SUMMERSAVER

SUMMERSAVER is a German body-care brand based in Hannover, known for a balm stick designed to prevent chafing, the painful soreness that develops where skin rubs against skin, most often on the inner thighs. It was created by founder Denise Hahn, who traces the idea to a holiday in 2019; the first stick went on sale in 2020 [2]. The name refers not to sun protection but to the summer months, when bare legs and heat make chafing most common.

The brand reached a national audience in 2021 after Hahn pitched the stick on the German television show Die Höhle der Löwen, a founders' pitch show on the VOX channel, and secured investor Ralf Dümmel as a partner [11]. It has since grown from a single product into a small family of anti-chafing sticks, and in 2025 it added a separate leg-care line, The House of Legs by SUMMERSAVER. The brand remains active.

According to the company's own account, the idea came from a personal experience. During a holiday in Mexico in 2019, Hahn chafed her inner thighs so badly on the way to the beach that she could no longer wear dresses or skirts, and she found no remedy that satisfied her. In her telling, the concept of a stick that would protect sensitive skin from rubbing was born in that moment. The brand's founding story is written in her own voice, and she describes being tired of having her freedom of movement restricted.

The company dates its beginnings in two steps: 2019 is given as the year the idea arose, and 2020 as the year the first stick launched [2]. This article follows 2020, the year the product reached the market, as the founding year.

SUMMERSAVER presents itself as a young beauty start-up from Hannover that spent months developing its formula with a team of experts. The company describes testing early versions itself in unusual conditions: wearing a dress at minus two degrees Celsius to visit the monkey house at Hannover Zoo, as a way of exposing the balm to tropical heat and humidity in spring, and later taking it on a long city walk in the Mediterranean heat of Málaga. Only when the formula held up there, the company says, did it decide to go into production.

The business operates as SUMMERSAVER GmbH, registered in Hannover, with Hahn as managing director [7]. The company's small public team page lists Hahn as founder alongside a creative director and a customer-service lead.

The first product, launched in 2020, was a dermatologically tested anti-chafing stick in a handbag-sized format. Hahn has said that before her television appearance the stick had already won a number of loyal customers, but she went into the pitch determined not to leave without a deal.

The turning point came in 2021 with Die Höhle der Löwen. Hahn closed a deal with Ralf Dümmel, an investor on the show known for bringing products into mainstream retail [11]. The company describes Dümmel as both investor and mentor, and credits the partnership with taking the brand into shops nationwide and raising its public profile. In the brand's own words, demand grew rapidly after the broadcast.

By 2023, according to the company's timeline, SUMMERSAVER had sold more than one million products and was working with 52 distribution partners across more than 8,000 points of sale [2]. The brand also describes itself as the market leader for anti-chafing skin protection in the German-speaking region, a claim that has not been independently verified. Sales figures published elsewhere do not line up neatly with the company's own: a German start-up news report from June 2024 put the total at more than 600,000 units sold [12], while the brand's homepage separately says that more than 600,000 customers use its products [1]. The figures are all self-reported and measured in different units, and they cannot be reconciled with each other from what has been published.

Also in 2023, the brand released a limited edition of its stick created with the curvy model Angelina Kirsch. The company presented it as a statement for body positivity and female empowerment.

In 2025 the company opened what it called a new chapter with The House of Legs by SUMMERSAVER, a leg-care line aimed at women with heavy, tired or swollen legs. The homepage now presents the two lines side by side under the phrase "Two brands, one goal".

SUMMERSAVER is run as an independent limited company, SUMMERSAVER GmbH, led by its founder. Ralf Dümmel has been an investor and partner since the 2021 television deal. The size of his stake has not been made public, and no parent company has been disclosed. No acquisitions involving the brand are documented.

