Our Story

From 1964 to today.

60 years learning the mountains.

Cimalp - la cime des Alpes - 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 sacrificing any of their demands. Sixty years on, 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, alongside those who make it a passion and a profession.

In between, there is a story — that of a brand that never stopped listening to the mountains and those who explore them.

Learning movement.

Learning from the extreme.

Learning to innovate.

Learning to last.

Cimalp's first act of ingenuity was to weave Lycra into a corduroy pair of trousers. The idea may seem minor — it is anything but: it frees the alpinist's body. The stretch corduroy knickers became the brand's signature piece, accompanying France's leading rope teams on the world's highest summits, including Walter Cecchinel's ascent of Nanda Devi in 1975, at 7,816 metres above sea level.

What the brand took away from this would never leave it: good gear should never make itself noticed — it should make itself forgotten.

Two decades later, Cimalp left the hiking trails for more hostile terrain. Ski fusiaux in softshell, 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 all the way to the South Pole: 1,400 kilometres in 57 days, equipped with Cimalp. She was the first French woman to do it alone.
The following year, for the centenary of the Belgica, the twelve members of the Belgian expedition to Mont Vinson faced temperatures of -50°C wearing Cimalp gear with microporous 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, well before e-commerce became the norm.
Without intermediaries, what would have gone into margins was reinvested into R&D, enabling the same level of technical performance at 20 to 30% less.
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 waterproofing, 80,000 MVP breathability), and the Cimadry Cyclone® technology, awarded the French Outdoor Award in 2015. Standards that rival those of the world's biggest 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 endure.
Cimalp has refined its fabrics (CIMAGRID®, CIMAFLEX PLUS, PrimaLoft® Gold, CIMAWIND), launched its first trail and hiking shoes, and made durable a core business pillar.

In 2025, 50% of worn or faulty products entrusted to us by our customers were repaired rather than replaced. 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 resist. It is repaired to extend its life. 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 continued.