Luxurious, fashionable and made with great attention to detail

We feature a host of fantastic brands at Cole Sport and every now and then we like to share the story of how these wonderful brands were conceived and continue to thrive. In this installment of the Cole Sport blog, our brand story is centered on The Toni Sailer Collection.

Thanks to craftsmanship and elaborate technical procedures, a new collection from Toni Sailer emerges each season and fulfills the highest requirements in functionality and comfort. Whether it’s jackets, trousers, first layers, knitwear or accessories, the Toni Sailer brand fully represents a luxurious fashionable statement and an incomparable attention to detail.

All materials in Toni Sailer ski jackets and pants are of the highest possible quality, and offer superior heat management and moisture control. For optimum comfort, Toni Sailer uses an exclusive 4-way stretch material for the utmost in flexibility, durability, and fashion.

Who is Toni Sailer?

Toni Sailer fashion ski wear is constructed in the spirit and image of former Austrian alpine ski racer, Anton Engelbert “Toni” Sailer, often considered among the best in the sport.

He was born in Kitzbühel, Austria in the winter of 1935, five years after the first of the famous Hahnenkamm downhill races had been held over the Streif course above the town. Sailer was said to have skied for the first time at the age of two, joined the local ski club at 12 and was just 20 when he won his first major races, the Lauberhorn classic in Wengen, followed by the Hahnenkamm, a few weeks before the international ski-racing circus moved on to Cortina.

At the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Toni Sailer, just 21 years old, was the first person in history to win all three competitions: downhill, slalom and giant slalom. Handsome and dashing, he was quickly nicknamed the "Blitz from Kitz."



With three Olympic golds, seven world championships and 170 victories, the trained glazier and plumber was world-renowned as the most successful ski athlete of all time.

On a bumpy course and in winds that contributed to several bad crashes, Sailer was victorious in the men's downhill and slalom. But it was in the giant slalom, over a course with 71 gates, that he produced the most astonishing performance, finishing in a time 6.2 seconds faster than that of any of his competitors. This remains a record margin for the event.
After his 23rd birthday, Toni Sailer stopped participating in professional sports and instead began a career as an actor and singer.

He also opened a hotel and ran a ski school in Kitzbühel, and, in 1972, returned to skiing as the director of the Austrian team, spending the next four years in a job equivalent in national significance to that of the manager of the England football team. Among the members of his squad was Franz Klammer, who won the Olympic downhill gold medal at Innsbruck in 1976.

Sailer also held the presidency of the Kitzbühel Ski Club from 1967 to 1976, acted as director of the Hahnenkamm races from 1986 to 2006, and chaired the International Ski Federation's Alpine committee. He married his first wife, Gaby Rummeny, in Vancouver in 1976; she passed away in 2000. Six years later, he married Hedwig Fischer, who survives him.

His films included The Black Bolt (1958), Twelve Girls and One Man (1959), A Star Falls from Heaven (1961), Affair at Ischia (1962), Lost Treasure of the Incas (1964), Ski Fever (1966), co-starring Claudia Martin, daughter of Dean Martin, and The Lucky Strike (1967), in which he played himself. Despite his successes, Sailer dedicated his life to skiing until his dying day. He passed on the 24th of August, 2009.

Toni Sailer remains unforgotten: his sporting achievements, his charisma and his fashionable style. You will come across retro-design details again and again in the Toni Sailer collections designed to recall this extraordinary sportsman and fascinating person. We are proud to partner with this iconic brand.