Cirkel Supply Co specialise in apparel rental to offer skiers & snowboarders a new, circular way to reduce the impact of their sports by renting premium outerwear. This is something we at Ski Lodge Engelberg can stand behind. Users choose an outfit on Cirkel’s platform, confirm their dates, and Cirkel delivers the rental directly to their destination.
What can you rent?
You as our guest can rent high-performance kits for the whole family, and travel to the mountains as light as a feather. Cirkel supplies quality kits for kids from brands like Namuk and Patagonia, and for full-sized humans, they have excellent gear from 5x premium brands such as Houdini Sportswear.
In addition to being highly convenient for us all, Cirkel’s rental service was found to emit 76% less CO2 than a linear sales equivalent. Cirkel’s team is not only friends of the house – they are committed to minimising their impact, and making rental a sustainable alternative to ownership. Yay!
Cirkel Supply Co.
Came from a vision of a circular model providing access to nature, while reducing stress on natural resources. Founders Anders Bergenstrand and Per Berthels were old ski buddies who love the mountains. They wanted to open up the outdoors to a wider cross-section of society and shift away from the take-make-waste method of sales. To ensure Cirkel’s environmental performance, the guys enlisted the help of circular business enthusiast and ski industry aficionado, Anna Smoothy. Anna measures and mitigates Cirkel’s impact with frameworks like business model life cycle assessment, and is constantly researching to make rental low-impact and high-satisfaction.
HARD FACTS
Circular business is taking off globally: infrequent skiers dominate the European market with 60% of Europe’s 60 million skiers already renting skis & boots. Now consumers are opening up to using rental for other goods like sports gear, winter apparel and occasion-wear.
Cirkel Supply Co. is on a mission to make outdoor adventures more sustainable and accessible to everyone: buy less, use more, go explore! There is nothing not to like about this!
FOUNDER PER ABOUT CIRKEL SUPPLY CO.
Name: Per Berthels, CMO at Cirkel Supply Co.
When and why did you start skiing?
Every winter, my family and I would take a freezing-cold ski trip to the Swedish
mountains. My first happy turns took place when I was about 4 years old.
What is the most memorable memory you have from skiing?
This was definitely 15 years ago in Lyngen, Norway – where I was ski touring
with friends. We had climbed for around 5 hours, and while shredding the
descent down into the fjord, a group of killer whales appeared out of nowhere.
That was a truly incredible and humbling experience.
Where in the alps would you ski what? Piste, Freeride or cross-country?
I love the piste in St Anton – it’s so long and fun. Freeride has so many
fabulous places across The Alps, but Laub in Engelberg is always a pleasure.
I prefer to take my cross-country adventures at home in the Swedish
mountains, where it’s so accessible and peaceful. In The Alps, the high
mountains are so distracting that my cross country plans always crumble into
a day of freeriding or piste shredding.
What attracted you to found Cirkel Supply Co.?
These are my top three motivators that have driven me to join Anders as a
Cirkel Supply co-founder:
- To do something good for people and the planet
- To be closer to something I love: outdoors, skiing, hiking
- To create a friendly company where work is fun
How will you work towards a better future for the environment personally?
Buy less and use more. Everything we’re learning at Cirkel about the impacts
of the overproduction of food and goods is alarming. In my house, we eat
vegetarian food that’s local and organic where possible. Since starting Cirkel,
I’m obviously obsessed with circularity, so it’s been fun to see where I can
engage with circular models in other parts of my life: buying second-hand
clothes, or if I need something for a short time, I’ll borrow or rent it.
What is it like to found a company with a friend/friends – what are your
takeaways – good and bad?
It’s fantastic of course! I can’t lie – there are moments when we might kill each
other, but the nice aspects of working with friends always win. The best thing
is that you have a friend beside you, both on the ups and downs.
Where do you see your brand in the future? Branching out to other sports?
Cirkel Supply and rental will be the new way to travel and experience the
mountains. If we share our resources, we can better take care of our natural
environment.
Rental makes sense for quality products that are durable and are not used by
consumers often. We see our product assortment expanding to this quality,
light-usage products for summer: like camping and hiking equipment.
Where are you born, or where did you grow up? Did it influence your
profession and why in that case?
I´m from Stockholm, Sweden and have lived here my whole life. My place is
out in the archipelago. It’s beautiful and quiet in the countryside – but close to
the city too – which I see as the best of both worlds (even if we’ve been stuck
in the snow a bit this winter!).
My upbringing was very active, and this has shaped me into the person I am –
both personally and professionally. I’m very grateful to my family for this and
that’s something I try to pass on to my kids today.
Thank you Per and hope to see you here on our doorstep soon again!
GET TO THE RENTAL
// Ski Lodge Engelberg Team
