Whether it rains or snows or if the temperatures simply go down, the weather’s always good at illa Carlemany. That’s the great thing about the shopping centre: a pleasant atmosphere that offers the added convenience of having it all under a single roof. And specifically, when it comes to fighting the cold, illa Carlemany has got the finest supply of specialised winter clothing brands, with a magnificent selection: Salomon and The North Face, on the ground floor; and Helly Hansen, Peak Performance and Haglöfs, which recently opened, on floor 1.

Created in the French Alps, Salomon was initially closely tied to skiing. In fact, its workshop in Annecy was the birthplace of the first heel binding with automatic release. For its part, oddly enough, The North Face was born on a San Francisco beach. Two hiking lovers decided to open a shop specialising in mountain gear, and within two years, they were manufacturing their own designs.

The other three brands are from Northern European countries: Helly Hansen, from Norway; and Peak Performance and Haglöfs, from Sweden. With these birthplaces, all three share the common denominators of their origins and the objectives of their creators: the search for and improvement of clothing and equipment to battle the cold, whether for skiing —as is the case of Peak Performance—, or to handle tough daily chores, like the tasks carried out in the forest by Wiktor Haglöf, the son of a forest ranger and carpenter, and those of the ship captain, Helly Juell Hansen.

Design, functionalism, comfort and constant innovation characterise the clothing and footwear products of these leading brands. Each with its own style. You’ll find them all in a single place at Andorra’s centre: the illa Carlemany shopping centre.