LaMunt’s chief executive officer, Ruth Oberrauch: ‘Retailers are looking for versatility’

The order season in the outdoor industry has begun. How are retailers orienting themselves? What products are they looking for? The Austrian-based womenswear label LaMunt focuses on a balance of function, lifestyle and sustainability.

The outdoor label LaMunt was founded in 2020 to offer functional and stylish mountaineering and outdoor clothing by women, for women. Numerous retailers now carry LaMunt, which, like the Salewa and Dynafit brands, belongs to the Oberalp Group, and the first store has just opened in Munich.

We spoke with Ruth Oberrauch, founder and brand manager of LaMunt, about the new collection, how the brand has developed and what retailers are looking for today.

What themes are you focusing on in new collection? How have you developed collection further?

Essentially, for the SS26 collection, we worked very hard to bring even more fresh colours and accents into the collection. We had noticed – and these are perhaps typical initial difficulties – that with LaMunt we had to be very careful about which colourways we introduced where, because the collection does not have as many products as larger and more established brands. When you saw the entire collection, it always worked very well, but because the retailers naturally do not buy the entire collection, it was sometimes difficult to achieve the right appeal and the right radiance in terms of colour and colour mix.

Therefore, we put a strong focus on this brightness theme and the radiance of the colours. I think we have made great strides in that area.

What colours are those?

We had actually already introduced the colour lime in the SS25 collection. We have strengthened this somewhat because it is simply a colour that can be easily combined everywhere, but it simply adds freshness. We have also added aruba, which is aqua-turquoise, and peach, which is a light orange. This gives us a beautiful colour palette.

We have also worked hard to define what our base is, what our neutral tones are – taupe, beige, grey, black – and how everything can be combined.

Otherwise, we have consciously focused on two areas: firstly, the theme of soul trekking, as we call it, our core area with hiking, trekking. We have also added the area of adventure-travelling, which overlaps. With a somewhat more urban look, for example, trousers with cargo pockets and a really casual cape with wide, voluminous cuts.

Does that mean that you have sharpened focus in a more fashionable direction?

No, I wouldn’t say that at all. Although we have become somewhat bolder in terms of colour and silhouette on the one hand, we have also invested in the technical aspects of the products and expanded them further. The mountaineering theme merges with this outdoor lifestyle approach, so to speak. It is always about both and about being able to mix both very well.

How has collection developed in general? In terms of scope or categories.

We are still in the clothing sector and, with around 60 pieces, have reached a size that I believe gives us the right mix. I don’t think it needs any more. My briefing to the product team is: we only add new products if old ones are dropped.

So we are more likely to substitute than add more products. I think it makes more sense to invest in a certain number of products than to lose focus by becoming broader to the left and right of them.

What are your retailers paying close attention to at moment? What aspects of your collection have you found answers to?

I actually have the feeling that retailers are also looking for this versatility in the pieces. On the one hand, somewhat detached from this strong seasonal thinking. They tend to avoid the very clear winter product, the very clear summer product. Of course, you need light shorts in the summer and of course you need warm fleece in the winter. However, retailers are also increasingly moving into areas that work across seasons.

What do you mean by versatility?

By versatility, I mean products that work for different activities or in this hybrid lifestyle area. We all wear functional clothing in everyday life, and these products are receiving more attention overall.

What new functions or functional materials are you working with in new collection, for example?

For example, we have new technical fleece with okta fibres in the collection. These are very light fleeces with a fibre that has an octagonal cross-section. This means that these textiles transport moisture very well and also retain heat very well – with relatively little volume and weight. In other words, they are very light, soft, highly functional fabrics that have a slight shiny shimmer on the inside and are matt on the outside – which is aesthetically very exciting. Our ReMOCA pad wadding, which we developed ourselves from production waste from our Pomoca ski touring skins, is also super exciting.

What does that look like?

A few years ago, we took over a small company that produces velour, which we use to make our ski touring skins. When I was there for the first time and saw mountains of waste materials, I thought that something had to be made from the material, especially as we process high-quality materials there. We then carried out various tests and, together with Imbotex, finally found a way to process the waste from the looms, which consists of polyester with a small proportion of cotton, into wadding. We now use this wadding as a lightweight insulation material for LaMunt. In winter, however, this naturally plays an even greater role.

Are you able to use this material for all of your insulation?

We actually have two concepts: one is recycled cashmere and the other is the ReMOCA pad, depending on the product. However, we are increasingly focusing on ReMOCA because I simply believe it makes sense to recycle our own technology, but above all our own waste materials, back into the cycle.

SS26 collection is now being sold in stores, so you are already working on next collections. What will be new there?

