New chapter for MOVER
As the leaves started changing colour, we packed up twenty years of MOVER in Lausanne and moved our headquarters to Mühlebachstrasse 12, in Zürich’s Kreis 8. And that wasn’t the only change the season brought. On 1 October, we welcomed Mădălina Preda as our new Chief Executive Officer. Founder Nicolas Rochat is staying, and moving with us, to focus on what he loves most: the products themselves.
Why Zürich
Last Christmas, we opened a pop-up on Füsslistrasse for five weeks. We sold through nearly half of our stock at full price and met hundreds of people who had never come across MOVER before. This was a strong signal for us. Zürich is the commercial heart of German-speaking Switzerland, and it's where many of our customers, retail partners and press already are. Moving here brings us closer to the people we make clothes for, allows us to strengthen our community, and gives us a stronger base for the years ahead.
Leaving Lausanne after twenty years wasn’t easy. Our studio there is where MOVER’s first plastic-free collection took shape. It held pieces from our past and every sample that passed through research and development. It hosted countless meetings with fabric engineers and manufacturers, studio shoots, and, let’s not forget, many a summer Feierabend. Lausanne will always be part of the story, and we’ll miss our breaks on the rooftop, looking out over the city, the Jura and the Alps.
But as a brand that takes its cues from nature, we know this better than most: things that grow need room to grow.
Meet Mădălina
Mădălina has spent nearly twenty years working on the same problem from different angles. She started in environmental advocacy at Greenpeace International in Amsterdam, moved into editorial brand work at Patagonia in California, and most recently was Chief Sustainability Officer at North Technology Group, the company behind North Sails. Activism, brand, industry: she has seen how the clothing business works from the inside, and where it needs to change.
"Synthetic clothing has owned the definition of performance for fifty years, to the point where most people assume they are synonymous. MOVER has spent the last decade proving the opposite, garment by garment,” Mădălina says. “My job is to bring the brand to more customers in Switzerland and across Europe by making the case for natural materials on their performance, not their principles."
On their performance, not their principles: this is a distinction we like. Nobody should buy a wool base layer out of guilt; they should buy it because it keeps them warm, it thermo-regulates, dries without smelling like a locker room, and lasts for years.
She is also clear about the bigger picture, which isn't always comfortable for a clothing company to say out loud:
"We should be clear-eyed: the world does not need more clothing. If we're going to make it, it has to be clothing that can return to the earth without leaving plastic or harmful chemicals behind."
As CEO, Mădălina will lead day-to-day operations, growth and our expansion across Europe and beyond.
Founders rarely find it easy to hand over the keys, and Nicolas doesn't pretend otherwise. "Handing over your baby is never easy for a founder. But Mădălina's track record, entrepreneurial drive and strong values make me confident that MOVER is in very good hands for its next chapter."
What he gains is time – for research, for development, and for the long-term direction of the brand. "For me, it means getting closer to what I love most: function and performance," he says. "More time to develop our collections, work on details, push ideas further and shape what comes next."
What stays exactly the same
A new city and a new CEO don't change what MOVER is. Our collections are still made entirely from natural fibres – merino wool, cotton and our proprietary Swisswool® fabric – and still produced ethically in Europe. We still take our cues from the greatest innovator of all time: nature. And we're still building things like the Ventile® Shell +, the world's first fully plastic-free outdoor jacket, which earned us a Red Dot Design Award in 2025.
Come by our showroom
Our new home at Mühlebachstrasse 12 is also a showroom, and we’d love to show you around. Visits are by appointment: write to us at hello@mover.eu, and we’ll have the kettle on.
