The young Klaus spent all holidays in tents and kayaks. Later, while enjoying camping and sailing holidays together, he shared his love for outdoor life with his wife, Monika, and their two children. He also brought this enthusiasm to work. At 14, Klaus was apprenticed as a sports-goods merchandiser for a department store. He progressed to buyer and was one of the first Europeans to travel and source camping goods from the Far East – an adventurous undertaking at that time.
In 1973 his knowledge of the outdoors and the industry was put to good use when, with his wife, he founded the Robens company at their Wentorf home. Their cellar was the office and the tent display area was their front lawn. Robens Logo
Robens Tent Silver Spider By 1988 Robens was so successful that it moved into newly built premises and began work with industrial designer Olaf Bracht, who shared the passion for the outdoors. This enabled Robens to offer products perfectly designed for outdoor life and cemented its success as a brand with a focus on high quality at reasonable prices.
In 2000, Robens was acquired by Oase Outdoors and moves ever forward to help people fulfil their passion for the outdoors.
We catch up with Olaf in the Robens design office and he takes up the story…
Then and now
Thirty-years-ago a tent rarely had more than 1,000mm hydrostatic head and there was only a limited selection of good materials for constructing durable tents.
By the 80s, about 25 years ago, tents had a 1,500mm Hydrostatic Head, with trekking tents featuring sealed seams. Unfortunately, this would often come off when exposed to sun over time.
The 90s saw better materials and processing techniques came to the market and, by 2002, we brought out the first trekking tents with a 5,000mm hydrostatic head. The seams were sealed better, but still no comparison to our present method.
