Your sustainable outdoor outfitter from Upper Swabia
[fau ` de:] -- is the German pronunciation of the initials of the company founder’s last name, Albrecht von Dewitz, who founded the company in 1974 in an old hops barn. The company is 100% family owned, now in the second generation of the von Dewitz family – see "Antje von Dewitz at the summit".
VAUDE Sport GmbH & Co. KG develops, produces and sells outdoor gear of the VAUDE brand: functional apparel for outdoors, backpacks and bags, sleeping bags, tents, shoes and camping equipment.
The VAUDE brand and its products stand for mountain sports expertise, innovation, and social and environmental responsibility. Our vision is to be thoroughly sustainable, both objectively and measurably – see "Sustainable company strategy".
Our employees are our most important resource
The headquarters of VAUDE Sport GmbH & Co. KG are located in Obereisenbach, a village in sunny southern Germany near Tettnang. With a view of the Alps and situated near Lake Constance, 529 highly motivated VAUDE employees work for the “Spirit of Mountain Sports” – see also "Our employees".
Our headquarters are in Obereisenbach near Tettnang
VAUDE Sport GmbH & Co. KG primarily consists of two locations: the headquarters in Obereisenbach with various buildings, and a sales branch in the Netherlands.
In addition, there are two factory outlets - one in Metzingen and one in Wadgassen - and various rented order rooms nationwide. The figures in this report are based exclusively on the company headquarters. There is one production facility at the headquarters in Obereisenbach.
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Company headquarters near Tettnang
The VAUDE company premises are located in sunny southern Germany near Lake Constance.
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You can read more about our buildings and our working environment here
Subsidiaries in Spain und China
Another sales brand in Spain, VAUDE Franchise GmbH and an office in Shanghai are also organized in subsidiaries (joint ventures and wholly-owned subsidiaries). The production facility in China was sold to a previous partner in 2014 and we no longer produce there.
Production development in Obereisenbach
The development of the entire collection takes place in Obereisenbach, including initial ideas for products, evaluation of materials in our own testing laboratory, prototypes and finished engineering.
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Rigorous testing
Our materials are rigorously tested at our on-site testing lab.
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The entire administration department is also located here: in addition to management, you’ll find finances and accounting, human resources, marketing, IT and of course, the CSR Team (more at Interdisciplinary CSR Team). All domestic and international product sales are managed by Obereisenbach. You can read more about our markets here
The headquarters includes product services, with a strong repair service to repair used products. More about it here
Global supply chain
One of our most important suppliers is VAUDE Vietnam. This production facility was founded in 2008 by VAUDE founder Albrecht von Dewitz. The company does not belong to VAUDE Sport GmbH & Co. KG and is therefore not included in this report. Data from the production facility is taken into account with the information on the supply chain.
In 2016 VAUDE manufactured 2,535,518 products. About one-third of the products were manufactured at our Obereisenbach location and at VAUDE Vietnam. All other products were made on behalf of VAUDE by independent suppliers in Europe and Asia.
More about the supply chain here
Headquarters are EMAS and ISO 14001 certified
Central logistics is also located in Obereisenbach where products for the European market are delivered, tested, warehoused, commissioned and shipped to retailers – see also "Emissions compensation". North America and Asia are directly supplied by third party deliveries from the producers to distributors within each respective country.
The entire headquarters in Obereisenbach has environmental certification in accordance with EMAS and ISO 14001. This applies to the production of waterproof bike bags and backpacks in Obereisenbach. The Obereisenbach location is situated in a mixed-use zone.
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Environmentally friendly production
The entire headquarters in Obereisenbach has environmental certification in accordance with EMAS and ISO 14001.
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Organic certified canteen, VAUDE Café and VAUDE Kinderhaus Childcare Center
Since April 2015 VAUDE has had its own organic canteen where employees can enjoy a healthy breakfast, lunch and snacks. A few meters away from the administration building is one of our three factory outlets, which also houses the organically certified VAUDE Café.
And last but not least, both the VAUDE Kinderhaus Childcare Center (serving 31 children, it celebrated its 10-year anniversary in 2011) and the Bädleverein – an open-air community swimming pool that VAUDE saved from closure and continues to lease – are found in Obereisenbach. See also
“Create added value through commitment”.
