About Us
Whippa is a Summit Gear brand focused on manufacturing the best ultralight, purpose built, performance packs.Summit Gear has been designing and manufacturing outdoor adventure equipment since 1981 in Katoomba – the heart of the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, Australia.
Inspired by outdoor adventuring, Summit Gear opened its first store in 1982 where we combined our own manufactured equipment with some of the best outdoor brands from around the world and evolved a product range focused on trail running, hiking and climbing. During this time we built our reputation for manufacturing, durable, functional and comfortable hiking, climbing and canyoning packs for outdoor adventurers. We also built a business focused on designing and manufacturing purpose built packs and bags for the emergency services market to customers including the police bomb squad, special ops ambulance, Careflight and fire fighting units across Australia. In 2022 Summit Gear realized that the Australian market was being underserved by ultralight, performance packs and set about sourcing the most advanced materials to make purpose built packs that were "LIGHTER. STRONGER. BETTER."
The success of this approach was evident immediately with the launch of our first Ultralight performance climbing, hiking and canyoning packs that fulfilled our design ethos of stripping away the unnecessary, to focus on what truly matters: functionality, durability, comfort, and performance. The immediate success had us being approached by companies from around the world to distribute our products into other global markets. Realising the opportunity this presented we needed a brand that could be trademarked globally and also provide a platform to showcase the innovation and ingenuity of Australian design and manufacturing. So in May of 2024 Whippa was launched to represent any product developed by the Summit Gear team to be "LIGHTER. STRONGER. BETTER." and we have only just begun! Our vision is to create an iconic Australian brand, that is a positive economic force in the mountains we serve, and helps our customers achieve their ultimate adventure experience.