JUNO TALKS with Moritz Maier

How will Alpina return to pop culture? With Moritz Maier, Head of Marketing for the Uvex Sports and Alpina brands, we discuss the art of rejuvenating a brand without losing loyal customers.

• Talks
• Insights

When we attended Eurobike this year, we noticed quite a difference in how your brands Uvex and Alpina were presented. We wanted to ask you about that.

What made you curious?

Uvex came across to us as a clear, contemporary, and cohesive brand – almost Porsche-like, German, and techy. Everything seems to revolve around performance. With Alpina, we had expected a crazy, lifestyle-focused brand presence. We were familiar with Alpina’s bold advertising from the ’80s, which sometimes felt like Italo-disco, and the way the brand describes itself on its website – as wild, free-spirited, and super creative. At the trade show, however, we experienced the brand as primarily a sports brand.

At its core, we are a sports brand, and our sales channels have evolved accordingly over the years. We’re primarily present in sports and cycling retail, where we’ve established strong and reliable partnerships and built broad distribution. The Eurobike itself is also more of a sports trade fair. Playing up Alpina too strongly as a lifestyle brand there wouldn’t have been the right venue. But you’re right – Alpina is also about lifestyle. We’re currently expressing this side of the brand more through digital platforms and the topic of eyewear.

Eyewear is where Alpina started, after all.

Yes. The Uvex brand was founded in the ’50s as a performance and occupational safety brand. To address the growing lifestyle sports eyewear market, Alpina was established in 1980 as a second brand under the Uvex Group. Over time, Alpina’s fashionable image became somewhat diluted, and the brand expanded significantly, especially around the year 2000. That was good and important for economic success and laid the foundation for our current market positioning. But in the process, we forgot to maintain our brand profile.

It then took until 2021 for you to initiate a brand refresh for Alpina.

It wasn’t really a full relaunch. We wanted to sharpen the brand’s profile and returned to the successful roots of the brand, back when we were shaping style and trends in our sector. Back then, Stevie Wonder and Victoria Beckham wore our glasses. In the ski sector, we were clearly number one. And the “Swing” model was the best-selling sports eyewear in Europe during the ’80s and ’90s. We were also the first to introduce contrast-enhancing technology in sports and sunglasses.

You’ve been overseeing Alpina’s brand sharpening process since 2020. What has been your biggest challenge?

A brand needs a clear profile. Without it, discount retailers attack from one side, and clearly positioned brands attack from the other one. The biggest challenge for Alpina has been – and still is – to build more credibility in the lifestyle segment and attract a younger audience without losing our core customers. We want to be a love brand that excites, motivates, and inspires all generations. The ingredients for this are firmly embedded in our DNA. The first ingredient, “trust,” comes from our product portfolio and our uncompromising commitment to safety. The second ingredient, “emotion,” comes from our playful, open, and colorful approach, with bold and unconventional designs and a sense of a creative lifestyle full of outdoor adventures and exploration. Since 2020, we’ve made significant progress in sharpening the brand’s profile.

Who is your typical customer today?

If you look at the purchasing behavior of our target group and consider younger generations, you’ll see that two-thirds of their information gathering happens online. Yet, more than two-thirds of Alpina product purchases still happen in physical stores. Based on this data, we’ve built our marketing mix on two main pillars: In the awareness phase and for building our image, we focus strongly on optimizing the digital customer journey and targeting the right touchpoints – this is where we can present the brand in a younger and fresher light, remain agile, and quickly react to trends. The second important pillar is improving the point-of-sale (POS) experience. Here, we’re looking for solutions and concepts to make the brand tangible at the POS and to help retailers facilitate sell-through.

How did you go about this?

We reminded ourselves of what Alpina once stood for and what sets us apart from Uvex. The products of the two brands aren’t that different – they both primarily manufacture helmets and eyewear. But the positioning and the target audience are entirely different. Uvex is about performance and has a clear connection to athletes. Alpina, on the other hand, represents sports lifestyle. It’s aimed at free spirits who view sports as a creative and unique experience – athletes seeking adventure, carving their own lines while freeriding, or going on wild bike trips into the mountains. To appeal to this target group, we developed the guiding idea: “Made to Inspire,” which we aim to bring to life across all dimensions of the brand experience.

