Congratulations on cyber-Wear's 25th birthday!

Now is the time to reminisce, because 25 years ago on 02.11.1994 Roman Weiss and Steven Baumgärtner founded cyber-Wear Heidelberg GmbH. At that time still based in the parental cellar, nobody imagined where they would be 25 years later. In 1994 they founded the company with 346 DM starting capital, an old fax machine without a connection, the portable telephone of Grandpa Weiss, an old children's desk and an equally old Atari computer. In the few hours of sleep they needed, they dreamed of major customers.

Steven Baumgärtner and Roman Weiss met for the first time at the English Institute, an international private school in Heidelberg. Although they played hockey together in the school team and also had mutual friends, at first they didn't really get to know each other. It wasn't until they happened to be sitting next to each other in the classroom in the upper school that they discovered many things in common. German and English came so easily to both of them that during these lessons they always had time to develop their own ideas - tacitly tolerated by the teacher because of their good grades. At the time they also shared a passion for the Chiemsee brand, which is known for its trendy sportswear. With its exciting story the label immediately sparked the imagination of the two grammar school students, but it wasn't until a classmate with a talent for drawing joined them that the project took shape: "We'll design our own T-shirts and sell them".

They worked on their first orders in the parental cellar, which served as their first office until the end of their school years. When both began their apprenticeships they invested their wages in a small, two-room apartment sized 50 m² in Heidelberg-Neuenheim. They stayed there for a year and then moved on to Heidelberg Wieblingen in the year 2000.

After these offices in Wieblingen with around 200 m² of office space also became too small, they relocated in 2002 to the new premises in Dossenheim near Heidelberg, which remained their headquarters until last year. The new premises of about 2000 m² including a large warehouse made cyber-Wear more efficient and were an important step forward. At the time they still seemed incredibly large, and the two managers were initially concerned about how they would fill the warehouse, but it turned out they had no need to worry about this because cyber-Wear was growing fast and already acquiring major customers.

After these first six years Cybergroup International was founded, which was to consolidate all foreign branches and now also incorporates cyber-Wear as a subsidiary. In its first two years alone Cybergroup grew to a total of 145 employees worldwide and founded branches all over the world. It can now boast locations in China, Vietnam, Dubai, America, Great Britain and Turkey. 

The two managing directors have always had a talent for landing big fish. They made the impossible possible and as a result they won a first major order from the RWE supermarket chain to supply printed T-shirts in only a matter of days. A job which was turned down by other promotional product suppliers as impossible was regarded by the two ambitious managers as a challenge, and even today "We do the impossible" is their motto. With a few friends they spent days and nights printing T-shirts. Cartons were stacked up to the ceiling in the offices they occupied at the time, but they were sure they would make it. And so they did: they delivered the goods on time using a borrowed van.

The fact that a large corporation decided on an as yet unknown service provider as its supplier shows what a convincing and competent impression cyber-Wear was already making. After the first big corporate order, other large-scale orders were not long in coming, and today the company's customers include major concerns such as Deutsche Bahn, Ford, Audi and many more.

The construction of the group's new headquarters and the associated relocation to Mannheim is a major milestone in the 25-year history of cyber-Wear. And the results are impressive. The new HQ clearly shows the way forward. In line with the slogan of "The future is now", cyber-Wear is once again setting benchmarks - both in the industry and in terms of its own brand. Ideas were already overflowing in the planning phase and after a rapid construction period of only one year they were all implemented: the whole building and every detail in it represents the future. Just as innovative, impressive and above all trend-setting for the industry, due to its dimensions, is the associated ultra-modern high-bay warehouse. The company finally has the storage capacity it needs to meet the volume of orders which has been growing steadily over recent years.

Thanks to the new building, things are continuing at a rapid pace and there are already plans to expand the facility in 2020.

Of course, twenty-five years of creativity, ambition, efficiency and above all growth need to be celebrated appropriately. From today onwards Cybergroup will celebrate the occasion with many highlights, both large and small. The first major, very exclusive event will be the anniversary celebration at Heidelberg Castle, where staff, friends and families will toast both the past 25 years and the next 25. Equally exclusive will be the company's participation in the PSI fair in early January 2020 and the associated VIP event for special guests, when cyber-Wear will be carrying its guests off on a trip to Paris. The team will be inviting its customers and partners to enjoy typical high-class French drinks, food and coffee. The celebrations will then continue at the ever-popular BeachCup in June 2020.