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MONTANA CANS HISTORY...

All started in 1993 when Ruediger Glatz, one of the two founders of L&G and an active writer himself, were neither not longer able to buy cans at a shop, nor he did not want to steal them. As soon as he became 18 and in possession of a drivers licence he started to built up connections with the spray paint industry to buy cheaper second rate paint.

Until 1996 he sold cans out of the back of his car, when his little business increased so far, that he decided to start an official company together with his schoolfellow Tim Latif – the company was named: L&G GmbH.

Soon they got in touch with another supplier from Spain, who started also to produce special spray paint for graffiti purpose called MONTANA. But this Spanish supplier still needed some input to make his paint international sellable. Ruediger Glatz gave them from the start some input and L&G started to sell their cans out of their parent..s garage – in the first step to the colleagues of Ruediger Glatz and the local graffiti scene.

Those spread the word and soon all writers in Germany dialed the number of L&G in Heidelberg to order some cans of the great paint, that made it possible to fill a panel with even a single spray can of orange or yellow.

The whole project became bigger and bigger and soon they moved to garage double in size, than to a 50 sqm, a 100 sqm and finally to a 450 sqm stock. Already in the first years MONTANA Spain gave the exclusive sales rights to L&G for Germany and over the years for more than 36 countries in the world. Tim Latif, Ruediger Glatz and the whole Team of L&G had the vision of a world-wide distribution network and did everything to promote MONTANA CANS internationally.

In 2000 they founded the MONTANA WRITER TEAM with members like CAN2, BATES, KENT.... The TEAM had the purpose to present the brand, next to other sponsoring, in the world of graffiti.

Over the years L&G was able to increase their sales, to bring MONTANA cans to far away places, which has not seen specialized graffiti spray cans before, and to improve and invent new tools for writers such as the “Donut” (the idea came from Germany while Spain realized the item) and special valve-systems, which met the writers.. needs.

But due to the fast growth of the international graffiti movement and the increasing demand of MONTANA cans, first problems occurred. The Spanish supplier was not able to supply enough cans, because the amount of cans, they were able to produce, was limited. So the idea came up to produce this part of cans at the factory of MOTIP DUPLI nearby the MONTANA office in Heidelberg, because in the meantime the biggest part of the distribution and marketing was made by L&G, which has became the voice of MONTANA over the years. Because of problems in manufacturing and other problems with their Spanish supplier, L&G was interested to find a deal to buy the brand - MONTANA - and both parties worked out plans. Finally they did not find an agreement, which fitted the expectations of both sides.

During this period of negotiations in 2001 the real owner of the brand rights of MONTANA occurred, which was a company from Switzerland, with which L&G found a solution about MONTANA in a little while. After years we can say that both sides did mistakes and the probably most important factor for those mistakes was the misunderstanding of the different cultural background of the people involved.P> Years later L&G joined forces with the MOTIP DUPLI GROUP and is today probably the biggest distributor for graffiti optimized products world-wide.

In 2003 L&G launched the MONTANA GOLD can, which was created in collaboration with different artist (e.g. the MONTANA WRITER TEAM, MA CLAIM and many more) and which was the first graffiti spray can with an optimized and flowing color-system of 181 color-shades.

The MONTANA BLACK and PLATINUM followed in 2004. These three can lines are the basis of our success today. Next to roughly 400 for graffiti optimized spray paint products, we sell markers, blackbooks, clothing, magazines, books, videos and many other products. The distribution network is established from New Zealand over Australia, whole Europe, North America to South America.

In 2006 Tim Latif the "L" of L&G left the company to start his own spraypaint production in collaboration with MOTIP DUPLI in his fathers land of Iran.

Today the company is being run by Sascha Hagemann, a writer himself and member of the MA CLAIM crew, and Ruediger Glatz, who became next to his job at L&G as well a professional photographer. The whole Team of Montana Cans do its best to supply the world-wide graffiti community with all the products it needs.