Deuter

Deuter was founded in 1898 by Hans Deuter in Augsburg-Oberhausen, initially producing sacks and bags and supplying the Royal Bavarian Postal Service, before shifting toward military knapsacks, tents and equipment from around 1910. It became an outfitter for German mountain expeditions starting in 1928, and made the first version of its Tauern outdoor backpack in 1930 - a pack later used by mountaineer Hermann Buhl on his solo 1953 ascent of Nanga Parbat. Deuter released its first nylon backpack range in 1968 and, in 1984, introduced Aircomfort, a suspended mesh back-panel system that became one of the more widely imitated ventilation designs in the outdoor-pack industry. The company's headquarters moved to nearby Gersthofen in 1997. Manufacturing itself has not been done in Germany for decades: Deuter partnered with a Vietnamese manufacturer, Duke, in 1991, and that facility - now with roughly 5,400 workers producing Deuter packs and accessories exclusively - has been the company's production base since.