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Karhu

Karhu 21 Products

Karhu is a Finnish sports brand. Karhu, meaning bear in Finnish, was first using as a sporting goods brand in 1916 by the Finnish company Ab Sport Artiklar. The brand is currently owned by Karhu Holding B.V., which purchased it in 2008, and is used to market running shoes, sportswear, and skiing and other sports equipment in Finland and abroad. The Brand Karhu became famous when the "flying Fins" won all the running competitions that existed. The brand is proud of it's Fulcrum technology that is used in all its sneakers.

Finnish brand quality at its best

Karhu has been producing various sporting goods for 100 years, including javelins, discuses and running shoes. The company AB Sport Artiklar Oy was founded in 1916, and the company name Karhu (Bär) has been used since the 1920s. The company equipped a number of athletes with their products as early as the 1920 Olympic Games, including Olympic champion Jonni Myyrä, in the 1930s the company expanded its product range and athlete Paavo Nurmi was equipped with Karhu products.

During the Second World War, the sporting goods manufacturer produced uniforms, shoes, skis and tents for the Finnish army, but after the war ended, the company quickly decided to return to producing sporting goods. It didn't take long for the company's sporting goods to become well known and in demand, and by the time of the 1952 Olympic Games, their sports shoes were among the most sought after. The famous three stripes that the company used to decorate its own shoe productions were sold to Adidas, according to information from the company, for two bottles of whiskey and 1,600 euros. After the sale of the stripes, the letter M was applied to the shoes, this came from the designers Mäntylä. The success story of the sports shoes goes even further, however. In 1965, the first sports shoes were made of nylon and in 1970, the air cushion system was developed. The so-called Champion shoe managed to break the magic barrier of 1 million copies sold. In 1980, the Fulcrum system was developed for running shoes. Today, the running shoes are still popular and in demand, especially in Finland, but the shoes are slowly gaining market share in Germany.