About Us
Pavel Hendrych, Founder of Rock Pillars and Ocún:
It all started in the middle of Siberia on beautiful pink granite spires known as Rock Pillars.
A unique type of climbing developed here: a kind of bouldering, but on 200m tall pillars. The area and its unique rock and adventurous atmosphere is well sought after.
A group of local climbers started producing climbing shoes for themselves, later joining forces with rubber technicians and also skilled shoe-makers. The first pair of shoes was produced in 1988. At that time young Evgeniy Ovtchinikov (pictured in Heinz Zak’s Rock Stars climbing in those first ROCK PILLARS at Rock Pillars) began training in them, and wore them 3 years later in his first World Cup in Clusone, Italy where he finished surprisingly 3rd. Evgeniy and I met when he was first competing in Europe, after which I paid a visit to the famous Rock Pillars area. It was then that I became involved in the shoe development named after these rocks. At the time I was working as a car engineer and made climbing harnesses on the side as a hobby. It was a great challenge for me to use my technical expertise and climbing experience to develop new and innovative climbing shoes. Each prototype and model was tested by our ever growing team of top climbers. Over time many other climbers joined Evgeniy in Rock Pillars– Elena Ovtchinikov, Salavat Rakhmetov, Olga Bibik, Tomáš Mrázek just to name a few.
In 1994 I began making ROCK PILLARS in the Czech Republic, a country with a long shoe-making tradition. In the same year we presented our first climbing shoe collection at the first Outdoor fair in Friedrichshafen, Germany.
In the past 20 years we have developed and produced hundreds of thousand shoes and distributed them worldwide. We continually develop and rigorously test new solutions, new lasts, and stickier rubber. Experienced, top climbers are always close, as are climbing areas. We have gathered long-term experience, and our sponsored climbers have great success at the crag and at competitions alike. From World Cup podiums, to 9a sport routes, to 8C boulders- our shoes and climbers continue to push the limits of climbing. We are proud of their successes.
The foundation of climbing equipment manufactured under the brand OCÚN
dates back to 1998 when a team of ROCK PILLARS climbing shoe developers realized that besides climbing shoes, they can bring progress into further climbing equipment.
We began with our first climbing harnesses, bouldermats, expres slings and other equipment, which quickly gained wide popularity among climbers due to their quality, functionality and design. Acquaintance of "Red Flower" Ocún quickly crossed the Czech border. Since that time we have grown to include many other products in our production line, and our range of products continues to grow and we still seek to find the right balance of function, quality, innovation, and elegance in every product we make.
Today Ocun has around 130 devoted employees who develop and produce our products still in the Czech Republic, a country with a long tradition of shoemaking and textiles. Since 2015 we are rebranding our Rock Pillars climbing shoes under the brand Ocún.
Pavel Hendrych, Founder of Rock Pillars and Ocún
History
1988•
Pavel Hendrych, the brand‘s founder and a car designer, starts making climbing harnesses at home.
He makes his first models on his grandmother‘s sewing machine, dyeing straps in a large pot in the kitchen. His first source of material are decommissioned brake parachutes which he obtained during his military service with the Czechoslovak Air Force.
- 1989
The first innovation. Hollow straps are filled with polyethylene foam to provide more comfortable sit harnesses.
- 1991
Pavel quits his automotive job and spends an entire year climbing in the Frankenjura, Finale Ligure in Italy and a dozen Spanish climbing areas. He decides to make his climbing equipment production a full-time venture.
- 1992
Pavel visits his climbing friend Yevgeny Ovchinikov in the Rock Pillars area by the town of Krasnoyarsk in Siberia. He starts designing climbing shoes for the Rock Pillars company. Their first model is the Feather, sold in Europe under the Rock Pillars brand.
In response to modern overhang climbing techniques, including heel-hook, Rock Pillars introduces a 4 mm sole extending over the heel. Salavat Rakhmetov‘s idea is used by most climbing shoe manufacturers to this day.
- 1994
Rock Pillars begins production in the Czech Republic.
A new way of overcoming the weakness of the slippertype climbing shoe. Our new Totem and Batman shoes include a unique fixing mechanism across the toe area. This is later used by a number of other brands and continues to be a functional feature to this day.
To increase performance and improve comfort of climbing shoes, we introduce a special upper cut with no snip in the heel area and a padded tongue. This improves comfort in one of the most important parts of a climbing shoe.
- 1998
Our new brand OCÚN is launched alongside Rock Pillars at the OutDoor fair, with a new line of harnesses and an exciting new product – the crash pad. Only a few people anticipate that the crash pads will become an integral part of a new climbing style – bouldering.
- 2000
The crash pad is not just an extra piece of equipment to carry, but a multi-purpose outdoor product: enter OCÚN Paddy 22, a crash pad with the unique Two-in-One connection system. Its two parts can be joined into one large rectangle and used for sleeping or resting on. This is still a typical feature of our crash pads.
- 2001
Easier and faster waist centering thanks to our new Movable Waist System, as first used on the OCÚN Newton harness. The MWS system is also part of the successful Twist line.
Unique design of crack gloves and their first series production in the world.
- 2006
Our production facilities are enlarged and refurbished to satisfy the growing demand for our products. New technologies and an advanced quality control system are introduced to allow us to focus on product development more.
- 2009
The first efficient solution to the problem of climbing shoe twisting when standing on the inner edge, helping to transmit forces through the shoe tip on the smallest footholds.
- 2011
The new Foam Tubes Suspension System brings improved impact energy absorption. The Dominator crash pad with the new FTS system awarded at the ISPO fair.
- 2012
First introduction of our own line of carabiners, developed by our design and engineering team.
- 2013
Our patented WeBee 3D foam technology brings significant improvements in breathability and other functional parameters of sit harnesses.
- 2014
Our two brands – Rock Pillars and OCÚN – are merged into a single OCÚN brand. Combining the know-how, development and production will bring better service to our customers and better quality of our products.