In product development this time, we focused very heavily on lifecycle assessment analyses in order to be able to make better decisions about material selection on this basis and reduce our impact as much as possible. This was a very exciting process because we naturally play through all these considerations in every product development, but now, for the first time, we carried out calculations in the conceptualisation phase and not just when the product was almost fully developed. This was an interesting exercise because you don’t always assess all aspects correctly. For example, we found with our nylons that the decisive proportion of the product footprint is actually attributable to the fabric production. Not the yarn production or the making-up, but the weaving phase of the fabrics is responsible for this. Integrating these processes much earlier and the resulting learning that you take with you for all further products was the highlight for me in the development of the next collection.

How important is sustainability to your customers and how important is it to retailers now?

If we start with the end customer, with LaMunt we are primarily addressing a woman who is a little more established in life, and not necessarily an 18-year-old girl. In other words, a woman for whom quality and longevity are very important. Of course, there are differences, but I experience our customer as a mindful customer who is very keen on sustainable aspects.

As far as retailers are concerned, I would say that all retailers definitely have the issue on their radar. However, there are differences in how intensively they can deal with it. Larger retailers naturally have it easier because they have built up the appropriate structures and capacities.

It is a big task to collect information from all brands, integrate it into your own systems and pass it on to end customers. The individual brands simply have a huge amount of information. Therefore, I don’t get the feeling that the issue is seen as unimportant, but rather that it poses a challenge. I believe that it is a major task for the entire industry, both the brands and the retailers, to develop solutions here that make it easier for the brands to communicate these aspects on the one hand and for the retailers to process them on the other.

What feedback are you currently receiving from retailers? How are retailers doing?

I think these have been exciting years for everyone with ups and downs. With all the logical consequences, such as full warehouses, which had accumulated after the boom period during the pandemic and naturally resulted in too much product on the market. But I am already noticing that there is a positive mood again, that sport, outdoor and mountaineering are still on trend. I don’t see that this is declining rapidly in any way. I always say that this outdoor boom that many people like to talk about is not something that was created by Covid-19. This trend already existed before and it continues to exist. It was only accelerated by the pandemic. Therefore, outdoor activities are continuing, but somewhat less quickly than we may have been used to a few years ago. And that is also good in the long term. Therefore, I am already noticing a positive mood in the market again.

Supply chains were a major issue during pandemic, and now they are back in focus in view of threatened trade tariffs. Are you dealing with this?

Absolutely. From LaMunt’s point of view, this issue is certainly less relevant because we are limiting ourselves purely to Europe. But of course, from the Oberalp Group’s point of view, it is an absolutely hot topic. What makes me particularly uneasy about it is the arbitrariness and unpredictability that currently prevails. Not only in relation to the ups and downs of tariffs, but because this feeling of unpredictability is causing a loss of trust in a previously functioning system. This is causing me great concern – also in the medium term – because it is unclear what this means for international relations and the development of business models. In a globalised world, we need solid partnerships, because the more long-term and solid our partnerships are, the better we can jointly implement qualitatively correct measures.

I was travelling in Asia when this tariff issue was announced and I witnessed how our partners were considering whether they would have to relocate their production, which of course makes no sense from either an economic or a sustainability point of view. There is a bit of a feeling of what can I still rely on? And I think that if this attitude arises, in us humans or in our society, then that is an extreme damage to the way we cooperate.

These things worry me much more than the fact that we currently have a problem with our pricing.

What is Oberalp Group doing now to prepare for these scenarios?

We have consciously set up our supply chain in a very diverse way in recent years. In other words, we have made sure that we do not only produce shoes in one country, for example, but we have increasingly diversified the product categories. This is naturally helping now.

We can also rely on very long-term partnerships. Especially during the Covid period, we consciously made the decision that, despite all the difficulties we all had with payments, we always prioritised the punctual payments to our suppliers. Which of course also strengthened the relationship and mutual trust. In this way, we can rely on a very solid supply chain with long partnerships, some of which have lasted for 20 years. This naturally helps in difficult situations.

LaMunt has just opened its first ever store in Munich. Are there any further plans?

This first store in Munich is a test pilot. It was not planned long in advance, but an opportunity simply arose that we seized – knowing that a good part of our community is based in Munich and that Munich, as a large city with a large catchment area and a certain affinity for mountaineering, outdoor activities and lifestyle, is very well suited. But I also think we have a lot to learn and it is incredibly fun because we have also opted for a somewhat special format. Not just a classic store, but above all a community place where we can try out a lot of things.

Firstly, it is a lot of fun, but I also think it takes time to try these things out before you roll them out. During my time at the Oberalp Group, I learned that it makes little sense to plan to open a store in exactly this city. You need the right location and the right people on site, only then can it really work.

What would be another desirable location?

Well, Bolzano would of course be nice as our home town, but on the other hand we are already well represented in South Tyrol. I think Zurich would be an exciting topic. But as I said, there are no plans for further stores yet.

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