There are more and more lifestyle labels with a regional flavor for a young audience, or at least ones who are young at heart, who like to spend their free time outdoors and have a sense of self-irony. Stefan Lerche had a name protected for his brand more than ten years ago that many of them would have liked to have had: “Wuiderer” is written on his T-shirts, hoodies and jogging pants, but also on drinking bottles, backpacks and snack boards , slippers and other things that the 53-year-old sells in Königsdorf.
“Wuida Wuiderer” is the name of the label, which describes itself as a “young, casual brand with cult status from the Bavarian Alpine foothills”. “Be the first to stand on the summit in the morning and watch the sun rise. Freedom, love of nature, oafach duan wos’d mogst: That’s the Wuiderer feeling,” says the website. The Jennerwein romance runs deep in this country, it stands for a rebellious, but home-bound love of freedom with “Robin Hood charm”, as Lerche says. And current cruel news about poachers like the two suspected police killers from Kusel can hardly harm him. The poacher in most minds is and will always be a soot-faced adventurer who loves freedom and the mountains and teases the nobility who want to deny him his right to hunt. “The Wuiderer is always on the go, looking for the biggest deer,” says Lerche with a broad grin. “And of course he has a smart wife at home who always says: Make sure they don’t shoot you.”
The “Wuiderer feeling” is also available as flip-flops.
(Photo: Hartmut Pöstges)
In any case, the black T-shirt that he wears with the short buckskin suit suits him well: Above the “Wuiderer” lettering, a deer’s head with a bullet hole in the skull is emblazoned on his broad chest, framed by two edelweiss flowers and a silhouette of a summit. The fact that the antlers are more reminiscent of an American white-tailed deer than a local red deer gives the logo a certain transatlantic redneck touch and is probably also due to the fact that Stefan Lerche is in Canada a lot. Five years ago he bought a lake house in Nova Scotia, where he says he spends about three months a year.
The fact that he can afford this is less due to the small label than to the main business of the 53-year-old: With Lerche GmbH, he has been running a wholesale business for advertising materials for more than 20 years, which sells everything imaginable with logos “from giveaways to high-quality customer gifts”. and slogans of small and large companies. The company’s reception room on Sägstraße in Königsdorf already gives an insight into the possibilities: there are stacks of snack boards, cooking spoons, caps and umbrellas, trolley cases, drinking bottles, backpacks and rubber boots, down jackets, bath towels and much more. In the room behind it, more than 800 “product sheets” list different ranges on shelves, from puzzles to beer crate coolers. Small items such as coffee-to-go cups or ballpoint pens made of shell limestone are stacked next to it. “Our unique selling proposition are sustainable, functional, long-lasting products,” says Lerche. He imports many of them directly, including from Asia, and they are all checked for safety and quality standards. His customers included companies such as BMW, FC Bayern and the drugstore chain dm.
The “Wuiderer” range consists of products that he is convinced of and that he has tested himself, says Lerche.
(Photo: Hartmut Pöstges)
Stefan Lerche grew up as the son of a butcher in the Munich district of Langwied, learned how to cook at Dallmayer, then became a hotel business economist, worked in gastro wholesale, as a sales manager for an advertising material wholesaler and in the textile industry before he set up his own business in Gelting in 2005, initially in the Basement of his private house, then in the commercial area. Today, the father of two only runs a large warehouse in the Geretsried district, to which he has the goods delivered in containers. He moved his company headquarters to the new building in Königsdorf a year and a half ago. A “sustainable house”, as Lerche emphasizes: the wooden frame construction has green roofs, permaculture approaches in the garden and rainwater barrels. His company, which is also often socially committed, including for the Geretsrieder-Wolfratshauser Tafel, the Inselhaus and the Ark, employs more than 20 people today. “We play in the Bundesliga,” says Lerche, “and it’s fun.” The past two Corona years have been a good time for the promotional products trade, after all, many companies have compensated for the canceled Christmas parties with gifts for their employees.
Cooking and grilling courses can be booked in the “Wuiderer” lounge.
(Photo: Hartmut Pöstges)
The “Wuiderer” shop is a smaller room on the ground floor, in which, among other things, black hoodies, sweatpants, hooded jackets and a large blanket hang, all with the “Wuiderer” logo and lettering, sometimes with the additional claim “Habe d ‘Honor”. These are all high-quality products that he is convinced of, says Lerche in the best salesman manner – and that he has tested himself. He travels a lot in the direction of Jachenau and Fall. “I am fascinated by the mountains.”
He also had the “Wuiderer” lounge built in a low-rise building in front of the house, with a professional show kitchen, bar, huge flat-screen TV, table football and a long wooden table. In the garden there are three large gas grills and a fireplace. Lerche gives cooking and grilling courses for groups of eight people or more. “It’s just my hobby,” he says.
That probably also applies a bit to his “Wuiderer” label. After all, the 53-year-old runs it more on the side. And thus presents goods that he can immediately print with other customer logos if desired. In the market for small regional labels, he’s a bit of a poacher himself.