Introducing The Made in Finland List
To celebrate the Finnish Independence Day Helsinki Report will start a weekly list of brands and products – all Made in Finland.
A week ago, I launched this newsletter called Helsinki Report.
The feedback has been so encouraging, supportive and kind. I feel like HR found its audience. Now I just need to grow it.
First things first! Thank you for being a subscriber. Tell your friends, if they might like this kind of stuff, too.
This week we make a list.
Finland celebrates its independence on the 6th of December. To highlight the country’s 107th birthday, Helsinki Report will now start a new feature: The Made In Finland List.
Literally, it is a list of brands that make all or some of their stuff in Finland. Consider it your go-to gift guide for 365 days a year.
A long list of products that are manufactured in Finland.
The list is inspired by writer and marketer Michael Williams and his influential A Continuous Lean blog that has since turned into a Substack. Williams started The American List about 15 years ago, around #menswear’s heyday. In my view Williams and his list had a huge impact on the new-found respect to things made in America.
The starting five
Finland has a long history of textile and design product manufacturing. Production has since moved to more cost-efficient areas of the world. As a country of engineers Finland nowadays invests more heavily on textile material innovation and fiber production etc.
Traditionally in manufacturing in Finland, the quality is high, but work is expensive.
This is not an easy issue – it somehow echoes current sustainability discussion. The consumer wants products that are made in Finland but is not ready or able to pay the price of Finnish production. This has resulted to production in the Baltics, the EU and beyond.
In Finnish design and fashion, companies push the “Designed in Finland” brand. It is very much like Apple’s “designed in California” slogan. (This list is not a comment on that discussion.)
The list is a love letter to the sustainable, quality products made in Finland. So every week Helsinki Report will list five manufacturers or products that are made in Finland.
Here we go!
Kasperi
Kasperi is a high-end backpack maker that recently took over its own production. The bags have been made in Finland since the company started in 2009, but this fall they set up their own factory in Hämeenlinna. Factory might be a slight overstatement. They call the place verstas, a workshop. Whatever you call, it is the place where all Kasperi bags are made.
Founders Janne Suhonen and Michael Tervanen call their own production “a dream come true”. For Kasperi it’s not just about the products, it is about the culture. They are collaborating with local a school to train artisans to the profession and have skilled workers contribute to their production. The long term goal is to restore the respect for the artisan profession.
Business is good, too. According to Kasperi, ever since the move the sales are booming. A fine example of sustainable growth!
Read more about Kasperi.
Tarvas
Tarvas is a Helsinki-based shoe company that has a cult-like following in the coolest circles of men’s fashion. Step by step they are making process in the international market.
The company has evolved and grown powered by a tight strategy that includes collaborations with the likes of Daiki Suzuki’s Engineered Garments and an impressive list of stockists from Japan’s Nepenthes to Helsinki’s Common and Sweden’s Nitty Gritty.
Tarvas just launched their newest model The Easy Hiker which is racking up great reviews.
The company has sustainable production in Portugal. However, their first model called the Explorer is still manufactured in Parkano, Finland. I have interviewed co-founder Jukka Lehtinen many times and he has said (many times) that they aim to keep the Explorer production in Finland. One foot on home soil and the other in the world!
Read more about Tarvas.
.TEBIAN
Carpenter Teppo Lakaniemi is the man (and myth) behind furniture brand .TEBIAN.
.TEBIAN is both a brand and a mission. Whether the product is a chair, a shelf, a bar cart (it’s a trolley, I know) or a mirror, Lakaniemi meticulously researches the production in the whole of Finland. A perfectionist at heart he never takes a shortcut in any part of the design process. At any given moment .TEBIAN collaborates with up to 20 manufacturers around Finland.

As versatile and productive entrepreneur, Lakaniemi actually creates work in Finland in addition to beautiful products.
Read more about .TEBIAN.
Myssyfarmi
Myssyfarmi is an another company that has a strong mission. They are design company from Pöytyä, Finland and make woolen caps, scarfs and such. There is a major social impact element to their production. From the very beginning they have employed pensioners – every product is knitted by a “grandma in Pöytyä”, as they say.

The finished product is a Finnish product. Even the hand-dyed yarn comes from herds of Finnsheep. A fine example of traditional crafts morphed into a cute brand with a sustainable mission and great products!
Read more about Myssyfarmi.
Lapuan Kankurit
Over a 100 years of weaving, that’s impressive!
Interior textile company Lapuan Kankurit has their own weaving mill in Lapua. This is the highest level of sustainable production as Lapuan Kankurit says on their site that “knowing every step from thread to product is of utmost importance”.
It’s a growing business, too. The company has a yearly revenue of around 6.6 million euros.
There is a huge international potential in this field. Lapuan Kankurit has seized the opportunity and works with several Finnish and international designers.
Their rustic products go especially well with illustrator Teemu Järvi’s designs that are inspired by Finnish nature and fauna.
Read more about Lapuan Kankurit.
Work in progress: combining design and business for Finnish Design Info
I have been working on a fun project for Finnish Design Info and their digital channels. It is a series of short texts about interesting and influential people, companies and phenomena. The goal is to paint a bigger picture about the multitude of Finnish design. The post topics range from Camper’s Achilles Ion Gabriel to Oura and from Remedy to Vaarnii.
I call a text like this “a boutique-size brand analysis”. So far the series can be found on Finnish Design Info’s Instagram page which you can follow here. Stay tuned for more on this project.
Skate culture saves the world
Thanks for reading all the way to the end! I’m ending this week with a challenging not.
Helsinki has a bit of skating problem. The city is about to demolish Suvilahti DIY, Europe’s largest skate park made by volunteers and skaters.
I have followed the fight to save this unique spot for a long time, and admire the strength and stamina of the people trying to save culture, basically.
There haven’t been many positive moments in the fight so I’m willing to translate any news to a positive.
Now this next piece of news is not directly connected to Suvilahti DIY and yet: a clear positive sign.
This week The Arts Promotion Centre Finland awarded the prestigious State Prize for Children’s and Youth Culture 2024 to a skater, namely landscape architect Janne Saario.
Quoting The Arts Promotion Centre Finland: “Saario has designed over 50 skate parks in Finland. His first design work, Eläintarhan Micropolis (2006), is still one of the most popular gathering places for young skateboarding enthusiasts in Helsinki. This year, seven new parks were completed, including one in Kittilä in Lapland.”
Congratulations to Janne Saario! Now let’s save this special park pictured below.
How wonderful, and such a well curated list of my favorites 😁 Happy to see another Finn to join Substack!