Vibram exists because six climbers froze to death on an Italian peak in 1935.
The party had left its nailed boots at the foot of the route and climbed in felt-and-rope shoes that turned to skates on iced granite. Their grieving leader replaced the boots’ iron studs with lugs of vulcanized rubber, then stamped each sole with the start of his name, VItale BRAMani. That signature is now molded into more than 40 million soles a year.
Vibram on Brandseum