Innovation as a common thread

"Our passion is to develop ever-higher-performance equipment to meet the demands of mountaineering and expeditions in extreme conditions, whether in the high mountains or the polar regions. To achieve this, we are convinced that an empirical approach can no longer suffice to ensure the level of performance expected in ultra-technical outdoor equipment. In-depth understanding of physical phenomena is an essential step in designing cutting-edge products. We are also convinced that creative research is indispensable alongside scientific research in the difficult task of bringing pioneering products to life. Throughout the rigorous Samaya product development process, our scientific research laboratory and our creative research laboratory work closely together to design tomorrow's equipment. It is with the same passion and the same high standards that we draw on this know-how to now offer our vision of technical equipment in 3 seasons." - Ghislain Pipers, co-founder of Samaya.

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TheSamaya High Camp, a prime location for innovation

Samaya has imagined the 'Samaya High Camp' in Annecy as a place where innovation and excellence come together in everything. On a surface area of 1,000 m2, Samaya brings together:

- A design center;
- A space dedicated to research with a laboratory and test benches;
- A workshop for prototyping and small series production;
- A showroom for presenting the entire range;
- Meeting and reception areas.

Our laboratory includes standard machines for evaluating our materials and components. At the same time, we develop our own specific machines to simulate as accurately as possible what happens in the field. Our in-house test benches include a cold chamber, wind tunnel and artificial rain. We rely on external partnerships to complete our results. The cold room enables us to carry out comparative tests on performance in terms of breathability, heat flow management and product use. Wind tunnel tests measure the tent's behavior in wind conditions during set-up and use. Artificial rain ensures that the complex assemblies are waterproof.

Samaya High Camp's location in the heart of the Alps encourages regular exchanges between the brand and mountain professionals (athletes, guides, first-aiders). Discussions with these professionals, the brand's proximity to the field and feedback from customers on site are the primary sources of innovation.

Unique design tools

In remote areas, the tent becomes the only possible refuge and survival shelter against extreme wind and snow conditions. In these cases, product failure is not an option. That's why we study the resistance of our products to the constraints imposed by extreme conditions with rigor and precision.

To conduct this study, we developed our own digital wind tunnel tool dedicated to outdoor equipment. Wind tunnel testing is the most efficient way to study and characterize the wind resistance of a tent. Performing these tests digitally revolutionizes their efficiency by ensuring perfect repeatability between two tests (all parameters are controlled as input data) and by allowing access to experimentally unattainable study data (e.g. stresses in textile walls). This tool works by relying on simulation software developed by the French editor Dassault Systèmes. It allows us to test many different configurations even before making prototypes.

Thanks to this tool, completed by a real wind tunnel at our premises and test benches on the poles, we can understand in detail what makes a tent resistant to the wind and optimize the design of each product from a mechanical point of view. By being equipped to reproduce, numerically or physically, the mechanical stresses that tents undergo, Samaya has acquired a know-how on the stresses that each part of a tent endures. This allows us to correctly choose each part (textiles, poles, components) and to arrange them in the most suitable way. Every detail can be optimized, right down to the positioning of the guylines along the poles, to ensure the best possible resistance of the tents in extreme conditions.

By accumulating knowledge of how tents behave in the face of the main stresses to which they are subjected, Samaya has been able to develop its own standards on which its teams base the development of ever more effective products.

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SAMAYA STANDS

Each Samaya product is the result of a long process, of which the ideation phase is the keystone. From our research, our in-house knowledge and the daring experiences of the practitioners and athletes of the Samaya Family, new product ideas and sometimes even new ways of designing products are born. Step by step, we write an identity card to make each product unique. The result is a product concept that will become a " Samaya concept" if it meets the requirements for innovation that we set ourselves in this initial ideation phase.

From this concept, the design phase can begin: specifications are drawn up with eco-design as the number one criterion. On this basis, the first sketches are drawn by our engineers using computer-aided design (CAD) software. The product's performance and ergonomics, as well as its aesthetics and finishes, are then thought through in detail. Every material and component is carefully selected to ensure that the product offers the best possible experience to its future users. The resulting virtual prototypes can then be tested using our digital wind tunnel. In order to choose the best technical solution, the different versions tested on our simulation software are iteratively optimized until one version stands out.

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The prototyping phase brings a real prototype to life: the chosen solution is patented and prototyped in our Annecy workshop. The prototype is tested in the laboratory and on test benches. If the results do not meet the product's expected requirements, a new iteration is launched, reworking the shape, choice of materials and components, pattern-making and assembly. In this way, the product is progressively refined until it meets the strict requirements of Samaya standards.

Before the product leaves with you, it will have been tested not only at the 'Samaya High Camp', but also in the field in the Alps and on the world's highest peaks by our team and our athletes. The laboratory and field testing phases are essential and complementary. The final validation against Samaya standards must be seen in the context of the extreme applications to which our products are subjected in conditions where there is no room for error.

Advanced materials

To create the products we imagine, we design new materials, always more technical. We call on the best suppliers in their field to leave nothing to chance and use the most innovative and functional materials. Thanks to our expertise in textile materials and our means of characterization, we are able to maximize the properties of these materials to push the performance limits of our products.

We developed our own Nanovent® membrane for the walls of our 4-season tents. This membrane has allowed us to create single-wall tents that are light, compact, waterproof, breathable and air-permeable. This membrane adapts perfectly to the environment in which it is found to guarantee flawless waterproofing and optimal condensation management. This technology is also attracting a lot of interest thanks to its lightness and compactness.

Dyneema® fiber is 15 times stronger than steel for the same weight, yet light enough to float on water. It also excels in cut and abrasion resistance. This fiber can be used in many forms: yarn, rope, cord, fabric and composite. Samaya works closely with Dyneema® to use these fibers for a wide variety of applications: tent walls and floors, bag bodies and bottoms, ropes, webbing... Combined with other fibers and films, it gives our tents incomparable strength and waterproofing. All phases of development, from ideation to testing, are carried out jointly, and Samaya has exclusive rights to certain Dyneema® technologies.