Welcome to Dörte Tools who will be joining IMBA Europe as a ‘Trail Advocacy Partner’. Founder, designer and engineer of Dörte Tools, Simon Messinger introduces us to his company, which was founded in 2018.
What’s your professional background, why and when did you start manufacturing trail building tools?
I come from a mechanical engineering background where I gained some 20 years of experience. In 2017 I started with the first prototypes of the multitool, in 2018 I founded Dörte Tools to make good trail building tools available quickly and attractively priced throughout Europe. My vision is to cover a lot of trails all over Europe.
Your company is based in Germany, where do the raw materials for your tools come from?
I engineer all the components by myself and test the tools together with professional trail builders in Europe. Often, several versions are needed until a tool is ready for the market. Almost all suppliers are located within a radius of 150km around Stuttgart. So I can always control the quality and strengthen the local economy.
What are your main criteria when designing new products?
The main criteria is that it must work very well and must make sense. Things that only look nice, are for the shelf and not for the trail. When I create a new tool, normally the ideas behind the functions are already there. The rest is, testing it out.
What do you see as the main challenges for mountain biking and trail development for the next few years?
The necessary trail supply for the rapidly increasing number of mountain bikers will remain the main challenge. In some countries, soccer has already been replaced as the most popular sport
Why did you join IMBA Europe as Trail Advocacy Partner?
With Dörte Tools we want to be a part of the makers behind the scene and help to create the mountain bike world of tomorrow. We need more trails, and we need the best tools you can get to build them.