Mountain Hardwear: first European store in Val d'Isere

By

Olivier Guyot

Published
Sep 30, 2014

Mountain Hardwear will open its first European store up in the mountains. Along with Sorel and Montrail, the brand is owned by Columbia Sportswear. With highly technical products designed for the outdoors—in particular mountaineering—the company targets experienced mountaineers.

The brand will open its first store this winter in the French Alps. Relying on the expertise of Killy Sport in Val d'Isere, the store will open on November 29 in an 860 square foot location previously occupied by Nike. The opening should allow the brand to show off the extent of its expertize.

The multibrand store Killy Sport, meanwhile, includes a Nike SB corner, which also features Burton snowboarding products. The group Killy Sport is made up of 14 stores, two of which are multibrands. It’s this company, headed by Michel Mignot, that brought Patagonia to Val d'Isere with a two floor, 650 square foot space previously occupied by Element, and which renovated the Savoy ski resort’s Quiksilver store.

Ads

In 2013, Mountain Hardwear experienced a difficult year with a 6% decline in sales at 96 million euros.