Black Diamond Equipment Going Public

On the surface it sounds like the demise of yet another core outdoor company: Black Diamond Equipment is merging with Gregory Packs and going public under the name of Black Diamond Equipment. However, unlike some recent examples, this is considered, at least by the folks on the inside that I talked with, to be a positive step for the brand. It’s easy to sit back and say, well there goes another one, expect the quality to go to crap, but I’ve been told otherwise.

Apparently one of the biggest motivating factors was the need for a more powerful capital structure. They sell mostly hard goods with low margins, not a lot of cash in that. By going public the idea is that they can raise more cash which will help them grow the company in a positive way while staying true to their core values. As for the employee owners, they are going to be bought out and allowed the opportunity to buy stock in the new company.

As far as acquiring Gregory, this seems a little strange given that BD just put a huge effort into designing and launching their new pack line. Some have speculated it has to do with the fact that Gregory is like the Jansport of Asia, with huge market share there, so perhaps that was a major incentive.

You can read the official releases here and here, and some other news here. Obviously there is a lot of emotion surrounding this announcement, and for good reason. 99% of the time this is the beginning of the end for a company like this. Bigger is rarely better, except for the people who stand to make money off the deal. When you get management involved that doesn’t understand the market, you inevitably drift further and further from what made the brand great in the first place. The top executives at both companies are going to be involved at the highest levels of this new venture, which will hopefully keep BD from going down the wrong road like so many companies before.

Regardless, for now we can only make guesses and wonder what the future holds. Hopefully this wont be the end of the line for a truly great company that has been run by, and catered to, core climbers for a long time. Perhaps it will be as it says on their blog, the birth of Black Diamond 2.0, an even bigger and better version of what came before.