YY Vertical: French innovation serving performance in climbing

Focus on YY Vertical, a French climbing brand that designs innovative accessories to enhance the comfort and performance of climbers, both indoors and outdoors.

YY Vertical is a French brand specializing in accessories and equipment dedicated to climbing and training for climbers. Founded in the Alps, it developed around a simple idea: to design ingenious products that meet concrete needs encountered in the field, while remaining accessible and easy to use.

The brand became known for its belay glasses, which allow one to follow a climber without excessively tilting the head, thus reducing neck pain. This iconic product well illustrates its approach: to solve a specific problem with an ergonomic and practical solution.

Over time, YY Vertical has expanded its range with training beams, portable devices like the Rocky, and various accessories for warming up and physical preparation. It caters to both recreational climbers and competitors, as well as climbing gyms, with a strong international presence.

Today, YY Vertical is recognized as an innovative and dynamic brand in the climbing world, driven by a field culture, an entrepreneurial spirit, and a constant desire to improve the experience of practitioners.

I was lucky enough to be able to ask a few questions to Théo Dufresne, who serves as Social Media and Influence Manager for the brand.

BD: Originally, there were the belay glasses. What was the triggering element that made you say: "There is a real gap in the market, and we are going to fill it"?

TD: The story of YY Vertical begins with Alex Yang, its founder, when he arrived in Grenoble in 2011 and started climbing. As he wasn't very good (he says so himself!), he spent more time belaying than climbing. After twisting his neck to watch people climb (the basics of good belaying!), he started to have neck pain. While talking to climbers, he realized that everyone had exactly the same problem.

As a good engineer, he thought he could develop a solution to give climbing enthusiasts the opportunity to practice their sport comfortably. He then prototyped his first belay glasses in his student room in Grenoble, before gradually starting to sell them to climbers in the region.

The demand was so strong that he eventually left his first job to create the brand YY Vertical in 2014. Twelve years later, YY Vertical is still here. There are about twenty of us, based near Grenoble, with the same initial goal: to facilitate the enjoyment of climbing by making it smoother and more comfortable, before, during, and after the session, thanks to well-thought-out and well-designed products.

Anecdote: Why YY Vertical? The first Y for his last name Yang, and the second Y for Grenoble, which is located at the center of three valleys forming a Y. And Vertical to emphasize climbing.

BD: How does the creation process work for you? Are they responses from pro climbers or needs that you identify yourself while climbing?

TD: It’s a hybrid process. It relies on field feedback: whether from climbers of all types, as well as pro climbers, physiotherapists, and coaches that the brand supports.

Along with an internal vision: at YY, there is above all a passion for climbing, and especially a R&D department, with product designers who climb intensively throughout the year. To say the least, they come back with many innovative ideas, stemming from their personal experience.

The prototyping phase takes place with us, in Saint-Vincent-de-Mercuze (Isère). At that time, we make sure to include as much as possible physiotherapists, coaches, and athletes we collaborate with, to ensure that we offer the most relevant products possible.

BD: With your massage and recovery products, you touch upon the health of the climber. Is it a desire to become the global "health" partner of the athlete?

TD: I wouldn’t use the word "health" which has a very medical connotation. It’s a complex field that should remain in the hands of the pros.

YY Vertical is a brand focused on the proper functioning of the human body: We want to ensure that the climber doesn’t get injured, so we have developed warm-up products. We want to ensure that the climber progresses calmly and respects their physiology, so we have developed useful and, above all, ergonomic equipment.

We want climbing to be comfortable, so we have developed glasses to prevent neck pain. The recovery devices fall into this same line: how to ensure that the climber feels as good as possible after their effort. Our vision is truly to support climbers throughout their practice by offering them products that accompany them from warm-up to recovery.

BD : The outdoor is an environment sensitive to ecology. What concrete steps is YY Vertical taking to reduce the environmental impact of its products (materials, packaging, transport)?

TD : We realized that our main impact was related to product design. That's why we are trying to work on it today (and tomorrow!). This currently involves 3 concrete actions:

The elimination of plastic packaging
We have chosen to ban plastic packaging in favor of packaging that is almost exclusively cardboard. When the product does not require enhanced protection for transport, we also prefer simple and effective packaging, using as little material as possible (e.g., Baguette Evo or Mini Crux).
The choice of materials
A few years ago, many players were still offering resin (another word for plastic) products. On our side, we have chosen to design training products made of 100% wood (poplar, beech, rubber tree, etc.) to limit the
emissions related to their manufacturing and to facilitate recycling at the end of their life.
A concrete upcycling project
During the manufacture of VerticalBoard, we inevitably generate wood scraps. Rather than throwing them away, we decided to reuse them to make the handles of our VerticalBrush brushes. In practice, when you have a VerticalBrush in hand to brush your project at Fontainebleau, you also have a small part of VerticalBoard with you.

BD : With the arrival of climbing at the Olympics and the multiplication of private climbing gyms, how do you adapt your discourse to speak to both the cliff purists and the new indoor climbers?

TD : We try to do what we do best: talk about climbing everywhere and for everyone. We really want to have this friendly climbing buddy posture: capable of meeting the demands of technical climbers while warmly welcoming new lovers of this sport!

For new climbers, we seek to share our knowledge of climbing by creating content to raise awareness about the best practices for warming up and training, in order to progress without getting injured. This content is mainly available on our Instagram @yyvertical_official. We also support communities that share our values of inclusivity and discovering the sport, such as Eska Gang or Climbing Bitches.

For the cliff purists, we design well-thought-out technical products that directly meet their needs to help them complete their projects faster.

It is also worth noting that we redistribute a lot to clubs, associations, and local authorities, by setting up training areas and offering prizes for competition podiums, always with the goal of making our sport more accessible!

BD : What are your upcoming goals/projects?

TD : We will really focus on training, with more comprehensive access to information on how to train and progress in climbing!

This will involve many projects: new products, guided and educational video content, training app... In short, I won't say more, stay connected!