What is Kailas?

What is Kailas?

Like most outdoor enthusiasts, you are probably asking yourself what is Kailas? It's definitively not well know in North America. This company offer product for many activities: hiking, camping, skiing, climbing, high altitude mountaineering, and more. Kailas makes a variety of apparel and gear from base layers to very technical jackets, shoes, tents, packs, climbing gear, etc. Their recent international website kailasgear shows only a fraction of what is available in their catalog. Their slogan is ''Made to Climb'', which portrays in their products. Verti Call is the first store to offer their products in North America and we rapidly became the go-to source for any inquiries regarding this brand. 

Kailas is the leading high-end outdoor brand from China. Remember that Asia is one, if not the biggest market for outdoor equipment in the world. Kailas has more than 300 stores and over 800 different retailers over the world.

What about the quality of the product?

Kailas is a high-end brand! They make top of the line products and like all quality products, they are expansive. You should definitively not falsely believe that China = cheap and bad product. First, Kailas is not making no-names small electronic device purchases on auction websites at $3 which are some of the products giving China a bad reputation. Kailas make climbing gear but let's start with the apparel. All the most popular and leading brands in the world make their clothing in Asia, mostly China. This country have definitively the knowledge to make good clothing. 

Unlike most brands, Kailas only use third independent fabric like Gore-Tex, Polartec, Pertex, Vibram, Primaloft, Thinsulate, Cordura, Poligiene, Viloft, Teflon, and more, which tend to rise up the quality but also the price. The only "homemade'" fabric is the FILTERTEC which is co-developed with Event®. Everyone knows the Gore-Tex membrane but only a few know how Event® is more breathable while still being waterproof. Here is an interesting video by ProLite Gear comparing the most reliable and popular membranes: Gore-tex, Event, and Neoshell. 

Even for their "homemade" fabric, Kailas partnered itself with a reliable and proven brand.

Kailas has won several awards and it's would be too long to put down the full list but here are some of the most recent ones. The ISPO award from Germany is one of the very praised awards in the industry.

It's hard for a store like Verti Call to educate fellow climbers about climbing gear from a brand they don't know but it's our main goal, to bring more rare and unknown gear in North America and to help climbers discover these products. Kailas products are UIAA and CE certified. That means the climbing gear is tested by third labs and meet the requirements for climbing. Just like all our favorite North American and European brands. I heard sometimes on social media that climbing gear made in China is not reliable. This comment sound not very accurate to me. Most of us don't realize that our North American top brand harnesses are made in China, Malaysia, Philippines or Vietnam. Most carabiners and other climbing hardware from American and European brands are made in Taiwan and China. Yes, the top Petzl "Sitta", Wild Country "syncro" and Camp "Alpine Flash" harnesses are made in China, the Black Diamond "Zone" harness is made in the Philippines, the Elderid "Orion" harness is made in Vietnam. The lovely Wild Country "Helium" carabiner is made in Taiwan. Those products are far from being cheap, they are top of the line. Big and legit brands care about their reputation. They don't want to fool anyone with false or cheap products. It's the same for Kailas. Don't forget this brand is huge, praised, and have a very big reputation in Asia.

Kailas also push hard to test and improve their products. The ISPO award winner Swift Ice Screw and the Airo Ultralight Helmet are good examples. Kailas has tested the product for a very long time. I just can't imagine how many helmets they destroyed to test a new lighter design until they reach the limit of their capacity. I was updated regularly about the progress of the ''making of'' for those products that caught my attention. The final result they created one of the very top helmets and the best ice screw in the world in my opinion.

How Verti Call is able to offer highly discounted Kailas products?

Despite the usual high price tag of the brand, Verti Call has worked hard to develop a strong partnership which allows us to bring discontinued products at a high discount price. For that reason, a lot of our Kailas products are at a cheap price compare to similar products from North American brands. Also, Kailas know that their reputation is not made in North American and a good price is one of the ways to be introduced in a new market.

The answer is as simple as ''Why not?'' The goal is not to force anyone into Kailas but more brand brings more competition which brings better prices and innovation. So why should we restrain our selection with fewer brands, especially when it brings top quality and innovative products? Kailas could become your favorite brand and maybe for others, just one more option. Same reason why Verti Call brings Krukonogi, Asana, Trango, PMI, Totem, Hex Climbing, Merlin, etc. They all provide to a certain extent, something that others don't and we are very proud to show them to you.

Kailas are very supportive in the climbing scene, making partners or sponsors with the IFSC (International Federation Sport Climbing), USA Climbing, Sport Climbing Australia, China Climbing Team, Fédération Française des Clubs Alpins et de Montagne, Asian Continental Council, Chinese Mountaineering Association, Tokyo Mountaineering Federation, Federacion Espanola de Deportes de Montana y Escalada and the National Climbing Team of Australia and China. Kailas has also contributed to the development of many crags and routes in Yanshua, China.

I hope you know more about Kailas. More top of the line brand entering the market would only be better overall for the customers.  With the addition of climbing competition to the Olympic Games, the popularity will reach a new height... so there is room for everyone.  Kailas deserve to be recognized in America.

Enough reading! Time to climb with maybe some ''Made to Climb'' products.


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