Weavers from Finland
Our family’s journey in the world of textiles began all the way back in 1917 with Juho Annala, who founded a felt boot factory in Lapua and subsequently laid the groundwork for the founding of Lapuan Kankurit in 1973. So many years filled with exultant joys, heart-breaking hardships, remarkable friendships, bold breakthroughs, beautiful designs – so many years filled with more memories than a mind could possibly hold. The past is the cornerstone on which we ground our work and our mission. Our woven journey continues.
Our weaving mill will once again be filled with the joy of reunion and shopping at the beginning of August, as we will be hosting the awaited Sales Days in our weaving mill in Lapua on Friday 31.7.2026 from 9am to 7 pm and on Saturday, 1.8.2026 from 9am to 5 pm!
Top design that stands the test of time and wear, favourite products woven from the finest natural materials — that’s what our sauna textiles are all about.
Meet masters of the textile craft: some of Lapuan Kankurit’s very own weaving family, who make every thread count. “I’ve always enjoyed working with myhands: there’s something very rewardingabout it. It’s great to see the work of yourown hands and be a part of creatingsomething special. Each piece of work hasmeaning, both to the material, […]
Our new collection celebrates the unbreakable link between stripe patterns, the beach and the sea. Elina Helenius, the Head Designer of Lapuan Kankurit, shares how everything has its roots in originality. ”For a while now we have focused on themes of originality with our design team. While designing the new collection, we started to ponder […]
Maija Fagerlund is a textile designer and a lecturer in textile design at Aalto University, who has mentored countless budding designers during her career. Many of Maija’s former students have also gone to design products for Lapuan Kankurit. Over the years, various projects have also fostered collaboration between the two. “Back in the day we […]
The world is more global than ever. Items mass-produced by massive, foreign megacorporations are only a click of a mouse or a tap of a finger away from our front doors. For a small business, this poses a quandary: how to keep up when giants are thundering past?You may have noticed the words we’ve adopted […]
Are you interested in working with us? Feel free to send your open job application to rekry@lapuankankurit.fi. In your application, please tell us a bit about yourself, your skills, and the type of work you are interested in. We carefully review all applications and will get in touch if suitable opportunities arise. We look forward […]
The goal of our up-coming autumn collection is to honour originality. While our aim is to always innovate and improve, at its heart each product is the same Lapuan Kankurit quality you know and love, artfully woven from pure natural materials right here in our own weaving mill in Finland. We want to invite you […]
Armi Teva is a Finnish ceramist, visual artist, designer and illustrator who has captured the hearts of the public with her cheerful and compelling ceramic face reliefs. Now her light-hearted and free-spirited imagery can be found adorning Lapuan Kankurit’s textiles. “I think my style is a mix of my own personality, as well as different […]
It’s a long way from Lyon, France to Lapua, Finland. For Maëlis Ray, French textile artist and Lapuan Kankurit’s newest designer, both towns hold a lot of importance. Lyon, known for its history of silk weaving as well as the invention place of the jacquard machine, was an environment steeped in textile know-how. “Learning about […]
The first of our weavers were innovative. They took their vast knowledge of jacquard weaving and built a thriving company around it. A company built not just with bricks and mortar, but with values equally embedded into its foundation, as well. Every generation of Lapuan Kankurit has been united in their deep appreciation for the […]
Situated on its very own idyllic peninsula just outside Helsinki, the cooperation and cultural centre features a beautiful hotel and a highlyrated restaurant, and hosts some 300 pieces of Nordic art. This year Hanaholmen is celebrating their 50th anniversary. Naturally, as a representative of both Swedish and Finnish cultures, Hanaholmen’s sauna offers a magnificent experience […]
Carita Harju is an ambassador of the Finnish sauna, an author, and the founder of the Sauna from Finland organisation. She discovered her calling in the world of sauna by chance. “I studied and worked abroad when I was younger, and when you’re away from home for a while you notice the things you miss. […]
Lapuan Kankurit has donated 20% of consumer sales to the Women’s Bank on International Women’s Day since 2018
Ecoliving by the sea Majamaja is actually two conce under the same name: firstly, it is, both architecturally and design-wise, a state-of-theart and minimalist rental design villa situated in the gorgeous Helsinki archipelago. Secondly, it is an eco-housing innovation of the future, an off-grid-living concept that aims to meet the challenges that arise, globally, from […]
The season’s bountiful offerings deserve the best textiles to preserve and present them. Earthy tones and natural materials provide a gorgeous canvas for your harvest feast.
Linen is absorbent, lightweight and dries fast. It’s easy to see why we consider it the superior company to sauna. Let the sun shine and the steam rise in style and comfort with our linen bath products.
