Black Diamond Equipment
Black Diamond Equipment’s heritage goes back to 1957, when we started selling hand forged climbing gear from the trunk of a car in the Valley. Six decades later, the Black Diamond brand is a global Outdoor Industry leader—known for engineering and manufacturing the world's best climbing, skiing and trekking equipment. With our global sales, marketing and manufacturing headquarters located at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains in Salt Lake City, Utah, we are always looking for highly talented and self-motivated people that share our love for chasing adventurous outdoor pursuits, as well as building the absolute best gear to get you there. Learn more about Black Diamond Equipment work opportunities here: https://blackdiamondequipment.com/en_US/careers.htmlwww.blackdiamondequipment.com
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Search complete. 11 mentions across 5 episodes found for "Black Diamond Equipment".
Sep 7, 2026
Eoin ComerfordHOST
We just have a seasonal promotional business here and brands are on board with doing those promotions.
Eoin ComerfordHOST
So At an overall brand level, who are some of the biggest improvers and maybe who are some of the people who moved backwards? Well, our biggest net gain year over year, shout out to my buddy Neil, is Black Diamond.
Eoin ComerfordHOST
They went up 40 points.
Eoin ComerfordHOST
So they were at 25 back in August of last year, 65 this year because they added that local PDP inventory and then later added a top navigation dealer locator.
Eoin ComerfordHOST
So Really kudos to the folks over there at Black Diamond.
Eoin ComerfordHOST
Another big 40-point mover, Hoka.
Eoin ComerfordHOST
Big market leader, obviously great to see.
Nikki SmithGUEST
And their headquarters was in the same complex.
Nikki SmithGUEST
It was the Black Diamond Complex and then Exmov Utah and then Rock Creation were all in the same area.
Nikki SmithGUEST
And so I knew a lot of the folks that guided and worked there.
Nikki SmithGUEST
And there was a client that called in that wanted to do a through-hike backpacking trip in the Uinta Range, which I had been working on the guidebook and done a lot of first ascents there.
47 MINS LATER
Ting TingHOST
Yeah.
Nikki SmithGUEST
Yeah.
Nikki SmithGUEST
I mean, you look at brands out there and Black Diamond has a different aesthetic and way of promoting themselves than Patagonia or Mountain Hardware or Columbia, as an example.
Nikki SmithGUEST
You know, the way they show the outdoors and the activities are all very different.
David GellesGUEST
Uh, they had very different perspectives, and yet they both also had real sharp business acumen.
David GellesGUEST
And just to pause here, Chouinard Equipment, the climbing business, goes on and becomes Black Diamond, a company that is still extant today.
David GellesGUEST
Many of you may know it.
David GellesGUEST
Patagonia, of course, also a big company still out there today.
Eoin ComerfordHOST
I say only, but in a regular quarter, actually, that'd be pretty nice.
Eoin ComerfordHOST
Clarus, the parent of Black Diamond, reported 48.9% against 35.6% last year, but you take away the refund, it was actually 38%, still a healthy improvement of 240 basis points.
Eoin ComerfordHOST
Then there's Columbia, who reported gross margin expansion of 920 basis points, okay, up to 58.3%, but you strip out that refund and it actually contracted by 50 basis points on higher discounting.
Eoin ComerfordHOST
Yeah, so really take those margin numbers with a grain of salt.
10 MINS LATER
Eoin ComerfordHOST
So even though they had margin compression, they got a totally different market reaction because they're growing 15% and they're holding a 59% gross margin while doing it, and they have their own manufacturing.
Eoin ComerfordHOST
So there's a lesson in there about who gets forgiven for a tariff hit.
Eoin ComerfordHOST
Okay, onto the Clarus Group, who is the parent of Black Diamond, Rhino Rack, and a number of other outdoor brands.
Eoin ComerfordHOST
So revenue was 56 million, up 2%, and really the engine here is Black Diamond, okay? They were up 9% to 40 million, with the climb category up 14%, mountain up 7%, and apparel up in the high single digits, which is now five straight quarters of apparel growth.
Brandon JoyGUEST
But the types of things that the, the sponsorship world for, you know, we'll call them like modern explorers is, is pretty lean.
Brandon JoyGUEST
And it's not particularly sponsorable by, uh, Some of the big companies that we know, like Arcteryx and Black Diamond and North Face and Patagonia, they're all mostly focused on people that do races and win races or alpinism, first ascents, new routes, kind of the vertical mountain world, if you will.
Brandon JoyGUEST
And I'm aware that the things that I do are obviously very unconventional and I don't think that anyone that sees my videos is going to be like, oh, now I want to go kite across Greenland or I want to try to kite across Mongolia, especially after hearing all of the doom and gloom that I went through on this trip.
Chapin CruderHOST
But there's a lot of people out there like you who, like you said, their art form is the study, the learning, the power of the moment that keeps you present.