By my reckoning, Karhu have been up there in the Champions League places this last few years. They’ve been around forever though. Back in 1916, Karhu produced skis, which were some of the first items manufactured in a small workshop located in downtown Helsinki. There, locally sourced birch was transformed into winter forms of transport. Because the skis were of such high quality, the Finnish army and world champions like Harri Kirvesniemi, chose to wear Karhu on their feet.
Kirvesniemi remains part of the Karhu family as the official licensee of the Karhu ski division, which has helped shape the brand.
While here in the UK the weather is definitely taking an autumnal turn, over in Finland, the snow won’t be far away. I remember back in about 2002 finding myself in the middle of the Finnish countryside during summer and it struck me as odd that everyone’s house had a little ladder to a window on the roof. I was later told it was sometimes the only way to get in and out, such was the deluge of snow. Mad eh? No wonder skis play such an important and influential part in everyday Finnish life.
For this latest release, the Karhu design team visited the Karhu Ski Factory in Kitee, a small Finnish town in the east of Finland. Both the factory and
the Kitee Sports Centre’ outdoor facilities, the cross-country ski training location, serve as the backdrop to the photo shoot of the Cross-Country Ski Pack II.
Over in Turin, Italy, Fresh have you covered for these, just as the entirety of Finland will soon be covered with snow.
