In 2010 Black Diamond ran its own factories in Salt Lake City and in Zhuhai, China, and the annual report its parent company filed this March says every product is made in third-party, independently owned facilities. Black Diamond Equipment is still designed and run from Salt Lake City, but nearly all of its gear is made abroad. Its product pages list Taiwan for its cams, carabiners, nuts and ice axes, and Mexico for its crampons. The Express and Ultralight ice screws are the exception, and their pages still say US.
Quick answers
Where is Black Diamond Equipment made?
Mostly in Taiwan. The crampons list Mexico, and the helmets list Vietnam or China. The company is run from Salt Lake City.
Is Black Diamond made in the USA?
Only a little of it. The Express and Ultralight ice screws list the US as their country of origin, and most of the other products list a country in Asia.
Where are Black Diamond cams made?
The Camalot C4 and Z4 list Taiwan. Salt Lake City assembled Camalots from imported parts as recently as 2019.
Who owns Black Diamond?
Clarus Corporation, a Nasdaq company based in Salt Lake City, has owned it since 2010. Clarus began a review in May 2026 that could lead to a sale.
Where is Black Diamond gear made now
Every product page on Black Diamond's site carries a country of origin line. This is what a sample of them said on October 1, 2026.
| Product | Country of origin listed |
|---|---|
| Camalot C4 and Z4 cams | Taiwan |
| HotForge and RockLock carabiners | Taiwan |
| Stoppers and hexes | Taiwan |
| ATC Pilot and ATC Guide belay devices | Taiwan |
| Venom and Raven ice axes | Taiwan |
| Distance Carbon Z and Trail trekking poles | Taiwan |
| Couloir and Vario harnesses | Taiwan |
| Express and Ultralight ice screws | US |
| Sabretooth and Cyborg crampons | Mexico |
| Momentum harness | Philippines |
| Half Dome helmet | Vietnam |
| Vapor helmet | China |
| Glidelite climbing skins | Austria |
| Storm+ headlamp | Thailand |
| Firstlight tent | South Korea |
| Guide gloves | Vietnam |
| Crag gloves | Pakistan |
| Eco Gold loose chalk | Bulgaria |
Taiwan is the short answer for climbing hardware. Ice climbers get the most passport stamps. Their axes list Taiwan and their crampons list Mexico, while the screws they twist into the ice list the US.
A climber in a Momentum harness and a Half Dome helmet, with a rack of Camalots and a bag of Eco Gold chalk, is carrying four countries before leaving the parking lot. None of them is the one on the company's return address.
What is still made in Salt Lake City
Less than it used to. In July 2019 Outside reported that Black Diamond had laid off 70 of the 132 workers at its Salt Lake factory as it shifted all of its metal machining out of the United States. The plant became an assembly line. The people who stayed would build Camalots, ATC Pilot belay devices, skins and gym quickdraws, plus ice screws, all from parts forged in other countries. The company's new carabiners were already coming from a factory in Taiwan.
That assembly list has shrunk since. The Camalot C4 and the ATC Pilot both list Taiwan now, and the Glidelite skins list Austria. Of the products on the 2019 list, the ice screws are the ones whose pages still say US.
The paperwork moved too. Clarus, which owns Black Diamond, described the leased Salt Lake building as the "Black Diamond U.S. Distribution and Manufacturing Facility" in the annual report it filed in March 2025. In the one filed in March 2026, the same line reads "Black Diamond U.S. Headquarters and Distribution Facility." Both reports say "all products are manufactured to our specifications in third-party, independently-owned facilities," and neither says who makes the US ice screws or in which state.
What the company keeps here is the thinking. Clarus lists Salt Lake City first among the places where it designs products, and it says Black Diamond products are "created and tested locally" in the mountains above town. That is why Black Diamond sits on our headquartered in Utah list, and we wrote about the testing side in why gear brands test in Utah.
Did Black Diamond use to make its gear in Utah
Yes, and for years it made the hard parts here. Outside wrote that Black Diamond had forged carabiners at its Salt Lake headquarters since it moved from Ventura, California, in 1991. The annual report for 2012 describes a Salt Lake plant with cold and hot forging, laser cutting, heat treating, CNC turning and tool making. Black Diamond said then that it made about 20 to 25 percent of its products itself, including nearly all of its climbing hard goods, and bought the rest from independent factories in China and the Philippines.
The Philippines is not new, either. That same report called Bataan province "the site of a large portion of our third party manufacturing," and the Momentum harness still lists the Philippines today.
The China chapter ran about a decade. Black Diamond set up a subsidiary in southeast China in 2006, and by 2010 it ran a 100,000 square foot plant in the free trade zone in Zhuhai. The Zhuhai plant handled finishing and assembly for most of what Black Diamond made itself, and in 2012 the company added a ski factory next door. Then it reversed. The annual report filed in March 2015 said Black Diamond would ramp down manufacturing in Zhuhai and move most of that work to Salt Lake City or to outside vendors. For a few years a gear company moved work from China to Utah, which is not the direction these stories usually run. Outside later noted that a series of recalls, including carabiners and Camalots, followed the move back. The 2017 annual report recorded costs for the formal closure and liquidation of the Zhuhai operation.
The parent company also ran a sewing plant in Calexico, California, in 2010. Its report for 2012 tied severance costs there to employees of Gregory, the pack brand it owned at the time and sold in 2014.
Who owns Black Diamond
Clarus Corporation, which has owned it since 2010 and trades on Nasdaq as CLAR. Clarus is headquartered at 2084 East 3900 South in Salt Lake City. It sold PIEPS, the snow safety brand that sat alongside Black Diamond, in July 2025.
On May 7, 2026, Clarus said its board had begun a review of strategic alternatives that could include a sale of all or part of the business, with Jefferies as its financial adviser. Whoever buys it gets a design company with a Salt Lake address and no factories of its own.
For climbing gear that is still poured or sewn in Utah, the climbing page lists the makers, including Atomik, which casts its holds in Provo. The ice screw is the last Black Diamond product whose page says US, and the company that designs it is still headquartered in Salt Lake City, at the base of the Wasatch.
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