HOW SINGING ROCK WAS BORN

I come from the local region, which is called Bohemian Paradise, where the textile industry expanded more than 100 years ago. At the turn of the 19th and 20th century, Bohemia was part of Austria. Both Czechs and Germans lived beside one another here, and both languages were spoken here. The competition between the Czechs and Germans caused tremendous industrial development.

In the period between 1880 and 1900 our property was built; in those days, 100 years ago, it was a mechanical weaving plant in Poniklá.

I became addicted to rock climbing during my studies at the Technical University in Liberec. It was difficult to find climbing equipment in Czechoslovakia in those days. At that time, sit harnesses were not available at all and karabiners and ropes were rare for climbers. As a student of Mechanical Engineering and Construction of Textile Machinery, I sought an opportunity to work with the belts and straps, which enabled me to make my own harness.

I found a factory nearby Liberec where polyamide belts were manufactured for the army. I took this opportunity to begin working on my diploma thesis and I joined the company as a student. I enjoyed my time there mainly because I always came home with my rucksack full of pieces of belts after each consultation. From these belts, I made my first sit harness and climbing rucksack for myself.

I did not make sit harnesses and climbing rucksacks for profit, but for my own satisfaction in order to have, together with my friends, good equipment when going to the rocks. And rocks are all around here, as you may have noticed. In those days, money was not very important for me and profit was not my main aim. Satisfying my friends was my reward.

After finishing my studies in 1985, I had tried various jobs, but none of them made me happy. Just climbing was my life at that time. When I got married and my wife was home with our one-year-old daughter, my family had to rely on my teaching salary. Then, I worked as a teacher at the Textile Technical College.

Two years after the Velvet Revolution in 1989, I decided to leave my job as a teacher and to begin producing climbing harnesses and rucksacks professionally, also as a profit-making activity. I took this decision in autumn 1991, at this time private business had been allowed in Czechoslovakia for 18 months.

My wife thought I was a fool and she disagreed with my decision. As a teacher, I had a stable monthly salary, and my family could be sure of that. Then, my grandmother helped me – she lent me all her savings. My grandma told me to try business if I believed I could succeed.

First of all, I bought the raw materials for about 50 climbing rucksacks; I rented 4 industrial sewing machines, which were placed with 4 women in their homes. One of them sewed the front parts, another the back parts and shoulder straps, and the third the top sections, and the last woman had to put them all together. However, it didn’t work well. The fourth one could not assemble parts sewed by the three women. It was a big problem.
 
One day in November 1991, the doorbell rang. It was Pavel, a local climber and home producer of climbing shoes and sit harnesses, and he told me he and his wife were looking for a job.

Pavel was experienced and had a sewing machine at home as well as 40 m2 of free space where it was possible to establish a workshop. Pavel had come to me at the right time.

The uncompleted rucksacks and 4 rented sewing machines were brought to Pavel’s house, and he and his wife were able to make an excellent job and to complete all within one week. I managed to sell all the rucksacks before Christmas and I bought new raw materials with the revenue. And I was able to pay to my Grandmother money back, which I had borrowed. Pavel had also some savings available and so we became partners in the business. We started running a workshop producing rucksacks and climbing harnesses at his house. It was a ready-made home factory.

In March 1992 I went to ISPO in Munich, I had one rucksack sample and one sit harness sample with me and I was looking for foreign customers. My Father lent me his Škoda, which helped me very much at the beginning. At the exhibition, I met Jan. We entered into conversation and Jan promised to come to Czechoslovakia and to see our production facility after the ISPO exhibition.

So, just after the exhibition I took Jan from Munich to Pavel’s house. Jan was very surprised. There was a ping-pong table without the net, which was used as a cutting table. Furthermore, there were 6 sewing machines and 6 employees sitting at them. Also, it was not a big factory. But probably Jan regarded us as a growing business because he offered us a financial share for establishing a joint company.

Well, in June 1992, the three of us (Pavel, Jan and me) established a new Company SINGING ROCK with registered offices at Pavel’s house. So SINGING ROCK was born.

The Company developed relatively quickly so we promptly moved into newly renovated premises in a textile factory in Semily in November 1992. We reinvested all our profit into new technologies and SINGING ROCK expanded. In 1994, we obtained UIAA certificates for a set of climbing harnesses TUCAN CARO, TUCAN VARIO and TUCAN ALP.

Soon, we purchased our first programmable sewing machine to ensure perfect quality of strength stitching. Jan lived in Belgium at that time and owned his own Company in Belgium where he sold our products. He was a brilliant businessman, but not really a climber. Whenever we went to the rocks, we would take Jan with us in order to make him familiar with rock climbing.

Cheap Chinese production forced us soon to finish producing rucksacks and climbing sandals. I pushed through the idea of concentrating fully on climbing equipment and not wasting time and energy with production of rucksacks, tents or fleece jackets. So we concentrated all our resources on development and production of climbing equipment. Since then, we have been continuously innovating climbing harnesses and professional harnesses as well as karabiners and rescue equipment.

In December 2000, an ISO 9001 audit was successfully performed at SINGING ROCK, which is still improved and certified regularly every year.
In 2000 we decided to invest into a new project and to extend our product range into climbing ropes of our own development and production. In January 2001, we acquired an empty and run down building of a former textile factory in Poniklá to ensure appropriate property for realization of our new project.

Within 6 months, the underground and ground floor of this spacious building was repaired and new machines from Germany were purchased and installed. We were able to offer our first certified collection of static ropes for the pre-Christmas market in 2001. One year later, dynamic rope TRINITY was developed with patented technology ROUTE 44.

Then Jan moved from Belgium to the Czech Republic to concentrate on SINGING ROCK.
The building in Poniklá had being renovated step by step and in 2004, the factory from Semily relocated here. Now, the whole of SINGING ROCK is located under one roof in the newly repaired property in Poniklá.

We are a young Company with an average age of just over 30 years, we have fresh ideas on how to do things better and more effectively, and we are trying to be as innovative as possible. 

Vladimír Křapka