“The longer you ski, the longer you live!” That’s been the lifelong mantra of Klaus Obermeyer, founder of the sportswear company that bears his name. On December 2nd, Klaus will celebrate his 106th birthday!

Glen Findholt had the answer to last week’s trivia question:

“I believe Klaus will be 106. An old friend Cindy Burke who once taught at Smuggs’ but has been at Aspen for the past 20+ made it a practice to make a run with Klaus each year until he finally hung up his skis just a couple of years ago.”

So while Klaus may not be skiing anymore, he certainly is living a long life filled with contributions to the sport he loves!

Klaus Obermeyer was born on December 2nd, 1919 in Oberstaufen, Germany. He began skiing at age three on skis fashioned from orange crate slats. Growing up he became a proficient skier, mountaineer, and rock-climber. He graduated from university with a degree in aeronautical engineering and went to work for a German company designing airplanes.

Of course that was during WW II and much of his work was on military projects. However Klaus was no fan of the Nazis. In fact Klaus’ brother was a dissident who was arrested and put in a Nazi work camp. Klaus has said, “I grew up in Nazi Germany, and as a boy, saw the horror they did and the horrible things they did. And I thought, my God, I don’t want to be like that!”

Eventually Klaus tried to ski over the Alps to neutral Switzerland to escape Nazi Germany. Klaus was shot and left to die in the mountains, but he was found by friendly locals who got him to a hospital. While he was still recovering from his injuries, the war ended.

Klaus immigrated to the United States where an old friend Friedl Pfeifer had been hired to head up the ski school at the newly opened Aspen resort. Pfeifer invited Klaus to join the ski school and Klaus would become a fixture at Aspen and in fact, he still lives there!

Early in his experience as an Aspen instructor, Klaus realized that the skiwear of the day really didn’t help people learn to ski. For students to learn they needed to be comfortable. Appropriate skiwear should keep people warm and dry. In 1947 Klaus founded Sport Obermeyer with that goal.

To help fund his enterprise, Klaus came up with an ingenious idea. In those days men actually wore ties as part of their skiing attire! So Klaus designed the Koogie tie, kind of a string tie with two knit balls on the ends. To help promote it he took advantage of some of the celebrities that visited Aspen. In particular, he got movie star Gary Cooper to be photographed wearing one. The result was Klaus sold 32,000 of the ties for $1.75 each!

Klaus Obermeyer would use his ingenuity for far more practical advances than the Koogie tie. He formulated a high altitude sunscreen to help protect skiers from the Rocky Mountain sun. While he didn’t invent the down parka, he popularized it and made it far more fashionable. Some of us will forever be in his debt for popularizing turtle necks and making the first nylon windshirt which became integral parts of the skiing “uniform” Retro-Skiers wore.

And Klaus Obermeyer gets credit for the two-pronged ski brake which has become universally used. Others had tried the ski brake concept, notably both Cubco (the “Pig Stabber”) and Miller bindings had a single-pronged brake designed to flip the ski over to stop it.

Klaus Obermeyer has been the de facto head of Obermeyer since he founded it. However this past summer, Klaus announced, “For over 75 years, my passion has been helping people and families experience the joy of the mountains through thoughtfully designed gear. As we look to the future, it’s time for fresh leadership to carry that mission forward.“

Kris Kuster, formerly of Mammut, was announced as CEO of Obermeyer. Klaus remains as President and part of the Board of Directors. So there may be changes happening at Obermeyer, but I hope they keep the slogan that was posted around the company: “Be Like Klaus!”