Red Chili

Since its inception in 1996, RED CHILI has stood for climbing shoes by climbers for climbers. Founders Stefan Glowacz and Uwe Hofstädter had been on the road as a rope team for a long time and had a common complaint: their climbing shoes! At that time they were either just tight and painful to wear or had a bad fit. After a longer tour on El Cap in the Yosemite Valley the topic came up again and they started to dream about the perfect climbing shoe. Their first crazy thoughts turned into rough ideas and at some point the decision was made – they would simply make their own climbing shoes! At first this sounded like an obvious conclusion, as both had already suffered for hours in various climbing slippers on walls around the world and at competi­tions and knew what they wanted to do better. However, incorporating these experiences into the development was and still is a chal­lenge – after all, their climbing shoes had to meet the exact needs of climbers. This basic idea remains the same today: "only climbers know what climbers need!" Since then there has been a lot of experi­menting, developing, testing, discarding, improving, drinking wine, cursing, celebrating and climbing. It has been a long and instruc­tive journey from the first designs in Uwe's garage to today's models, which are made in the modern shoe workshop in Isny im Allgäu! Feedback from athletes and climbers has always been very important for us, as it is now. A lot is happening in the climbing scene. New disciplines and specializations create new demands. We respond to these new demands with our technical know-how as well as inno­vative techniques and materials. We can react quickly to changes because our development takes place on site and is imple­mented in our own workshop. Being so close keeps us flexible and we can quickly and easily try out and implement new ideas. We are committed to offering products that are clearly developed by climbers for climbers. In our daily business this means constantly working on fresh ideas and occasionally breaking with convention. At the same time, our in-house design and development ensures that the quality is right. And somewhere in between we test and climb in our shoes ourselves. Because we are all enthusiastic climbers and boulderers... and you can notice it! Regardless whether you meet us in the climbing gym or at the crag, have us on the phone or hold our products in your hand.