1979
Yosemite climber, Charles Cole III, starts Masters in Business at University of Michigan
1985
his father, Charles Cole Senior, suffers a stroke and banks foreclose his business
Charles Cole III, aged 30, founds 5.10, in North Hollywood, California, to make better climbing gear
engages both his parents in the business
1986
Charles begins distributing a line of 1,000 “approach” shoes from Taiwan. The infamous ‘Five Tennie’
Sales amount to $125,000 USD
the shoes uppers fall apart, but climbers peel off the sticky rubber sole and glue it to their climbing shoes
Charles Cole decides to work on a better sticky rubber especially for climbing shoes
1987
After much research and experimentation debuts new rubber called Stealth due to its secret compound recipe
1989
sales top $1.2 million USD
1990
Karen Peil joins 5.10 as National Sales Manager
1994
Karen marries Arnould t’Kint, 5.10’s Chief Financial Officer
1997
develops the first American market womens-specific climbing shoe, the Diamond
2000
Chares works with Jeff Steber of Intense Cycles to develop prototype of a sticky mountain bike shoe
Australian Chris Kovarik is the first rider to try the prototype shoes.
2001
Jeff Steber pays for tooling and moulds for ‘Intense’ labelled Stealth soled mountain bike shoes
2006
Australian Sam Hill wins World Championship Downhill title, first rider to do so on flat pedals, (wearing Five Ten shoes)
2007
Television’s History Channel profiles Charles Cole and Stealth Rubber on the Sticky Stuff episodes of Modern Marvels
Sam Hill wins the World Championships and the World Cup Series using Five Ten shoes.
2010
Charles wins Spirit of the Entrepreneur Award from the Inland Empire Center for Entrepreneurship
2011
appoints “Big Wall” Wally Barker as chief financial officer, ex CFO for Quiksilver Japan