From Scratch
“I panicked. These flying rocks are like shrapnel. Who is going to take care of the children if I get hit?” says Kaloyan Iliev with a note of fear.
I was immediately welcomed into the office by a kind, smiling, and warm-hearted man. “My name is Kaloyan Iliev. It is my pleasure to have you in my office. Please, feel like you are at home,” says Kaloyan with a big smile on his face. He offered a cup of coffee, which I kindly refused.
Kaloyan Iliev is an entrepreneur in his 40s who owns a small but highly profitable kids clothing brand. Its name — UWear. UWear is a brand that sells licensed clothing and accessories that appeal to kids nowadays. Those include Minecraft, LEGO, Call of Duty, Squid Game, and other game and TV show-related apparel that children love. “We were inspired to create this brand because of our children’s interests and needs. We have three,” says Kaloyan with a sense of happiness and pride.
As a kid who has always been a fan of LEGO and Call of Duty, I wanted to know more about his company and how it became so popular.
Around 2015, LEGO products and merchandise were of great popularity in Bulgaria and all children wanted to have them. His kids were no exception. The market was overflooded with counterfeit copies of Minecraft and LEGO-themed T-shirts that were of questionable quality and origin. “We wanted our kids to have high-quality clothing with their favorite characters that also respect copyright law,” says Kaloyan. Their journey for the creation of UWear had started.
Their search for licensed kids clothing brought them to Billund, Denmark — the home of LEGO, where they met with the company that holds the rights to produce LEGO Wear products, called Kabooki. Kabooki requires serious professional experience, which Kaloyan and his wife did not have at the time. Nevertheless, they still managed to infect their Danish partners with their energy and enthusiasm. Once all the paperwork was done, they immediately started offering their products in Bulgaria.
“At first, we were selling only LEGO Wear, which didn’t turn out to be as profitable as we expected it to be. Then we were pointed by our children, once again, to the LEGO Ninjago series, which was a big hit at the time. We started selling LEGO Ninjago clothing and bedroom sets. The bedroom sets were our first best-seller,” says Kaloyan. The months went by, and they introduced their next best-sellers from a brand that had become a household name for their shop– LEGO backpacks and watches.
As I was listening to his story, suddenly, one picture on the wall captured my attention. It was an epic picture of a girl climbing a steep overhang route. Being a rock climber myself I wanted to know all the details.
As it turned out, bringing joy and smiles to the children was not Kaloyan’s only passion. Kaloyan is also an experienced climber and an alpinist with a wide portfolio of summits in Bulgaria.
“More than 10 years ago, when the kids grew old enough, together with a friend of mine — Stoimen, we went climbing in a local gym. We loved it so much that we decided to sign up for an intro to climbing course. We became obsessed with climbing,” says Kaloyan with pure joy. Their obsession grew so far that they even picked up ice climbing. They visited the most spectacular frozen waterfalls that Bulgaria can offer in the winter season — Boyana (25m) and Skakavitsa (70m) waterfalls. “I recommend to everyone to try ice climbing but to bear in mind that the gear is VERY expensive,” says Kaloyan.
All those achievements in climbing made them feel confident they could try something even more exciting and dangerous — alpinism. „Climbing brings fun, while alpinism brings both fun and death,” says Martin Marovski, an alpinist instructor and a friend of Kaloyan. Kaloyan and Stoimen’s inexhaustible passion brought them to take a course in alpinism. At this point, they were ready to expand their portfolio of ascents with even steeper and higher projects. Even outside of Bulgaria.
The closest and most exciting mountains in the near vicinity of Bulgaria are the Alps. The Alps draw their fair share of hiking and climbing enthusiasts each year, especially Mont Blanc in the French Alps. Each year around 30,000 people summit the mountain. That equals around 200 people a day. Mont Blanc is the highest mountain in Western Europe, rising 4807 meters. It is relatively easy to summit, and this is what makes it attractive for hiking enthusiasts.
They had found their next big score. “We arranged a guide who would get us there as we have never hiked such high mountains before. To climb it, we first had to do special preparations. One week before the hike we were advised to sleep at an altitude of at least 1500 meters to get accustomed to the air density. I went on a cruise, instead,” says Kaloyan laughing.
One week later, they began their journey to the top. Before the ascent to Mont Blanc, they first had to summit another peak close by to get accustomed to the altitude. Kaloyan and Stoimen were overconfident that this won’t be hard as they have climbed a lot of difficult summits in Bulgaria. “Once we got to the top, we were left humbled and out of breath,” says Kaloyan. They were ready to approach Mont Blanc.
The plan to summit it was quite straightforward: they firstly had to reach camp one, sleep there, then wake up and go to camp two. From there on it takes around 10 hours to reach the peak and go back to camp two. It all sounds too easy. The danger was yet to come.
The road from the first to the second camp passes through the infamous ‘Gully of Death’ — a 100-meter-wide gully that must be traversed on foot to get to the top. This couloir has earned its name because of the rock sliding’s that kill 3.7 tourists on average, every summer. Between 1990 and 2017, 102 deaths have been reported.
“I panicked. These flying rocks are like shrapnel. Who is going to take care of the children if I get hit? I started doubting my intentions to get to the top,” Kaloyan said with still notable panic in his words. After a few minutes of doubt, he was ready to send it. Once they passed the ‘Gully’ it was a smooth ride to the second camp.
The trip from the second camp to the top takes around 4–5 hours and is quite steep. The real challenge, however, is not the ascent. You should never underestimate the way down. It is as dangerous as the way up, if not more. One should not surrender to euphoria and tiredness.
“The descent is what also makes Mont Blanc and every other mountain dangerous. The ascent is challenging and tiring. Once you get to the top the euphoria kicks in and tires you even more. You are excited, yet out of gas. You go down with a minimum amount of energy. This is the time when you’ve got to be extra careful. One small mistake and you will fall to your death,” says Kaloyan.
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Vasil Stoyanov is a graduating senior at AUBG majoring in Business Administration. He is inspired by Kaloyan’s achievements in mountaineering and wants to reach even higher summits.
