Brands that have demonstrated generational staying power are born out of need. That phrase “necessity is the mother of invention,” is commonly ascribed to Plato–and in our post-Republic world, the phrase is pay dirt. I want to relate my personal experience as a young person with the Moncler brand.

First a bit of background.

The name Moncler is a contraction of Monastier de Clermont, a peak in the Alps near Grenoble, France where the company was born (think Bed-Stuy, but nowhere near and nothing like it). The firm first made quilted sleeping bags and tents. The tents caught on, which made Moncler profitable. Then, around the late 1950’s,  the factory workers started wearing the sleeping bags to stay warm during the winter months. The founder, René Ramillion, (later a patent holder for designing those puffy, feather stuffed pouches) saw that his workers were onto something. Add some endorsement star power in the form of a famous Alpine mountaineer and an Olympic French ski team endorsement in 1968 and a successful brand was born.

My first brush with the Moncler brand happened in 1978 in Stockholm, Sweden.  All the cool kids I knew at the International School, many Scandinavian and Eastern Europeans, all wore these shiny, puffy coats. And all had this conspicuous logo with the rooster on it.

Like James Dean’s red bomber from Rebel Without a Cause, I was drawn to these coats. Or maybe like Dean, I was drawn to the people wearing the coats. And as any teen or pre-teen WON’T tell you, fitting in with the cool kids is supremely important. Unfortunately, I could only convince my mother to buy me the sleeveless vest made by Moncler. NOT designed for cold, dark Swedish winters. But I wore it anyway. And I was very, very cold. That’s how “cool” I thought this brand was/is.

You can check out their coats here. Or their official website here.

50 years have passed and the goose-down filled jackets are still shiny and puffy (some even still look like you’re wearing a sleeping bag) and the company rings the cash register to the tune of €396,000,000 annually. That’s a brand with staying power.