The history of the world renowned Aigle brand dates as far back as 1853, when the American Hiram Hutchinson patented the brand “A L’Aigle’ as a tribute to the American Bald Eagle. But what of its history, how did this one American develop what is now a world renowned brand of Wellington boots and clothing?
Well, despite being American, it was France where Hiram settled having first developed the idea of the rubber vulcanisation process along with Charles Goodyear back in the 1850’s. Where Charles liked the idea of using the rubber to make tyres, Hiram decided that shoes, boots and clothing was the way forward, and a’ la France he went.

Hiram settled in Montargis and set up “La Compagnie du Caoutchouc Souple” (The Flexible Rubber Company), which produced waterproof shoes, boots and clothes. It was here that he patented the “A L’Aigle” brand.

The 1920’s saw A L’Aigle go industrial, a direct reflection of the times where the French were getting heavily into their cars and women’s skirts were getting skimpier. A line of manufacturing belts, car mats (later to become Hutchinson) chic raincoats, light pink coated underwear, corset fabric and city shoes and boot, all in rubber, was the order of the day for the roaring twenties.

By the time the 1950’s arrived A L’Aigle was well established in the countryside, with huntsman, fishermen and farmers all donning their Aigle’s. Aigle also embraced the leisure and sports markets with rubber soled basketball and tennis shoes; even their plimsolls were being donned by school children throughout the country. The A L’Aigle workshop at this point was employing 1,850 odd staff and was manufacturing 30,000 pairs of shoes a day.

1967-1968 saw a massive upscale for Aigle as it moved premises from the now too small Montagris, to the former US military base Ingrandes (near Chatellerault). This 30 hectares site was the most up-to-date shoe plant in Europe with a warehouse that could stock 2 million pairs of shoes and boots and despatch 75,000 pairs a day. The huge production capacity enabled 10 million pairs a year to be crafted.

In 1973 Aigle branched out into the equestrian sector and invented the Aigle Ecuyer, a Slush (synthetic rubber) moulded boot. A separate workshop was set up to process the new material and boot and it has since become the top selling riding boot worldwide.

In the 80’s with the popularity of jogging and aerobics the sport shoe market moved towards microcellular foam and air as a replacement to latex and rubber. As such Aigle re-centred its business on its core market, sea and country, by developing textile shoe lines with outdoor protection. 88 saw Aigle develop its first range of hiking shoes, 89 the first ‘country’ textile collection and in 1990 it opened its first flagship store on Boulevard St Germain in Paris.

In 1994 Aigle was listed on the stock exchange and struck out on its own without Hutchinson, and in 1995 it opened its first franchise boutique in Strasbourg.

By 1996 the Parcours rubber Wellington was launched, with its double density sole and supremely comfortable cut it cemented itself as a staple boot for all Europeans. From here on, the Aigle brand grew rapidly with a turnover in 1997 of 500 million francs and in 2000, 800 million francs.

2005 brought a new image together with a new logo, taking Aigle wellingtons right into the 21st century. With this new image brought a new international development with Aigle UK opening its new subsidiary office in Berkshire; by 2007 there was 189 Aigle shops in the world.