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From climbing shoe to own brand
The idea to create a shoe, was born more or less out of necessity. There was simply no working shoe on the market that was adapted to the specific requirements of tree climbing. Most of the people have used trekking or approach shoes from mountain sports or if needed a cut protection boot.
The problem then was, that these shoes were either worn after a short time in climbing use or too heavy and inflexible for climbing in the trees. Another disadvantage with such shoes are the commonly used metal hooks for lacing. These often damaged the rope or they were damaged by climbing.
It was time for a stable shoe with a non-slip sole, which is also soft and flexible enough to give the climber the good feeling of safety and protect the bark and bast of the tree as much as possible from injuries. In addition, the shoe should not have any metal hooks for lacing to avoid the problems with it. With these guidelines and many other ideas Friedrich Drayer developed in 2009, together with a shoe manufacturer from Italy, the first climbing shoe that was specially designed for arborists. In a brainstorming session a name was quickly found: Tango!
The shoe was very comfortable, with a secure fit and excellent grip in the tree. Responsible for the good grip, was the very soft rubber sole. At the same time this turned out to be a disadvantage, as the sole was worn after only a few months of use. The updated model was made with a harder sole from DAVOS and other little problems of the first version have been revised. This shoe was much more durable now, but felt too hard for many climbers. So another update followed with a Vibram sole and the Tango Vi was born. This combines the desired durability as well as flexibility and the necessary grip.
The textile eyelets already used from the very beginning for lacing can be found today in all other shoes by Tango, such as the Tango Extreme cut protection shoe developed in 2012 and the Tango light, which is available since 2014.
Apart from the shoes, there were many other innovative products and ideas from Drayer. The name Tango, which was initially conceived only for the shoes, was then also used for many other own products in order to finally establish Tango as a brand since 2014.
The products from Tango includes the full range of tree care equipment, such as climbing ropes, prusik slings, functional shirts, chainsaw lanyards, rigging rings or a throwing bag launcher, and keeps growing. New ideas are constantly being realized in order to meet today's demands on the equipment and it will be interesting to see what Friedrich Drayer thinks up next ...
