Ferrino: founded in Turin in 1870, tested on Monte Rosa

Ferrino is now available at SportFits, bringing one of Europe's most storied outdoor brands into the range: sleeping bags, backpacks and equipment developed for real mountain conditions across generations.

Cesare Ferrino opened a varnishing workshop in Turin in 1870 and, along the way, worked out how to waterproof fabric on an industrial scale. Making textiles systematically waterproof was new at the time. The small workshop soon became the place to go for expedition teams, the military and the alpine pioneers of the turn of the century.

In 1910 Ferrino launched the Cervino tent, named after the Matterhorn. It ranks among the first industrially produced trekking tents anywhere.

From the mid-1980s Ferrino worked with Reinhold Messner. The South Tyrolean climber wanted to summit all 14 eight-thousanders in alpine style, carrying as little as possible. Ferrino built him tents and sleeping bags that held up in extreme conditions while staying light enough to fit that approach.

In 1986 Messner became the first person to stand on all 14 of the world's highest peaks. The partnership continued: through the 1990s Ferrino also equipped his Antarctic and North Pole expeditions.

Today the fifth generation of the family runs the company from Turin, with part of production still on the same site.

In 1994 Ferrino set up a permanent high-altitude test lab at the Rifugio Quintino Sella on Monte Rosa, at 3,585 metres. Sleeping bags, backpacks and tents are put through real conditions there for months on end: minus 20 degrees, UV exposure, wind loads. What survives the HighLab goes into production. What fails never reaches the range.

The Ferrino range at SportFits centres on three categories: sleeping bags, the brand's core competence, backpacks for trekking and freeride, plus weatherproof clothing and gloves. The sleeping bags use RDS-certified down and are tested at Ferrino's own HighLab on Monte Rosa before they go into production.