Bergans
| Bergans Fritid AS
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1908 |
| Seat |
Hokksund , Norway
|
| Number of employees | 72 (2017) |
| sales | 80 million euros (2015) |
| Website | www.bergans.no |
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Bergans Fritid AS is a Norwegian manufacturer of civil and military outdoor clothing and equipment based in Hokksund . The company provides u. a. Rucksacks, sleeping bags, canoes, tents, hiking accessories and functional clothing .
The founder Ole Ferdinand Bergan (1876–1956) was a two-wheeler technician in Tønsberg and in 1908 he developed a backpack with an external carrying frame. On a hunting tour, he had the idea of building an external carrying frame. At first he used wood and developed the idea further with a light metal frame and various straps. Ole F. Bergan made a number of inventions and filed 45 patents.
From 1913 the Norwegian Armed Forces began using Bergans backpacks, and researchers such as Roald Amundsen , Lincoln Ellsworth, and Charles Granville Bruce used Bergans backpacks. The company continued to develop and gained notoriety beyond Norway. In 1986 the production facility burned down with all of the patterns . Bergans had to buy its own products in order to remove the samples again. Bergans had disappeared from the market for over a year and, because it was underinsured, was in a dire economic situation.
Bergans built one of the most modern clothing factories in the world at the time, but cost-covering production with 100 employees in Nord-Odal was not possible, and the factory was closed in 1990. The entire production was outsourced to Asia.
The company sponsors, among other things, the British-Norwegian reality show 71 ° Nord .