Mammut

19th and 20th century

The company was founded in 1862 by Kaspar Tanner in the Swiss village Dintikon as a ropery and moved to nearby Lenzburg in 1878. In 1898, Kaspar's son Oscar took over the company, which grew significantly in the following decades, particularly during World War I. From 1919, the company bore the name Seilwarenfabrik AG Lenzburg. Oscar Tanner left the company in 1924.

From 1943, the products of Seilwarenfabrik AG Lenzburg were marketed under the brand Mammut; during the rebranding, the mammoth (German word: Mammut) was introduced as the company logo. In 1968, the Swiss Heberlein Group took over the company and renamed it Arova Lenzburg AG. The Heberlein Group sold Arova Lenzburg AG to the Swiss conglomerate Conzzeta in 1982, who renamed it Arova Mammut AG in 1984 and moved its seat to Seon, Switzerland, in 1992, where the company has been based ever since.

When the original core business of the ropery fell into a crisis and comparable rope factories closed, the company gradually developed into a manufacturer of outdoor clothing in the 1970s and 1980s. The first outdoor collection by the company was launched in 1981. In 1989, the backpack manufacturer Fürst was acquired.

21st century

In the new millennium, the company, which has been using the name Mammut Sports Group AG since 2003, took over a number of other companies and increased international activities. Since 2001, Ajungilak, a Norwegian manufacturer of sleeping bags, has been part of the Mammut Sports Group. On April 1, 2003, the group also took over the Swiss shoe manufacturer and developer of notable products, such as the Raichle Flexon snow boots, Raichle Sportartikel, founded in 1909. Raichle then covered the mountain, trekking, hiking and multifunctional footwear submarkets within the Mammut Sports Group. In spring 2009, the Raichle brand was discontinued in favor of a uniform brand identity, and the products have been marketed under the Mammut brand since then. On July 1, 2011, the Mammut Sports Group took over the company Snowpulse, a manufacturer of avalanche airbags.

A report in the Handelszeitung ranked the company among the "Hidden champions" in 2008.

The original central distribution warehouse was located in Memmingen until the end of 2012 due to the need for expansion to match the company's growth. In late 2012, the new central distribution warehouse in Wolfertschwenden near Memmingen opened, and the company's logistics were also relocated from Seon to Wolfertschwenden.

In 2016, the Mammut Sports Group closed its rope production in Seon due to the strong Swiss franc and the resulting high production costs in Switzerland. The facilities for the production of mountain ropes were sold to the Austrian company Teufelberger.

In December 2019, Conzzeta announced its intention to divest the Mammut Sports Group. The reason given by Conzzeta was to focus more strongly on its core business, sheet metal processing. In April 2021, it was announced that the Mammut Sports Group would be sold to the London-based investment company Telemos Capital (now Jacobs Capital), whose founder and president is Philippe Jacobs of the Jacobs family. The completion of the sale was announced on June 30, 2021.

The Mammut brand produces outdoor clothing and shoes, backpacks, sleeping bags, climbing ropes and climbing harnesses, avalanche transceivers (LVS devices), avalanche airbags, helmets and climbing hardware. Climbing equipment and accessories account for around a third of sales. The outdoor clothing is suitable for mountain sports, hiking, skiing, trail running and other activities. Mammut's Eiger Extreme Collection is geared towards the conditions of extreme mountaineering and was developed in collaboration with professional athletes.

The company also offers avalanche transceivers under the Barryvox brand. In addition to the main Mammut brand, the Mammut Sports Group also included Ajungilak (sleeping bags), Lucido (headlamps) and Raichle (shoes) as independent brands. The company now only carries Mammut as its main brand (for example, Raichle was discontinued around 2009). The climbing rope "9.5 Alpine Core Protect Dry Rope", introduced in 2024, has an aramid protective layer between the core and outer sheath, which is meant to increase the rope's resistance to sharp rock and metal edges.

In the 2020s, Mammut realised collaborations with British designer Nigel Cabourn (2025) and Norwegian lifestyle label Hiking Patrol (2026). A number of Mammut products received the ISPO Award at the Internationale Fachmesse für Sportartikel und Sportmode (ISPO) between 2023 and 2026.

In their advertising, Mammut positions itself as an outdoor brand and distances itself from streetwear, among other things by making fun of customers who wear their jackets and equipment in cities rather than in the appropriate environment. Some of their campaigns have been criticised in the media due to the imagery that was used.