Partnerships

Story of a collaboration

Eh, did you know we have a partnership with the brand Simond ?!

It might well be the first one we officially signed up for and we did it for a reason.

Simond is a brand selling gear for rock climbing and mountaineering and is sold by Decathlon.
Decathlon is indeed divided in multiple sub-brands depending on the sport/activity of the equipment they sell. You’ve probably heard of Quechua, Forclaz, Triban, Artengo, BTwin, Kalenji,.. and much more !

Well, most of those brands have been created by Decathlon into different department… but Simond is different, even if it is sold today by the same shop, it has existed since 1820 and is born in the real capital of mountaineering: Chamonix!
Simond has joined Decathlon in 2008 after a long history of creating gear for the mountain people, right below the faces of the Mont Blanc. It is still the case of the lab and factory even if the products are sold worldwide due to the huge network of Decathlon.
Simond has joined forces with this giant as it was sharing the same values as them, and it is the same reason which made us go towards Simond to get into a partnership.
Indeed, the whole idea is to spread the love of the mountain, in a safe and affordable way.

It has all started for us while we were travelling in Australia and realized how often we were speaking about those brands to people met on hikes, clims or trails, as over there, all the outdoors shops are really expensive and when you want to get into a sport without knowing if you will be continuing for sure, spending a little less is always a good thing, isn’t it?

Therefore, we approached Simond Belgium through a good friend, Pierre Dewit, which has been an ambassador for the brand for many years and is really happy about their collaboration. After a few talks, here we are, sharing our adventures with and through Simond, testing their gear and giving you a peak of what they look like.

To be completely honest, we wound’t buy everything in Decathlon, as for some pieces of gear we are quite picky and the shop hasn’t yet the offer that really suits us, but for many things, it is a go to!

What do we like about it ?

A few of the top reasons we do like Simond, and even Decathlon in general are the following:

– Affordable gear for people who want to get into a sport without spending fortunes
– Good quality gear as well when you get into the high-performance products, at a price still beating most other outdoor brands
– The development team, we found, is still working actively towards innovation while a lot of the well-known outdoors brands seem to us to be keeping their best sellers without much new creation
– A after-sale product like no other, responding and reading all reviews
– The return policy is just incredible, which other shops allows you to bring back gear (including climbing shoes) within a FULL year if you’re not happy with the product?!
– Good quality products in general

What do we like less about it ?

Of course, there are a few cons which we are aware of but happily accept, most of which they’re working on:

– The image of the brand/s is still considered as “beginner/cheap”, but as we say, the clothes doesn’t make the man.
– Some design need working on to be more “up to date/high performance class” (while some others are really good, like the last technical hoody in merinos which we love, both woman and men)
– Some high-tech products need improving to compete with main other big brands
– Some types of products are missing from the catalog, but we’re sure this is in the making for most!

So here you go, you might now have a better understanding of why we are tagging @simondbelgium into our insta posts, and why!

Feel free to ask us any questions we might answer and keep opening yourself to this beautiful world around us !

Oli & Attie