True north
Swedish outdoor footwear brand Lundhags has always produced on home soil the long-lasting, high-shafted shell boots that helped make its name. More recently, it decided to give a fresh start to lower-cut, lighter boots for walking and hiking, calling this range Omni. It has used the skills and know-how that it has built up in a history spanning nearly 90 years to make sure the footwear in the Omni range has the “instant comfort” that consumers want these days, but without any compromise on the Nordic authenticity that in brands DNA.
Long before it was fashionable to talk about making your products long-lasting to reduce waste and offer consumers better value for money, outdoor footwear brand Lundhags talked frequently about “Nordic authenticity”. Its product manager for footwear, Mats-Håkan Lundhag, explained what the company means by this, saying that many people in the cold, wet climate of northern Europe have an intimate knowledge of footwear of this kind because it has become a necessity for enduring the harshest seasons of the year. Long ago, when shoes and boots were made of leather on its own, it was difficult to make them last in this part of the world; the snow and rain took their toll and the products needed to be replaced quite quickly.
Adapted to the climate
A boot such as the Lundhags Forest II combines full-grain leather in the shaft, protected in the lower part by rubber for insulation and water-proofness. “In the mid-1960s, lots of companies in Sweden made this type of shell boot,” Mr Lundhag says. “Now we are practically the only ones left, but people still know these products. Plus, where we are, in Jämtland [a wilderness-rich region in the west-central part of Sweden], we are surrounded by brands that also have the same passion for the outdoors. So it’s not just us.” Outdoor stove company Trangia and tent manufacturer Hilleberg are near neighbours that he mentions as examples of companies that are sharing in the task of taking the Nordic authenticity message to the outside world.
Lundhags’ commitment, he says, is to making boots that will last, if not for a lifetime, at least for quite a few years, but it also seeks to make boots that people will want to wear for a long time, which means being careful about aspects whose appeal can sometimes be short-lived, such as fashion colours.
Cold comfort
Recent communications from the brand have placed extra emphasis on “instant comfort”. Perhaps this suggests that consumers today are less willing to devote the same time and effort to breaking in new boots than previous generations were, but Mats-Håkan Lundhag doesn’t seem to mind this. “Every generation has its own ideas of what’s important,” he says. He recalls joining the business at the start of the 1990s and seeing things that he wanted to change from the time of his grandfather, who founded the company in 1932, and his father, who also ran the business. It was the current product manager who introduced computer-aided design, for example. “Things have to develop,” he says. “And we also have more knowledge now of what our competitors are doing. The Forest II boot we make today looks the same as the Forest boot we made back then, but it is not the same. For example, it didn’t used to have a footbed, now it does."
The comfort message has come across particularly clearly in messages the brand has published about the Omni range, a collection of lighter, low- and mid-cut boots and shoes that it presents as a being ideal for light hikes and everyday use. “Instant comfort” is one of the collection’s attractions, along with functional quality and suitability for all seasons and all terrains, from the mountains to the city, and everything in between, the company says. World-class craftsmanship is another main ingredient, it claims.
Fresh start
This type of footwear is not new for Lundhags, but the company wanted to “give it a fresh start” with the latest Omni range, which it believes it has achieved by choosing carefully the materials it has used, but still making sure to use materials and a construction that will last. “They are repairable too,” Mr Lundhag says. “The more you add to a design, the more complicated the product will be to repair, but repairability is important, even if sometimes it might seem easier to give the customer a new pair instead.” One of the technical challenges the brand has taken on in meeting this commitment to repairability centres on its use of open-cell EVA foams in the outsole of many of its boots. “We now have good knowledge of how to repair this material too,” Mr Lundhag says.
Materials that add to the story
Careful choice of materials extends to the leather that the company uses in the uppers of its boots. It is a long-term user of Terracare, the brand name that German tanner Josef Heinen applies to its finished leather, saying that the name defines its production standards: environmentally-friendly, resource-efficient and socially compatible, using local raw materials. Terracare leather is produced with hydrophobic greases that make it water- and dirt-repellent, but without compromising on leather’s natural breathability. Its elasticity helps Lundhags and other footwear manufacturers offer the comfort consumers want.
Part of the price customers pay for Terracare supports reforestation programmes that are audited by independent environmental organisations. In addition, Heinen says its production generates CO2 emissions that are at least 30% below the industry average, makes use of 97% of the waste its manufacturing processes generate, consumes 40% less water than the industry standard and uses REACH-certified auxiliary materials.
For Mats-Håkan Lundberg, the investment in Terracare is worthwhile. “We’ve learned a lot in the years that we’ve been using it,” he explains. “Leather is an old, traditional business and the tanneries themselves are often old buildings and often that’s the image people might have in their minds. What Terracare does is give us a much more interesting story to tell our customers.”
Terracare leather from German supplier Josef Heinen adds substantially to the story Lundhags is able to tell its customers.
