Leki Walking & Trekking Poles
Background
Leki is pronounced, “Lake-ee”. The name Leki is a culmination of two abbreviations. LE is the first two letters of the owner’s last name, Klaus Lenhart, and KI is from the location of the company, Kirchheim/Teck, Germany.
Leki, the world’s leading manufacturer of ski, hiking and trekking poles had its start in Kircheim, Germany as a hobby of its founder, Karl Lenhart, an airframe mechanic and avid skier. Lenhart believed aluminum would make a superior ski pole compared to the heavy steel models available in the late 1940’s. After successfully creating light-weight poles for his friends, in 1954, the hobby became a full time business.
Technology that Leki introduced and developed includes plastic moulded grips (as opposed to the former nylon webbing straps), plastic baskets instead of metal, aluminium tempering process for imporved strength, dual-component grips, adjustable pole-locking technology and trigger 'click-in' system, a cork and latex mix for the handle called 'Cor-Tex', amongst many other innovations.
As the ski market continued to flourish, Leki began manufacturing hiking poles primarily for European mountain guides. The concept of using two poles as means of relieving stress on knee joints and the lower back appealed to climbers who also saw benefits in performance and safety. Leki poles eventually caught on with the general walking and trekking population that recognized and appreciated the preventive health benefits as well as the climbing support and stabilizing effects.Now a wide variety of lines exist including poles designed for alpinism, Nordic walking, back country, mountaineering, and trekking poles. Leki is now renowned as a walking pole manufacturer of quality and value.
