Genuine buckskin has never been just a material for our family.
We have worked with this material using traditional methods for many decades. My father Hannes, his brother Alfons and of course my grandfather Lukas Meindl all emphasised the need to care for and maintain this unique material.
More than ever, this leather is a material that earns our confidence and respect.
It has proven its value and reliability over the centuries, and still evokes an emotive response. Today there are very few specialists left who understand how to treat and work high-quality leather using the traditional methods. We have been working closely and exclusively with our tanneries for generations which enables us to guarantee consistent quality that meets the highest technical and environmental standards.
Our products represent sustainable living. You and future generations will continue to enjoy them. There are not many products in these fast-moving times that can claim these values. I would therefore encourage you to share our passion for leather and the unique products that we create from it for you.
The term “luxury” has a very special meaning for us that I would like to explain. Luxury is generally associated with glitz and glamour. At Meindl we view it rather differently. For us, there is nothing loud about luxury. It is quiet and discrete. For us, luxury means authenticity.
We believe that luxury means how and where something is produced, and the material used to make it. That’s why we use the term “authentic luxury”. We constantly ask ourselves what we can improve in our products without taking away the product’s character and history. For us, luxury means exclusivity and an obvious timelessness, and the choice of the right material for each garment. Our products will never be mass-produced and will always be made from materials that are subject to natural capacity limits and follow environmental principles.
There are capacities in terms of craftmanship, tanning and ultimately production which naturally limit our products. And precisely for this reason, each of our products is a highly individual and unique garment that represents a modern culture and living history.
Markus Meindl
Vision demands courage and experience. Hannes Meindl had – and still has – plenty of both. For over 60 years he demonstrated this admirably in both his private sphere and his business life. As a skilled shoemaker and younger brother of Alfons and Marianne, he demonstrated over and over that he knew exactly what should be done or not done at a given moment.
Working with his two siblings and with his unique way of looking at the world, he always followed his healthy gut instinct when taking decisions.
You cannot have vision without looking back, and no decision is without consequences. With this attitude and his ability to weigh up a situation, he always found it easy to accept responsibility.
“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”. His entrepreneurial decisions were always guided by this mindset and his traditionally conservative principles. He would never go into debt in order to buy something.
Measured against what he achieved, his decisions and his principles were good ones.
I aim to individually interpret fashion by playing with colours, shapes, and materials; this allows me to represent the zeitgeist, my personal attitude towards life and my joie de vivre. My family’s centuries-long experience with leather enables me to use this versatile material responsibly.
Leather is straightforward, timeless, individual, and incomparable. It is like a second skin.
It is the feel, quality and texture of the material that determine my design. We develop new colours and leather qualities in collaboration with experienced tanneries and dyeworks. Drafts, cuts, fit, and implementation are worked out by our creative team at our head office in Kirchanschöring, Bavaria. The path from the sketch on paper through to the finished garment on sale is shaped by our principles and cosmopolitan thinking.
Markus Meindl, born on 03.02.1970, is a passionate and creative entrepreneur and enthusiastic mountain huntsman; he loves motorbikes and delights in walking and swimming.
He has been married since 2014 and has 3 children. From his early childhood he has been fascinated by leather, and by the sewing machines and many other tools he found in the different workshops.
He was eight years old when he started trying to implement his ideas in his parents’ tailoring business – not always to the delight of the staff.
His interest lay in products that he would enjoy using himself. Starting with practical satchels for school through to a shearling-lined denim jacket made from old jeans. He soon realised that he could make a bit of cash by selling his special creations to his friends. He was always interested in developing products from his own ideas – not to please other people but simply to own something that was exactly as he had imagined it.
Since he was eight years old, he has visited every fashion, sport and country sports fair at which Meindl was exhibiting. From Ispo to Berlin Fashion Week, not to mention hunting and country sports fairs. His interest and enthusiasm for all the different fields and product worlds are so great that he has never even considered a different profession.
When he was 14, Markus started to actively participate in creation of the collections in parallel with his school education. He has worked in both the sales and the purchasing sides of his parents’ company.
In 1986 he designed a model that would change this industry from the ground up.
A model that he both designed and stitched himself. He was included in decision-making at a very early stage, and so was able to incorporate and implement his creative ideas at a young age too.
In 1989, after completing his education at the commercial academy, Markus first did his community service in a care home, then went on to an apprenticeship in tailoring with the German gentleman’s outfitters Regent in Weißenburg.
He then opted for a 2-year college course in fashion and clothing technology in Ebensee in the beautiful Salzkammergut.
In 1994, after leaving fashion college, Markus launched an incredibly successful collection together with Austrian artist Hubert von Goisern. This collection was so successful that it transformed the entire market and caused a sensation internationally.
His passion for developing beautiful products has always been his driving force. Products which offer quality, authenticity, and an identity (his). And he has remained true to these principles to this day. With these principles he has created a brand with its own design language, which is unique, unmistakable, and timeless. A brand with charm and character, with products many different areas of life.
“Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves?” (Friedrich Nietzsche)
An addiction to danger, adventure and freedom inspires me to follow my own path.
