Our Story

From 1964 to today.

60 years learning the mountains.

Cimalp – the peak of the Alps – was born in 1964 from one man's determination.
Paul Sailler, a visionary alpinist, was convinced that the mountains could be made more accessible without compromising their demands. Sixty years later, the brand continues to be run by passionate people, designs its own fabrics, patents its own technologies and tests each of its products in the field, with those who make it a passion and a profession.

In between lies a story — that of a brand that has never stopped listening to the mountains and the people who love them.

Learning the movement.

Learning from extremes.

Learning to innovate.

Learning to last.

Cimalp's first act of ingenuity was to weave Lycra into corduroy trousers. The idea may seem minor — it wasn't: it freed the climber's body. The stretch corduroy knickers became the brand's signature, accompanying the great French climbing teams on the world's highest summits, including Walter Cecchinel's ascent of Nanda Devi in 1975, at 7,816 metres altitude.

What the brand took from that experience never left it: good equipment should not make itself noticed — it should make itself forgotten.

Two decades later, Cimalp left the hiking trails for harsher terrain. Ski softshell trousers, reinforced trousers, first waterproof-breathable membranes: the brand armed itself technically for extreme cold and high altitude.

In 1996, Laurence de la Ferrière crossed Antarctica solo to the South Pole: 1,400 kilometres in 57 days, equipped in Cimalp. She was the first French woman to do so alone.
The following year, for the centenary of the Belgica, the twelve members of the Belgian Mont Vinson expedition faced temperatures of -50°C in Cimalp gear with microporous membrane coating.

From these expeditions came a conviction: what holds up at the South Pole holds up everywhere else.

In 2005, Lionel Marsanne took over the family business and made a forward-thinking bet: selling directly online, long before e-commerce became the norm.
Without intermediaries, what would have gone to margins was reinvested in R&D, making it possible to offer the same level of technical performance at 20 to 30% lower prices.
This decade saw the birth of the patented technologies that define Cimalp: the 3D-Flex® fabric in 2004, the Ultrashell® membrane in 2012 (20,000 Schmerber waterproofness, 80,000 MVP breathability), and the Cimadry Cyclone® technology, awarded the French Outdoor Award in 2015. Standards that rival those of the biggest international brands.

One conviction emerged: innovation only makes sense if it remains accessible to those who put it to the test.

The last ten years have changed the measure of progress.
Pure performance is no longer enough: it must last.
Cimalp refines its fabrics (CIMAGRID®, CIMAFLEX PLUS, PrimaLoft® Gold, CIMAWIND), launches its first trail and hiking shoes, and makes durability a core business pillar.

In 2025, 50% of used or defective products entrusted to us by our customers were repaired rather than exchanged. That same year, we opened the Réparerie Cimalp: a workshop dedicated to free, lifetime repair of all our equipment.

A conviction that has become structural: a durable product is designed to withstand. It is repaired to gain longevity. The quality of a piece of equipment is not measured by its initial performance, but by its ability to maintain that performance over time. Because a repaired garment is a story extended.