Ondra Comp: interview with Adam Ondra

There are dozens of names that have become part of La Sportiva ‘s long history for their achievements in various alpine disciplines. If, however, we focus on the discipline that revolutionized the brand most of all, climbing, and if we talk about names that have remained etched in the archives in Ziano di Fiemme, those can be counted on the fingers of one hand: Heinz Mariacher, Manolo, Ron Kauk, Stefan Glowacz, Tommy Caldwell. The Mariacher, the avant-garde and misunderstood Ballerina, the Kaukulator, the SG Mega, the TCPro. From today we will have to use two hands to count these names, because Ondra Comp has arrived.

Sixteen years have passed since 13-year-old Adam walked through the doors of the Trentino company for his first collaboration. It was there that he met Pietro Dal Prà, at the time an athlete and athletes manager, and it was not long before the two left official venues to find themselves on the wall sharing the same passion. Peter immediately understood why Adam was so unique: his technical climbing skills were accompanied by even sharper mental abilities, and this interlocking was and still is successful. The relationship between the two, over the years, has strengthened to the point that the first biography of Adam, presented to the public in fall 2023, was written by Peter himself. It is the same partnership, combined with the expertise of La Sportiva’s R&D team, that gave rise to Ondra Comp.

A biomechanical analysis of Adam’s foot was carried out to allow maximum expression of physical gifts. The purpose was to meet his demand for a specific liner for modern bouldering. The structure of the bootie is designed to allow the foot to spread out and maximize contact with the support surface, thus ensuring maximum grip. Shoveling in grip, toe hooks and gentle heels are Ondra Comp’s top areas of expression.

How did the idea develop?

A: More than 20 prototypes were tested before the current version, in training and also in competition, disguising the bootie by making it look like a classic model in the collection.

P: Adam has been leading the test, I have remained in observation this time, making some suggestions for different solutions. Let us remember one thing, however: the people who really make the shoes are certainly not Adam and me. It is a team of technicians and modelers headed by Luca Gabrielli with whom we discuss and share our ideas and perceptions. It is impossible that an athlete, like Adam, in his first experience could develop a finished product with all the technical solutions and construction problems. It has the potential, but it takes years of experience before it can master such a project. I always emphasize, a climber has never made a bootie, but it is a group effort.

A: I brought up the priorities from my point of view, the search for a really specific shoe that could work 100 percent in shoveling and in something we now call “smedging”: a very small, flaring foot support. No I had experience in product development, so a lot of the proposals I had in my mind I learned that they can’t work at the construction level, it was a really interesting process.

P: Then there were also Ron Kaukulator’s Kaukulator, SG’s–quite a small number. The name Ondra Comp was La Sportiva’s choice, not just epr as a matter of marketing. Partly out of gratitude to a figure like Adam, who has been with us for 16 years now, and partly because Adam has always been interested and involved in the shoe topic. There are very strong climbers who are not so interested in the technical and construction side, and they climb with 1 or 2 models their whole life without the interest in improving them. Adam, on the other hand, has always had this focus on the tool, the bootie: we felt it was a fitting tribute. When you put together strong motivations like that of an athlete who also wants to improve his performance through the best gear, and a brand that is open to novelty and improvement, sometimes one plus one does not make two, but three.

What gives you motivation after all these years?

A: A lot of people say “I just ski for fun”-I do that too, but I like to do it by pushing my limits. Having fun is okay, obviously when I train for competitions it’s a little different, it’s not always about fun. There are days when I’m itching to get out on rock, but I know I have to train indoors for competitions. And then I have many dreams: I dream of climbing some projects or walls and to do that I know that I have to train, that climbing only on rock is not enough to be strong and fit. Training is also a tool to achieve my dreams, and alternating rock and indoor fuels the desire for one of the other.

“Adam the Climber” came out recently. It’s kind of like you went climbing together, one goes first, the other climbs second and together you get to the crowning achievement.

P: For as long as I can remember, whenever we went climbing together, it was Adam who led the climb from first, despite the fact that he was a kid and I handled the safety part. In this book, on the other hand, it is a bit as if for the first time I went up first, with him below making me safe by telling me about himself and giving me the motivation to continue in the right way. Verba volant, scripta manent, they say: it was important to stop a whole culture, not just what Adam did. I have tried through his life and accomplishments, to tell the story of years of a culture, one that was passed on to him by his parents and that is not so far from what I experienced when I started climbing.