Snow Peak

Yukio Yamai, a mountaineer and hardware wholesaler, founded Snow Peak in 1958 in Sanjo, Niigata, a centre of Japanese metalworking, and began designing his own climbing gear because nothing on the market satisfied him. His son Tohru Yamai took the company into car camping after joining in 1986, with tents, cookware and field furniture built to last, and in 2014 Yukio's granddaughter Lisa Yamai launched Snow Peak Apparel, technical clothes designed to work in the city as well as at the campsite.