UKC

I'm in Tokyo currently and was mooching around Shinjuku this evening when I went into a big sport and outdoor store. The outdoor section was full of quite fancy and expensive brands, Patagonia, TNF, Mammut, BD etc. but they also had Karrimor - both packs and clothing. All of it looked well designed and made of quality material - not like the the stuff badged Karrimor and sold in Sports Direct in the UK. Does anyone know if the Karrimor brand was sold of to different people in different regions?

Dunno.. the Wikipedia article is usually thorough and detailed history of the company https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karrimor but it makes no mention of Asia/Japan

A sad story of a brilliant and groundbreaking company losing its way after the founder came to retirement age. Not inevitable though, Denny Marsdin Moorhouse and Fernand Petzl's companies seem to be still going strong (with in country production).

I found the Japanese Karrimor website https://www.karrimor.jp/ and they have a trendy Instagram and Facebook presence too. Looks very different from the UK stuff despite and identical label.

To be fair Denny Moorhouse didn't retire, he bought the old HB factory site and started ISC...

To be fair, he didn't leave DMM voluntarily. He was forced out by the other directors. Allegedly 

.....and there was I thinking you were talking about Alphaville  

And he has now actually retired after an American rope access firm bought him out of ISC...

Maybe there brought a licence to use the name. A few years ago I did some work with an ambassador for Millet (the French brand) Korea. Millet Korea brought a license to use the name and logo, but used their own designs and products.

Nothing unusual with a company producing a different range under the same brand name to suit their positioning in a local market, look at what Chevrolet sold us.

Brands are often viewed very differently in different countries. From what I hear, DMM are considered more of a budget brand in the US?! Possibly because they had to price low to compete with the locals and get established and also had the 4cu cams, which were cheaper but inferior to the single stem US competition. 

US enjoyed budget prices and DMM quality? now that is WIN WIN!!