The company frames chafing as a problem that everyone knows but nobody talks about. Its stated mission is to solve that widespread problem in a way that is both effective and comfortable, and to make a stick that can go along on everyday occasions such as a city break, a beach holiday or a visit to the gym. Its early timeline speaks of giving women back their ease in summer, while its product pages address chafing on the thighs, along the bra line, under the breasts and on the feet. According to the brand, the stick is also suitable for men and for athletes.

SUMMERSAVER uses the tagline "Das Original gegen Wundreibungen" ("the original against chafing") and calls itself Germany's number one brand against chafing. Both are the brand's own descriptions. The limited edition with Angelina Kirsch tied the brand to body positivity, a theme it continues to highlight.

The brand also positions itself around ingredient values. It says its products are vegan and not tested on animals, and that its formula is developed and produced in Germany in collaboration with specialised cosmetics laboratories. It further states that its products contain no parabens, microplastics or silicones. In 2025 its blog published posts explaining why the company follows what it calls clean-beauty principles and why dermatological testing matters to it. No third-party certifications are documented.

The company's statements about fragrance are not consistent. The landing page for the sticks says they form a protective barrier without greasy film, fragrances or white residue [10], and the ingredients page for The House of Legs states that all of the company's products are free of perfume [5]. However, the company's own FAQ says the Woman stick smells of peach and the Sport stick of mint and bergamot, and the ingredient lists it publishes for the Woman and Limited Edition sticks include perfume, while the Sport stick contains bergamot and peppermint oils [6]. The fragrance-free wording can therefore apply at most to the leg-care line.

Distribution is spread across several channels. Alongside its own webshop, the company names Müller, dm, Rossmann, Douglas, Flaconi and the shopping channel QVC as retail partners, and notes that the sticks are stocked in many branches of the drugstore chains Rossmann and dm [8]. The online shop ships to a number of European countries and runs a subscription option and a loyalty programme.

The core of the range is the anti-chafing stick, a colourless balm that the company says forms an invisible, gliding film on the skin to stop it rubbing raw. It is applied by twisting up the stick and spreading the balm over the areas at risk. The brand says the stick is sweat-resistant and stays in place during exercise and in heat. Independent coverage of the product after its television appearance noted that its balm is based on coconut oil and almond oil with vitamin E, and that similar products, such as Body Glide, had existed before it [11].

The stick comes in several versions:

- SUMMERSAVER Woman, which the company describes as the creamier variant, with a peach scent. - SUMMERSAVER Sport, developed with a firmer texture for use during sport. - SUMMERSAVER Limited Edition, the 2023 edition created with Angelina Kirsch. - SUMMERSAVER Sensitive, sold among the brand's sets.

The sticks are also offered in multi-packs and in a set containing all four variants. The company advises keeping a new stick cool before first use, because summer heat in delivery vans can soften the balm. It gives a shelf life of up to 30 months unopened and recommends using the stick within 12 months of opening.

The House of Legs, launched in 2025, moves beyond chafing into leg care. Its two main skincare products are the Lymphglow Leg Serum and The Ultimate Leg Cream, which the company says were developed for tired, swollen legs. The line also includes an EMS and light-therapy device (EMS stands for electrical muscle stimulation) and a Lifting Glow Face Serum.

The ingredient at the centre of the leg-care line is escin, the main active compound of the horse chestnut. The company says it uses escin in pure form rather than a standard horse chestnut extract, and describes the compound as known for reducing swelling, strengthening blood vessels and calming inflammation [5]. Other named ingredients include red algae, caffeine from coffee, hyaluronic acid, panthenol (provitamin B5), squalane, jojoba oil, coenzyme Q10 and vitamin E, along with menthol, birch and horsetail. The company also says the products can help visibly reduce water retention in the legs by stimulating circulation. These effects are the brand's own claims.

SUMMERSAVER is active. As of September 2026 its online shop was operating with a current product range covering both the anti-chafing sticks and The House of Legs line. The most recent dated posts on the company blog are from September 2025, and the leg-care line launched earlier that year was the brand's latest major expansion.