How did it all begin?
We like to say that we're obsessed with detail. So it probably won't surprise anyone that the idea of making our own sleeping bags first came to Lukáš, an architecture student, who was studying in Shanghai at the time, back in 2012. You could say that even then, we were already going against the current. Most companies start by manufacturing at home and later move production to Asia as they grow. We did it the other way around, and so the first Patizon down sleeping bags arrived in the Czech Republic from China.
It's worth saying, though, that even back then they already had something to offer - at the very least enough comfort for a winter crossing of frozen Lake Baikal, where Honza took a Patizon sleeping bag with him. A few months after returning, he became a new member of the Patizon team. It was 2016.
2017 From Asia to Europe
Lukáš and Honza soon realised that the product they wanted to create simply couldn't be manufactured remotely in China. So they began searching intensively for workshops capable of producing down sleeping bags in the Czech Republic at the level of quality they were aiming for. Unfortunately, it didn't work out - although perhaps that "unfortunately" should really be replaced with "thankfully". Through a fortunate series of events, they managed to arrange production just across the Czech border - on the Polish side of the Beskids, in the Pajak workshop. That's where, based on designs by Lukáš and Honza, the first ultralight sleeping bags called the Patizon G series were made.
Even then, they were something of a revelation on the Czech market. Sleeping bags this light were far from common here in 2017. But Patizon wasn't yet in a position to make the most of it, because with the financial resources available at the time, the guys could only produce a few dozen pieces a year.
2018 Patizon 2.0
If Patizon was going to grow, it needed to move forward. And so, in 2018, discussions began with Pavel and Zdenda, the owners of Hanibal.cz, together with their marketing specialist Ondra. Eventually, the two-person team became a group of five, and together we gradually started shaping Patizon into the brand you know today. But the road ahead was still far from easy.
Even though we suddenly had an injection of capital, marketing expertise and commercial know-how, within a year Patizon lost one crucial certainty it had relied on until then - production in Poland. When orders grew from dozens to hundreds of pieces, the guys at Pajak realised that this was no longer a sustainable path for them, and our cooperation came to an end. We had plans, materials and even our first pre-orders - but nowhere to manufacture them.
Made in the Czech Republic
What had seemed impossible in 2017 eventually became reality. We found textile workshops willing to start manufacturing for us - we just had to teach them how to sew our down sleeping bags, how to work with fabrics this light... At the same time, we needed to find a better solution for filling sleeping bags than doing it entirely by hand. So we developed our own down-filling machine. You could say it was a little bit "punk", but at least for sleeping bags it worked, and the production process became significantly faster.
At the same time, we entered the world of the serious outdoor business. On one side, we were already working with industry giants such as Pertex and Toray. On the other, we were supplying several Czech outdoor retailers and establishing our first contacts abroad - believe it or not, even in South Korea. And our almost unbelievable, but fantastic cooperation with Adam Ondra certainly helped us along the way.
2020 A few obstacles along the way
In 2020, the Covid pandemic arrived. At first, it looked like a golden age for outdoor brands - suddenly everyone wanted to spend time outside. But on the other hand, some things began to fall apart. Supply chains, for example, as major fabric manufacturers prioritised their largest customers during the crisis, leaving smaller brands struggling to secure materials. Delays in deliveries meant that several times we couldn't supply sleeping bags to our customers on schedule, and we even lost some of them. At the same time, we faced another crisis caused by the delivery of a defective batch of fabric, and Patizon suddenly found itself uncomfortably close to the edge.
That was the moment we realised we could no longer treat Patizon as a side project. Honza had been the only one dedicating the majority of his time to Patizon from the beginning. Now the rest of us jumped in too, investing both our own time and money. We managed to navigate that dramatic period and, together with the whole team, finally catch the right wind in our sails.
Patizon as you know it today
Since then, you could say we've been riding the wave. We've managed to bring new, interesting and, above all, innovative products to the market. One sleeping bag series with three models has grown into four series with 17 models, plus two quilts. We now have a complete range of down clothing and accessories. We've created some amazing collaborations - both with Tilak, a long-established name in the Czech outdoor scene, and with Lucka Kutrová, aka Holka s Bucket Listem, on a limited-edition sleeping bag. And we finally bought ourselves a professional down-filling machine.
A dream came true - not only for Lukáš, who set all of this in motion more than 14 years ago, but for the rest of us too. The dream is being able to create products exactly the way we believe they should be. To provide jobs for people here at home in the Czech Republic. To offer top-level quality backed by a lifetime warranty. And to have an incredible amount of fun while doing it.
And believe us. We're not finished yet!