Obermeyer

If you were a kid in the 90s, there's a decent chance you owned a suit exactly like one of these. Neon, color-blocked, built to be seen from the chairlift.

Where are our 90s kids at? Which one was you: the pink and green or the polka dots?

Klaus Obermeyer built the first Rallye in Aspen, back in the early 1960s. Mirrored lens, cut for glare, made for the mountain. In 2022 we brought it back for our 75th year, same leather side shields, same shape, still earning its keep.

Turns out that job never stopped. Same pair works just as well on a July hike as it did on a storm day.

Who else has gear that's outlasted a few ski seasons?

a few things we've decided are kinda chic.

Some views are worth waiting all summer for.

In 1964, Klaus Obermeyer tested one of the first insulated parkas, years before "technical outerwear" was even a category. He was solving one problem: how to keep someone warm and dry on the mountain without weighing them down.

That's still the question that drives everything we build. The Raze Jacket runs on HydroBlock Pro, our own waterproof-breathable membrane with fully sealed seams, so it holds up against actual weather.

70+ years later, same mission: get people outfitted and get them on the mountain.

Shop the Raze: Link in Comments 👇

Ski style has changed almost every decade since we started making it in 1947. Wool sweaters gave way to slimmer silhouettes and bolder color. Bold color gave way to the one-piece. The one-piece gave way to the technical layers we wear now.

What's stayed the same is the woman wearing it, and the reason she's on the mountain in the first place.

Swipe through 75+ years of Obermeyer women's skiwear, decade by decade. Which era's your favorite?

In the mid-80s, Obermeyer was the first to engineer something into kids' outerwear that solved a real problem for parents: gear that gets outgrown before it wears out.. Extra fabric tucked into the sleeves and pant legs, ready to let out as your kid did exactly what kids do. We called it the I-Grow system, and four decades later it's still the same idea, still doing the same job.

Two kids, two different eras, one system that never needed reinventing.

More on I-Grow: link in the comments.

Skiers in Aspen's early days dressed for a lot of things. A lift ride in 20-degree wind was not one of them.

Klaus watched his students freeze at the neck on the way up and come down stiff and uncomfortable. So he built a turtleneck collar that actually worked on the mountain. Fitted, stretchy where it needed to be, made to seal out wind instead of just looking good in a photo.

It was the same logic behind almost everything he made. Spot the problem. Build the fix. Move on to the next one.

What piece of ski gear do you actually miss from this era?

While North America is deep in patio season, ski season is still very much on at Ski Portillo Chile. South America's oldest ski resort, sitting above Laguna del Inca in the Chilean Andes, has been running since 1949.

The entire Ski & Snowboard school has been wearing Obermeyer for the past two seasons now, putting the gear through conditions that don't forgive shortcuts.

There's something fitting about how these two found each other. Portillo is a family mountain. Obermeyer is a family brand. Both got started in the late 1940s, both have spent decades putting craft first.

The full story is on the blog: https://obermeyer.com/blogs/off-piste-blog/a-partnership-forged-in-the-snow-the-growing-bond-between-ski-portillo-and-obermeyer

Anyone else daydreaming about a summer ski trip right about now?