Whether an abundant event with white linens and the best silverware, or a more mundane meal made special with a few attentive touches, a set table symbolises many things to the people that gather around it. A table setting symbolises preparation. Whether a solitary activity or one shared with helpers, setting the table sets the […]
“Water is the oldest of ointments, rapid-foam of remedies” goes part of a verse in the Finnish national epic Kalevala.For many Finns it’s merely a worn out proverb with little substance. For Iina Kuustonen, an award-winning Finnish actress and a Unicef Goodwill Ambassador, it seems more akin to a philosophy to live by. I find […]
We all need our safe spaces, our havens. Our cocoons to wrap up in to take a little breather. Some of us find it in nature and some in other people. We hope to provide you with a sense of comfort with our season’s new releases, as well. We are thrilled to introduce you to […]
Linen is one of our favourite materials. It is ecological, comfortable on the skin and easy to use. Flax is one of the oldest and cleanest fibres in the world. The linen yarn we use is spun mainly inside the EU area by Masters of Linen spinners. These spinners only use flax grown by rainwater […]
Life cannot be divvied up into neat little categories, and we believe you shouldn’t have to do that with the textiles in your life, either. Our aim is to create textiles that are there for you in any situation, whenever you need – and will continue to do so for generations to come. This means […]
Lapuan Kankurit celebrates with good deeds. Instead of Black Friday sales, the company’s stores, outlet, Store & Studio, and online store celebrates Good Spirit Friday. On Friday, Lapuan Kankurit donates also this year 20% of online and store sales to the Hyvä Joulumieli campaign. The Christmas Spirit fundraising campaign is run by the Mannerheim League […]
When temperatures drop to minus degrees and snow covers everything in sight, Finns gather their rugs, blankets, and clothes and take them outside. The coldest winter days are perfect for cleaning. The crisp winter air here in the north is perfect for airing out rugs, duvets, and pillows. As children, many Finns loved walking on […]
In a country where half of the year is spent in cold and darkness, how do the people keep their spirits up? While some begrudgingly accept wintertime as merely a necessary evil, others embrace it. Even by plunging into the icy waters of frozen lakes and seas. Winter swimming, ice swimming or coldwater swimming has […]
Lapuan Kankurit’s outlet in Lapua, Finland has been nominated in the SHOP OF THE YEAR category in Visualistit ry’s (Finnish Trade Union for Visual Marketing) Visu Awards 2024. We opened our gorgeous outlet in the Cultural Centre Vanha Paukku’s historical factory and culture site in 2015. The outlet was designed by the Japanese IMA Design’s […]
Finnish Christmas is steeped in traditions, many of which can be traced back hundreds or even thousands of years. For Finns, Christmas is the time of the quiet calm that only comes when the snow blankets the land in soft white, when the day is as dark as night and every light shines all the […]
It wasn’t too long ago that up to half of all Finnish sheep wool ended up in the landfill. However, thanks to spirited advocates and growing public awareness, wool is experiencing a new heyday. Lapuan Kankurit helms the movement of utilizing this domestic treasure to its full potential. Mankind has used wool for protection from […]
Saara Obele joined forces with Lapuan Kankurit during her studies in the Aalto University through the PatternLab program in 2022. Her organic, unique style was an instant match for the brand. – It was very exciting for me to have Lapuan Kankurit as one of the first brands, if not the first, to take an […]
We are buying good quality, pure and clean wool from Finnsheep and Kainuu Greys from our contract producers. We collect the Finnish sheep wool from local farms ourselves, in approximately 300-kilometre radius around Lapua. We have built a continuously operating wool product finishing mill in Lapua, with a wool spinning mill under construction, as well. […]
Design by Akira Minagawa for Lapuan Kankurit and Harri Koskinen for Parolan Rottinki. Lapuan Kankurit is participating in the third Fiskars Village Art & Design Biennale! We are proud to share our veranda section together with Parolan Rottinki. Our companies share a deep love for traceable production and top design as well as a rich […]
The roots of the picturesque Crafts Centre Verkaranta reach deep into the depths of the Finnish textile industry: the space once hosted the dye house of Tampere’s baize factory, which opened in 1858. Tampere and its craftspeople have long been a part of Lapuan Kankurit’s woven journey, and now the shared voyage continues: we have […]
It all started with a Finnish jacket. Akira Minagawa, known for his brand minä perhonen, had his life’s course changed forever after one innocuous purchase in Rovaniemi nearly four decades ago. The jacket he found in a local store became a symbol of the kind of designs Akira wanted to aim for: not high fashion, […]
“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” Our theme for spring of 2024 is playfulness. This spring we want to explore curiously, we want to frolic freely, we want to dance joyfully, we want to laugh with wild abandon. And, through our new collection, we want to […]
