan faster than Isamu’s top kayaking speed which, was pretty fast – he won the third annual competition of the Kansai Wildwater Kayaking competition at 28. Montbell was beginning to become pretty profitable and this provided enough capital for Isamu to do something he had wanted to do since he climbed the Eiger…
This thing involved meeting up with a man he had developed a great respect for – Yvon Chouinard. Turns out Yvon had a great deal of respect for Isamu too and the pair came to an agreement that Montbell would stock Patagonia products, this marked the start of a lifelong friendship.
By 1990 the name Montbell had made its way across the Pacific and offices were opened in Europe and the U.S.A. to satiate the hordes of Western outdoor fanatics who were hungry for the typically stringent Japanese design cues and innovative products.
Isamu wasn’t satisfied though and in a bid to attract customers from further than just a hardcore outdoor market, Montbell opened several different semi-outdoor-related businesses, including youth hostels and even a company that specialized in freeze-dried foods, and we bet if Montbell’s other products are anything to go off, the dried apricots would be the best you’ve ever tasted.
In 2006, Montbell released one of its most innovative designs – the Superior Down Jacket, which at the time was one of the lightest down jackets money could buy. This was achieved by combining a very high 800-fill-power down with an incredibly lightweight nylon, the Superior Down jacket became a mainstay for backpackers and climbers who favoured ultralightweight kit – a prime example of Isamu’s fast and light ethos manifesting itself in Montbell’s designs.
Isamu had achieved above and beyond those two tasks he set himself as a child, and naturally after completing these, he set about doing all the right kinds of side quests, including opening an association to promote canoeing for the disabled, as well as a Montbell Club.
This club pledges member fees towards Japanese social activities such as earthquake relief. In 2011 the Montbell club had 270,000 members, but Isamu said in an interview with Outdoor Japan he wouldn’t be satisfied until it had 1,000,000, we’re not sure how many the club is at now, but we wouldn’t be surprised if it was getting pretty close to that number.
Fast-forward many fantastic garments, outdoor adventures and philanthropic achievements, Isamu has a much more relaxed life, he enjoys practising the art of traditional Japanese tea ceremony, playing the Japanese flute and lecturing in universities – a far cry away from climbing and kayaking around the globe, but given he’s now a 77-year-old man it’s probably fair enough, although in the interview with Outdoor Japan, he mentioned that he still loves kayaking and frequently gets out on the water.
From growing up in post-war Osaka, Isamu’s adventurising, business and charity work success is immeasurable. He still has an active hand in the running of Montbell and it shows through the company’s catalogue of fantastic products which all place the mantras of ‘function is beauty’ and ‘light and fast’, at the forefront of their design.
So next time you find yourself perusing the Montbell products at Outsiders Store, gawping at down-filled delicacies from the Japanese brand, take a moment to think about the story behind them and the genius that is Mr. Isamu Tastuno.
