KATHMANDU - Tashi Sherpa, whose uncle scaled Everest, has set himself a different mountain to climb: penetrating the market for adventure gear dominated by Western giants such as North Face and Colombia.

The 53-year-old businessman says it has taken six years and "lots of banging my head against a brick wall" to establish his adventure sportswear brand, whose biggest selling point is that it is manufactured in the Himalayan nation.

Set up in 2003 by the Nepal native, Sherpa Adventure Gear now has annual sales of US$2.5 million (S$3.5 million) and is available in 170 stores in the US as well as in Australia and Europe.

On October 1 Sherpa, who now lives in Seattle, will open a flagship store in the heart of Kathmandu -- a move he hopes will bolster his claim to be the only adventure gear brand with its roots in the home of mountaineering.

"When we started the brand, people thought it was a PR stunt," he told AFP in his new Kathmandu store.

"The word Sherpa had been bandied about so much, you could even get Sherpa bags to carry your pets in. Then they realised it was made by a real Sherpa and their attitude changed."

Nepal's Sherpas, an ethnic group thought to be of Tibetan origin who live mainly in the eastern Himalayas, served as guides and porters for some of the first expeditions in the Everest region.

But they earned little money and none of the acclaim won by the Western climbers they were helping, and are often described as the unsung heroes of mountaineering.

Today, the word is often used as a generic term for porters in Nepal, although many ethnic Sherpas now work as highly-paid guides in the Himalayas, and they are represented among the world's top mountaineers.

Entrepreneur Sherpa, who comes from the Everest region, says he was inspired to start the brand after discovering that his uncle was part of the team that helped Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climb the world's highest mountain.

"I was in New York when I spotted a magazine commemorating the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of Everest," he said.

"There on the cover was a picture of my late uncle, and I hadn't even known that he was a member of the expedition.

"I thought, there's got to be something I can do about this. I was in the apparel business so I thought I'd do what I knew best, and make mountain gear."

He persuaded his friend Apa Sherpa, who has climbed Everest a record 19 times, to endorse the new brand at a trade fair in the United States, where the launch piqued the interest of outdoor adventure enthusiasts.

"I think people were looking for something different," said Sherpa. "The outdoor industry is such a grassroots community and there has been a big backlash against the big corporate conglomerates."

The company now employs 200 people in Nepal, many of them Sherpas, and contributes a small proportion of its revenues to a charity that provides education for underprivileged children in the Himalayas.

It also employs what it calls "brand ambassadors" who wear its clothing in return for a fee, including guide Lakpa Rita Sherpa who has climbed Everest 10 times.

Sherpa admits running a company in Nepal -- which this year came 123rd out of 183 countries in the World Bank's ease of business rankings -- is not a fast route to riches.

Sherpa Adventure Gear is a minnow in a global market dominated by US manufacturers such as North Face and Columbia, which recorded sales of 1.32 billion dollars last year.

But as tourists begin arriving in Kathmandu for Nepal's autumn trekking season, Sherpa is confident his new, five-storey shop will increase international awareness of the brand.

"Our goal here is not to make tonnes of money -- our target customer remains the affluent Western consumer," he said.

"The key thing is the brand exposure. Every single tee shirt a tourist buys here and takes home is seen by 20 or 30 more people. That's grassroots advertising."