Lowe Alpine

Lowe Alpine traces to 1967, when climber Greg Lowe built a rucksack reinforced with aluminium stays so it could carry heavy loads without throwing a climber off balance. In 1972 Greg, along with brothers Mike and Jeff Lowe, formally registered Lowe Alpine Systems and began manufacturing climbing equipment at scale from their family basement in Colorado. Their breakthrough, the Expedition Pack, was the first rucksack built around an internal frame with compression straps, a design that became the template for nearly all technical backpacks that followed. In 2011 Equip Outdoor Technologies, the company behind the Rab brand, bought Lowe Alpine in a deal reported at roughly $33 million. That acquisition returned the brand's design, sales and marketing operations to Kendal in Cumbria, England, where Lowe Alpine is now based.