Compass: Charting the Evolution of Outdoor Gear

Five Ten (5.10) History

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1979

Yosemite climber, Charles Cole III, starts Masters in Business at University of Michigan

1985

his father, Charles Cole Senior, suffers a stroke and banks foreclose his business

Charles Cole III, aged 30, founds 5.10, in North Hollywood, California, to make better climbing gear

engages both his parents in the business

1986

Charles begins distributing a line of 1,000 “approach” shoes from Taiwan. The infamous ‘Five Tennie’

Sales amount to $125,000 USD

the shoes uppers fall apart, but climbers peel off the sticky rubber sole and glue it to their climbing shoes

Charles Cole decides to work on a better sticky rubber especially for climbing shoes

1987

After much research and experimentation debuts new rubber called Stealth due to its secret compound recipe

1989

sales top $1.2 million USD

1990

Karen Peil joins 5.10 as National Sales Manager

1994

Karen marries Arnould t’Kint, 5.10’s Chief Financial Officer

1997

develops the first American market womens-specific climbing shoe, the Diamond

2000

Chares works with Jeff Steber of Intense Cycles to develop prototype of a sticky mountain bike shoe

Australian Chris Kovarik is the first rider to try the prototype shoes.

2001

Jeff Steber pays for tooling and moulds for ‘Intense’ labelled Stealth soled mountain bike shoes

2006

Australian Sam Hill wins World Championship Downhill title, first rider to do so on flat pedals, (wearing Five Ten shoes)

2007

Television’s History Channel profiles Charles Cole and Stealth Rubber on the Sticky Stuff episodes of Modern Marvels

Sam Hill wins the World Championships and the World Cup Series using Five Ten shoes.

2010

Charles wins Spirit of the Entrepreneur Award from the Inland Empire Center for Entrepreneurship

2011

appoints “Big Wall” Wally Barker as chief financial officer, ex CFO for Quiksilver Japan