The ancient alchemists believed that by marrying together mythology, technology and philosophy, they would be able to perfect the human body and soul. Listening to Nene Tsuboi and Tuomas Toivonen, the co-owners of KULTTUURISAUNA, talk about the bathing experience, it’s clear that the two practices are not altogether dissimilar. The way they describe the transformative […]
We are proud to launch our collection with the Japanese designer Akira Minagawa, founder of design brand minä perhonen, at the Maison&Objet Fair on the 18th of January, 2024. The collection features two designs called METSÄLAMPI (“forest pond”) and KESÄKUKKA (“summer flower”). Both designs are available as towels and blankets. The style of Akira Minagawa, […]
We hope you are doing well. As we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Lapuan Kankurit, it feels proper to not only gaze back to the past half a century, but to also set our sights on to you, the world of tomorrow. After all, it is for you that we do so much of […]
The EY Entrepreneur of The Year competition, organized annually by EY, is an acknowledgement of entrepreneurs who inspire others with their vision, leadership and achievements. In 2023, Jaana and Esko Hjelt from Lapuan Kankurit Oy were chosen as the Audience Favourite. ILOQ’s Heikki Hiltunen and Mika Pukari were declared as the Growth Entrepreneurs of The […]
Lapuan Kankurit sources the Finnsheep wool fibre, utilized in their wool yarns, locally. The yarn made from this fibre is spun to be either natural brown or beige, and some are dyed further. The Finnsheep wool is also dyed with natural dyes, either blue from plant dyes extracted from woad or yellow with coffee. The […]
The last few years have brought tremendous changes into the life of Samu-Jussi Koski. He parted ways with his brand, Samuji, to focus on designing smaller collections for Finnish companies, and to discover what other possibilities life would have in store. One such avenue, costuming theatre productions for the Helsinki City Theatre, is what brought […]
Lapuan Kankurit Oy meets all the criteria set for the Sustainable Travel Finland label, and we have been granted the right to use the Sustainable Travel Finland label as proof of valuable and long-term work for sustainable tourism.
The linen and wool weaving mill Lapuan Kankurit has begun a cooperation with the John Nurminen Foundation at 2017. The Foundation’s Clean Baltic Sea projects advance the protection of the joint, unique marine environment, so a cooperation is a natural part of the activities of a responsible, design weaving mill using natural materials. The Lapuan […]
The cold, wind, and damp are the biggest challenges outdoors. If we don’t shield ourselves from these elements, we feel uncomfortable and will cut our visit to the wild short. This has not changed over the thousands of years during which the sparsely haired human mammals have walked the earth. It’s interesting that the solution […]
What would the mires tell us if they had a voice? Perhaps they would whisper about the secret gatherings of the golden cloudberries, hiding where only the worthy may find them. Maybe they would sigh about the gentle caress of a twig of a shrub on your ankle, as a tuffet of moss gives way. […]
Lapuan Kankurit, Kyrö Distillery, and Lennol Oy have been recognized as pioneers in sustainability in South Ostrobothnia. The awards for exemplary sustainability efforts by these companies were announced on Thursday, June 8, 2023, at a seminar held at Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences.In the award criteria, the companies were acknowledged for their commitment to developing […]
When speaking with Matti Pikkujämsä, it does not take long for the value of freedom to come up in the conversation. From the liberty of a freelancer to choose the projects that inspire him, to finding inspiration from anywhere and anything, it is clear that to Matti, rigid structures and definitions appear stifling. This desire […]
A lot has changed for Lapuan Kankurit in their fifty years of business. And yet, to the owner Esko Hjelt, much more remains the same way it always has been. – Our family’s textile legacy began when Juho Annala founded a felt boot factory in Lapua in 1917. His grandson, Juha Hjelt, started his own […]
I wake up when the rest of the house is still sound asleep. The soft breathing of dreaming children can be heard in the otherwise quiet house. Dressed only in my emerald green swimsuit and linen bathrobe, I close the door silently behind me. Barefoot, I walk down to the beach. It is a calm, […]
The South Ostrobothnia Entrepreneurs Association awarded the 2022 Regional Entrepreneur of the Year award to Jaana and Esko Hjelt. Lapuan Kankurit, a family-run company led by the Hjelt family, has carried on Finnish weaving traditions for over a century. Founded in 1917 by Juho Annala, the company initially produced felt slippers and later expanded to […]
The atmosphere reminded me of a secret garden in a nostalgic resort village. An atmosphere that, to me, seemed to suggest a more resort-like and relaxing living.It seemed to me that, living in a place like this, life itself would become more easygoing and relaxed. We made massive renovations in the ramshackle apartment while trying […]