The SPARTANAT Interview with FROG.PRO: “WE DON’T SET OURSELVES ANY LIMITS” was originally posted in their native German language at www.spartanat.com/2023/02/interview-fabio-von-frog-pro It is a great follow up to the tour of the factory we posted yesterday.

FROG.PRO is gear with function and design from Italy. During our home visit in Parma we talked to FROG.PRO founder Fabio Casali and got into gear-philosphing with the classic questions: Where are you from? Where are you going?

Happy birthday Fabio, FROG.PRO is getting 10 years old. Where are you actually standing as gear company?

Time to party! Ten years have gone by very quickly. I started out as a craftsman offering repairs and custom products and I’m now running a little gem. FROG.PRO today is a small company with less than 15 employees, organized and managed to obtain a very high value for the user and for those who work in the company.

Value in terms of product, as we are committed to offering different solutions from the rest of the market and with attention to the smallest details (that’s why you at SpartanAt nicknamed us “Armani Gear”, right?). When we design a new piece of equipment we don’t set limits: we use the best materials and integrate all the features that can improve the use of the product. Savings policies are then adopted by limiting fabric waste in cutting operations, optimizing sewing processes, taking care of supply logistics, but never at the expense of the product.

Value also in terms of quality of life for those who work with us. We have always invested in the implementation of technologies to facilitate and improve everyone’s work; and in the improvement of the workplace, as I believe that to create excellence you need to live in an excellent way, to breathe beauty and feel it deeply. For this reason we have always kept the manufacturing in house, guaranteeing 100% made in Italy products.

Therefore, I do not feel like expressing a judgment on the positioning on the market, as we are a unique reality in our field, aimed at those who share our values.

Ten years ago: where did it start?

The idea of founding an equipment manufacturing company came to my mind during my military service in the 2º RGT Alpini. Immediately after the leave, I looked for a temporary job that could make me earn some money and in 2013, overcoming the skepticism of relatives and acquaintances, I finally started the company FROG.PRO. I was alone. I rented a 70s workshop of about 80 square meters near my parent’s house: it wasn’t nice, but it was my laboratory, where I could finally give free reign to my creativity. Although I had already learned how to sew, I immediately collided with many problems related to the management of an entrepreneurial activity. I had to learn how to manage sales through social media and website, use a camera and photo editing softwares, create administrative documents, managing the relationships with banks, etc. Luckily, I am a very resilient person and I managed to take advantage of all the obstacles that stood in front of me to draw positive experiences and enrich my cultural background.

What was your experience in those 10 years?

During these ten years I lived through beautiful experiences alternated with really bad and stressful moments. In the company I celebrated with my team the goals achieved. I got angry at myself and at them for failures. I shared with them looks of satisfaction after very intense periods in which we all gave our best. I laughed a lot. I cried. I met many people and with some of them I formed friendships that still last today. I had a lot of different experiences. Looking back, I can say that I enjoyed every single moment of this awesome journey.

What can we expect from FROG.PRO? What is upcoming?

Over the past two years we have expanded our workshop to nearly 600 square meters as well as optimizing and automating many internal processes to structure the company for future growth. The products we make today are the result of these organizational efforts combined with all the passion we always put into our work. Recently, we finished the development of the new HAWK plate carrier, new cummerbunds, new pouches and we also patented a new quick detach system for modular panels called U.LOK. In addition to this, we will dedicate this year to completing the offer of our current catalogue. The best is yet to come…

FROG.PRO on the Internet

SPARTANAT: www.spartanat.com

SPARTANAT’s ON TOUR: FROG.PRO workshop visit was organized finally posted to their site at www.spartanat.com/2023/02/on-tour-werkstattbesuch-frog-pro in their native German language. This is a translation of that article. They’ve been gracious enough to share it with our readers.

ON TOUR: FROG.PRO workshop visit

We, too, have undertaken an Italian journey. No, not like Goethe, who traveled south of the Alpine ridge from 1786 to 1788. We were only there for two days and only got as far as Parma. And there not because of the famous culinary – although we can’t complain there – but because of the good gear. FROG.PRO, the Armani among Italian gear manufacturers, is at home there, we were with them in the workshop.

How Gear is created? Gear is created from material. Also at FROG.PRO, ten minutes from downtown Parma and yet outside the city, the raw material is important and the stocked warehouse is the basis that gear can be produced in different materials and colors.

But the sum of the parts is then more than the parts for themselves. FROG.PRO relied on laser cutting early on, and that shows in the workshop equipment. When you see the parts, you know where you stand.

This is what a panel looks like on the computer that controls the laser cutter. Here, the viewer can already recognize FROG.PRO’s characteristic design language: MOLLE with point openings.

And this is what it looks like when the suction stops working and the lid of the large laser computer opens. You can never have enough MOLLE …

The Italians produce on a daily basis. And in addition to the laser cut parts, all the other ingredients are added. They all add up to a whole: this will be Orthos Med Pouches.

Other color fancy? No, this is still not fashion, but MOLLE for IFAK bags for rescue forces, which are in hi-vis eye-catching colors.

Only who must come and everything exactly and exkat assemble. At the industrial machines sit seamstresses who build from the individual parts, the gear that you all know. Here again is a civilian IFAK in the works.

Work that requires a lot of patience and accuracy, because equipment consists of many parts and is constructed step by step. Until the FROG.PRO product is ready.

Also still there: classic MOLLE straps that provide mounting options on equipment.

And not to forget: lots of plastic parts with special functions.

These are some jobs that FROG.PRO has created. All Gear is produced locally by local workers.

At the end comes the shipping. What is ready is packed. Before that, the quality control department takes a close look at everything and makes sure that everything is as good as you expect from FROG.PRO.

At the same time, the Italian equipment manufacturer has a wide range that wants to get to the man: here is the very special Sniper CORE Chest Rig. It has been designed with special forces, we will soon present it to you separately.

Other items are more mundane, belts for example. Below the inner belt, above the equipment belt and above the padding that can be velcroed into the belt, which prevents the War Belt from slipping when worn over the jacket.

And, of course, plenty of different pouches for all the purposes you need to use.

“The Italian has a deeper feeling for the high dignity of art than other nations,” Goethe wrote in his famous Italian travelogue. Sounds pompous today, but it has a kernel of truth that can be found not only in the many fashion companies in the area and Milan and Parma. Fabio Casa, the founder and the soul of FROG.PRO, brings functionality and style together and both together result in his designs best equipment from Italy: FROG.PRO just.

FROG.PRO im Internet

SPARTANAT: www.spartanat.com