Mountains and the Metaverse
Synergy or Contradiction?
Out of the Box into the Metaverse
Why the metaverse becomes important

Thirty years ago, most mountaineers would never have dreamed that climbing gyms would one day become a mass phenomenon. This always happens when innovations are announced. Think personal computers, smartphones and social media? They were all laughed at in the beginning. However, change often comes faster than expected.

The next big innovation that could change everything is the emergence of the metaverse. Anyone approaching the topic today will keep coming up against new questions. In an extensive study, we set out to explore the answers. We wanted to know: Is there a business case for the metaverse and the mountain sports industry?

Christoph Engl - CEO Oberalp Group
Ruth Oberrauch - Board Member Oberalp Group
Which Metaverse?

There is no one metaverse. What we see today are a collection of different ideas, providers, platforms and structures. Time to define a few terms and offer some initial explanations. They come courtesy of Martino Marchetti, Oberalp Research & Innovation Lab Manager and Philipp Trompeter, an expert on the future development of the sports industry.

Philipp Trompeter - Dr. Wieselhuber & Partner GmbH
Martino Marchetti - Research & Innovation Lab Manager Oberalp Group
Meta is not the metaverse. Facebook might have created a metaverse platform. But there are over 100 different public platforms out there. Some of them run decentrally on the blockchain, such as Decentraland or The Sandbox. Others are owned by private companies, like Fortnite or Minecraft. Currently, the most successful platform is Roblox.
The Platforms

Meta ≠ Metaverse

Roblox is one of the most successful decentralized metaverse platforms. Here, companies can create their own virtual worlds. In Nikeland, for example, visitors can play mini-games or outfit their avatars with new outfits. Like most platforms, Roblox can be used with a smartphone or PC. However, the experience becomes more intense when using augmented or virtual reality.
The Roblox Example

Brands in the metaverse

Augmented Reality (AR) adds digital elements to a camera view of its respective environment. This works, for example, with a smartphone. For example, the navigation app on your smartphone can superimpose signposts onto the camera image. Virtual Reality (VR) is a fully immersive experience, for which you need special video glasses. The real environment is completely replaced by a virtual/digital environment.
Augmented Reality vs Virtual Reality

Immersive experience

The blockchain enables payment with digital currencies as well as ownership of digital assets in the form of Non Fungible Tokens (NFT). The difference between a cryptocurrency and an NFT can be explained by taking two dollar bills. The first can be exchanged at any time. If we write a name on the second dollar bill in our example, the bill is individualized – it becomes an NFT.
Digital Assets

How virtual items become real property

The metaverse has enormous potential to change social interaction. VR meetings in particular have great advantages over the video conferences we mostly use today. The better the technology, the more photorealistic the avatars, the more real the meetings will become. So in the future, meeting consumption will become real interaction.
More Community
The metaverse is emerging right now. We expect the true metaverse boom to occur in the 2030s, when better digital technology becomes affordable to millions of users. Think about the history of the Internet. In 1993, most people didn't know such a thing existed. Thirty years later, it's an essential part of everyday life. Today, the same is true for the metaverse – it could be the beginning of a new era.
From Vision to Reality

When will it all happen?

Five Myths about the Metaverse

The Metaverse is just beginning to emerge; new worlds are opening up. And with them come questions and uncertainties. Together with the consultancy Dr. Wieselhuber & Partner, we have investigated how the mountains could become part of the metaverse or whether the mountain sports industry will always remain a counter-world. We believe that this study with 2,500 participants could become an important basis for discussion for the entire mountain sports industry. Key findings and expectations based on five myths about the metaverse.

Korbinian Richter - Dr. Wieselhuber & Partner GmbH
Stefan Rainer - CSO Oberalp Group
Are we ready for the metaverse?
Which steps we take – and which we avoid.

With our study, we planned to do more than simply show what was happening out there in terms of the metaverse. We wanted to find out where Oberalp actually stands, and to see if we are ready to take the first steps towards the metaverse. Ruth Oberrauch and Christoph Engl present the learnings for Oberalp.

Beyond Retail

Denis Horvat is co-CEO of basketball and street style specialist Kickz and one of the founders of the NFT fashion gamification platform Kickz M3TA. At the Oberalp Summit in Venice, Denis presented his ideas for the retail of the future.

Denis Horvart - CEO Kickz
Digital First

Ultimately, the metaverse discussion is about one central issue: Does it make us better and faster and does it create added value for our industry and for our partnerships?

At the latest since the pandemic, we know that we no longer need just a strategy for digital transformation. If we want to be successful in the next decades, we need a digital strategy. Oberalp CSO Stefan Rainer on opportunities and possibilities in the metaverse for the outdoor industry.

Stefan Rainer - CSO Oberalp Group
The Oberalp Protoverse
The mountain in virtual worlds

Take the first steps with us in the Oberalp metaverse prototype. Currently still a first draft, though soon to be perhaps a virtual world for all.

Dive right in and take a look around the
Oberalp Protoverse.

Please note: It works on Mac and PC, but not on mobile devices yet. And it takes a while for everything to load.

This is Oberalp in summer 2024

From Venice out into the world – the forthcoming summer collections of the Oberalp Brands.

 

This was the Oberalp Summit in Venice
The Oberalp Summit gives me the opportunity to consciously take a break from everyday life and deal with important future trends. For me personally, the topic of the metaverse is still a long way off, but I can see in my children how relevant it will become. And I think it's important that the Summit has created awareness for this. Martin Dösel, retailer from Eppan (Italy)
I believe that the metaverse will change the world of retail and give us an opportunity to experience products in a whole new way. And it is important that at the Summit we as dealers have the opportunity to share and learn from each other in a friendly atmosphere. Nevio Cornado, dealer from Bergamo
I am thrilled by the foresight and visionary content of the event and found the presentation extremely exciting – also for me personally. At the beginning, I held up a red card. And a yellow one at the end. Katharina Schürf, journalist
Real New Gear
Equipment for your mountain adventures. The spring and summer 2024 collections and the importance of the metaverse for the Oberalp Brands.