How did you implement this idea?

We modernized the corporate design and turned the “Alpina A” into a sort of super symbol, giving us more creative freedom and a more lifestyle-oriented appearance. We’ve also put a lot of energy into social media and building a community – the “A-Team.” For example, on Instagram, TikTok, and our podcast, we share inspiring and authentic stories through our “friends” – that’s what we call the creators – who align with our values. We’ve decided to move away from traditional athletes and instead focus on characters who have interesting stories to tell. It’s not just about performance but about people and their stories. Another example: we reintroduced the 1980s eyewear model “Swing” in a new edition in collaboration with the fashion label “Beautiful Struggles” and consciously launched it at Paris Fashion Week. We’re also working with artists to make our eyewear and helmets more colorful and youthful, and we’re building partnerships with like-minded brands (e.g., Disney, FC St. Pauli, or the Swatch Nines freeride and slopestyle bike event). Of course, we also collaborate with influencers, such as Ski Aggu recently.

Polarization was one of Alpina’s trademarks in the past. Did you specifically aim for that with the collaboration with Ski Aggu?

Yes, definitely. By working with Ski Aggu and creating his own custom-designed Alpina glasses, we aimed to polarize on purpose. It was an opportunity we had to seize to stay visible and relevant – especially with the younger generation.

How satisfied are you with the results of the brand sharpening process?

We measure a lot on a demographic level and see that younger target groups are becoming aware of us. We’re gaining more followers, generating more fans, reaching younger audiences, and maintaining our market position at the same time. That’s a good sign that we’re on the right path and that the balancing act we’re doing is working well.

Let’s talk about design. In the ’80s, your product design really captured the zeitgeist. How can you replicate that today?

Since we always have the athlete in mind and prioritize human safety above all else, we value having a design team that knows the individual sports in detail and creates functional products with a creative edge in terms of design and safety. We look at our archive a lot for inspiration. Back then, we were very bold and trendsetters. For example, we’ve started releasing limited editions inspired by design concepts from back then. The goal is to convince a new, younger target group with creative designs while maintaining a connection to our roots. It helps that trends from back then are often relevant again today. I can see us continuing along this path.

What trends do you see as particularly important for you?

First, new mobility and e-mobility. We’ve set ourselves the goal of supporting people in their self-expression with cool designs while protecting their health. That’s a huge challenge in the mobility sector. Second, customization. We want to give younger audiences the ability to personalize and design their own products. Third, sustainability. We have a clear vision of sustainability that we’ve anchored in our group-wide “Protecting Planet” strategy. Our goal is climate neutrality by 2045. That sounds far away, but for the plastics industry, it’s very ambitious – especially since our top priority, protecting people, must not be compromised. Our R&D team is working intensively on developing sustainable materials and recycling concepts to reduce our footprint while ensuring safety. We’ve already introduced innovative solutions like our Prolan Protector – a back protector made of pressed sheep’s wool – and the Double Jack Planet, the first eyewear with lenses made from recycled materials.

What experience have you had with TikTok?

Our strategy there is to gain visibility and build credibility with younger audiences. We specifically look for influencers like AdiTotoro – a Swiss influencer who’s already done a few projects for us. We aim to identify influencers who speak our language and tell inspiring stories, like being on-the-ground reporters at sports events. We’ve noticed that it’s not easy to transfer classic Instagram content to TikTok. On TikTok, people want to see faces and feel closer to the action. It’s not enough to post an action-packed sports video – you need more personality and humor. We mustn’t take ourselves too seriously as a brand here.

Last question: Are there any brands you look to as benchmarks?

I find brands that manage to appeal to both young and older audiences very interesting. One brand I follow is the Adidas Samba. It’s spectacular how the shoe has been brought back from obscurity and given a second life. Vans is another example – they appeal to young and older audiences in a creative, colorful, and slightly crazy way. These are brands that manage to revive trends while also reaching a broad audience. That’s also a goal we’re pursuing with Alpina – to become a “love brand” in our industry that everyone enjoys wearing, that inspires everyone, and that also contributes to a very high value: personal safety.

Thank you so much!