Taking Post-Athlete Skills To The Business World

Hamish Who?

Hamish Acland, Kiwi entrepreneur and CEO of Mons Royale experienced many sliding door moments where things could have turned out very differently. Growing up on a New Zealand high country farm it was easy to stay locally and enjoy a low-stress lifestyle. Instead he left home at age 18 to become a world freeride skier, earning himself 5th place on the World Tour in 2005, including 3rd place at Kirkwood North American Freeride Championships behind Craig Garbriel and Aurelian Ducroz. 

Hamish got his first international experience competing in the Rip Curl Heli Challenge, here he got to rub shoulders with the likes of Aussie skier Dave Gravy Keam.

The Heli-Challenge a free ski event he competed in for a few years, consisting of three days of helicopter-accessed comp in extreme, freeride’ and downhill’ spread over a two-week period to allow for clear weather conditions. Back then, skiing off cliffs was fairly new to competitions and Hamish thrived in this fast-paced ski world. World renown Aussie big mountain photographer, Tony ‘Harro’ Harrington was the event organiser based in Wanaka at the time and remembers “Hamish was one of those Kiwis just charging the front line in comps and he’s always been very talented and focused. He was blazing trails, competing on the world tour and gracing ski magazine covers”.

“Hamish was one of the top guns of that era” Harro

Hamish has fond memories of his competition years, “I enjoyed the camaraderie and it was my ticket to travel the world and I think the world likes Kiwis. We’re neutral, unlike the French or US, some people like them and some people don’t”. Hamish spent time between comps in Verbier, St Anton, Chamonix hanging out with mates, basically living out of a ski bag all those years, crashing on mates couches and recalls one time even sleeping in a park in Innsbruck, Austria. 

That Kiwi edge

The thing about being from New Zealand and competing against the best in the world

is that you’re bloody FAR away from home when the competitions are mainly in the USA and Europe. “When you leave home, you are all in, you’re not popping home for rehab or seeing mum and dad during the snow season” Hamish says. Turning this into an business advantage is not for the faint of heart, there are plenty of pro-athletes who go onto start brands but most fail trying.

Another sliding door moment was meeting Kiwi wife, Hannah. Hannah had lived in NY and had a design background and had vision into product development. Neither had a background in international business clothing “but this allowed us to break a lot of norms” Hamish recalls. Another example of turning a negative into a business advantage.

“Hamish was always good at taking on a challenge, a very focused athlete and that shows in business as he took those traits into the business world”.

As an athlete there is a lot of time spent wearing sportswear, and in particular garments to keep you warm on the snow and Hamish was all too familiar with synthetic shirts becoming stinky after an hour, fabrics that looked more like pajamas or a cotton t-shirt that had no place on the mountain. 

With the explosive combination of Hannah’s design background and vision of product development and Hamish’s background base layer brand Mons Royale was born in 2009. “There were so many synchronicities during the early days of establishing Mons, we even accidentally discovered MONS spells SNOW upsidedown, we took it as a positive sign”. Hamish says from the Mons Headquarters in Wanaka. They launched with merino wool base layers and over 15 years expanded into performance apparel for mtn biking, snow and the missions in between. 

Hamish was able to draw on great relationships formed during that decade of being a ski athlete, “Business is a machine and it’s hard work without great connections” he says and makes no secret that Rip Curl, a sponsor of the heli-challenge during his heyday influenced how Hamish ran Mons. “Seeing the impact that Rip Curl had on skiing in NZ was really inspiring. When Rip Curl backed the Heli Challenge it shifted the ski culture in positive ways. And I saw the value in creating a brand that could have a positive impact”.

“Hamish knows all the athletes, it goes to show the more connected you are to an industry the better you know it and the better the products. It’s amazing what he’s done with Mons”.

Harro 

As an athlete, Hamish skied on Volkl skis and the international marketing manager Shinka introduced Hamish and Hannah to their first distributor in Switzerland who had a stable of brands including Armada skis. That intro kicked off more distribution deals across Europe regularly with distributors of Armada skis. Gradually this duo has created an empire of 800+ stores across Europe, North America, Canada then Japan and China. 

They have also set up offices in Squamish, BC and Innsbruck, which Hamish explains are located in mountain towns and not mega-cities for a reason. “We simply want to be close to the mountains”. Its with great irony that Innsbruck is the home of Mons for Europe as he also vividly remembers choosing to sleep in a park in Innsbruck than pay for a hotel. You never forget a cold night wearing just a puffer jacket. You never forget where you come from and what you had to go through to get to the top. 

The success of the brand lies in the clientele they attract and Mons has many athletes who walk into their stores and fall in love with their clothing. Jamie Anderson, a four times female X Games athlete discovered the brand when in New Zealand and represented the brand while it still operated out of a garage. Today the likes of Finn Bilous and Jess Hotter, Freeride Would Champion are but a couple of examples.  

Supporting others is a successful business formula

Hamish and Hannah are really passionate about lessening their footprint, giving back and supporting others, “we see business as a vehicle for good, we’ve spent time making sure Mons is B Corp certified, and investigating ways to improve sustainability in our supply chains including only using sea freight”.

Hamish is also passionate about getting behind women in sport, sponsoring three Womens Rampage Mountain Bike events, Casey Brown, MTB, Robin Goomes Crankworx, in fact 60% of Mons athlete investment is in women’s sports. Hamish isn’t new to not for profit ideas, he set up the Freeski Open NZ back in 2005 as a not for profit.

“There’s a reason why athletes become good business people because they have the strength to see things through when the going gets tough.”

Harro

Mons has weathered challenging economic times of global lockdowns, poor snow seasons and fierce international competition and there’s always reasons for brands to stop trading. Many brands have come and gone. Hamish is committed to pivoting Mons Royale , “brands have to make changes and shift where they need to shift”, he says. 

Hamish and Hannah have poured themselves into research and development of wool and admit “wool itself hasn’t changed but the learning about wool has”. 

The Mons team are committed to there mission of developing natures performance apparel without fucking the planet”. They admit they are’t there yet but are commited to finding innovative ways to scale the impact of wool and have multiple R&D projects in the works. 

What does the future hold for Mons Royale?

Some exciting developments include opening a Flagship store in Whistler which will be open for the winter and neighbour Arcteryx. They have a bike collection launching in February in the southern hemisphere which is designed to perform for the longer rides. 

For now Hamish is committed to watching his children grow up in Wanaka, nourishing the brand and direction it’s headed and enjoying life. “I want to live life doing action, adventure and rad stuff”. That’s a life well-lived.

This article is dedicated to Paul Gunn