Aigle was founded in 1853 when the American entrepreneur Hiram Hutchinson, drawn to the newly invented rubber vulcanization process, bought the patent for applying it to footwear and set up the Compagnie du Caoutchouc Souple to make waterproof shoes. The company built a dedicated boot factory in Ingrandes in 1967, where its "Bison" boot became the first model made there by its bootmakers, and in 1972 it introduced the "Régate," a blue boot with two white bands created for the Munich Olympics. Aigle opened its first boutique in Paris's Saint-Germain-des-Prés in 1989, adding ready-to-wear clothing alongside its footwear, and now sells outdoor clothing and boots through several hundred stores across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.