The best good clothes emerge from a place and time where the hand and the mind are one. That place can be anywhere. And that time can be always. The only thing that matters is that this place — wherever it is — is here, and that this time — whenever it is — is now.
Let me take A.I.’s recommendation to heart, and explain what I mean rather than being so haiku-like. Who knows — it may benefit this ongoing attempt to find words for the essentially wordless, like some sort of garment phenomenologist: the lived experience of wearing, of moving in, of being affected by, of inhabiting clothes.
I mean to say that the best good clothes are grounded in reality, in the real-life flesh-and-blood circumstances of their coming into existence — whether because the design responds to the designer’s natural environment, or because the fabric shows traces of the tools used to make it, or because the seams bear the mark of the fingers that stitched them.
I also mean to say that the best good clothes have presence, in the sense that they are alive with their own individual existence. They have thisness — the quality of being “this,” the collection of individualizing differences that makes them “not-that.” And they resist to stand in for, or be reduced to, something they aren’t: a concept, a trend, a hype, your identity, someone’s fantasy or another other kind of abstract entity.
And I mean to say that, although of course bought, picked up or even copped, they are not really chosen. Instead, they confront the wearer with their own reality. They are not passive objects of your choice, but some sort of active presences that meet you on their own terms. It’s this confrontation that opens up the possibility of surprise and change — which, in the end, we are all after (right?).
When worn, the best good clothes are not objects, but events — like wind, or rain, or an hour of the day.
Am I making too much of this? Absolutely. But also too little. That’s the thing with words. They’re always overdoing it, and yet are never enough. As David Byrne should have put it: words don’t do what you want them to.
Today’s example of something real and present, with exactly the right amount of haecceity (it’s funny how often the words that get it exactly right are totally unpronounceable, and doomed not to catch on): the ‘Wanderer’, the new model from Helsinki-based brand Tarvas that launched this week. Hampus from Nitty Gritty — which apparently can’t keep the shoe in stock — puts it nicely: “The ‘Wanderer’ feels both unexpected and long awaited, and based on the feedback so far I sense that it will stay around for quite some time.” I jumped on a call with Tarvas co-founder Jukka Lehtinen to talk about this sleek, Vibram-soled, mudguard-wrapped, European-soiled miracle — and, while we were at it, discuss the ins and outs of Tarvas itself.
Lukas Mauve
How’s life, Jukka?
Jukka Lehtinen
This summer has been pretty hectic. We’re still a small team and we had to quality-check, pack and ship autumn-winter orders to our retailers ourselves. The quantities aren’t huge, but we’re growing. Let’s just say it’s nice to finally have a breather.
Lukas Mauve
Tarvas started in 2017, so you’ve now passed the infamous 5-year cut, right — when a brand stops surviving and starts existing.
Jukka Lehtinen
Yeah, exactly. It took us a bit longer than we thought actually. We were first-time entrepreneurs when we started and, looking back, maybe a bit too optimistic. But we’re alive and kicking now, and pretty happy about it.
Lukas Mauve
Could you briefly take me back to the start, back in 2017?
Jukka Lehtinen
Yes, so basically the core team consists of Pekka [Keinänen], Harri [Saarikoski] and myself. We all have a footwear background. Back in 2008 I interned at Nike in Hilversum…
Lukas Mauve
…that’s 20 minutes from where I live!
Jukka Lehtinen
No way! I lived in Amsterdam during that time, but I commuted to Hilversum everyday. I have fond memories of that time.
But yeah, after Nike I went to work at Karhu, the Finnish sneaker brand. I stayed there for about seven years. During that time, Harri and I were colleagues, and we became good friends. We soon started thinking about what we could do together, and how exciting that would be. Karhu sneakers were produced in Asia and I remember that the quality was always kind of a lottery. You never knew what to expect from the factory, and we were often quite disappointed. The supply chain was divided into so many stages all over the world. We quickly learned that it would be so much easier and simply better to have the production take place close to home.
Lukas Mauve
And when did Pekka enter the picture?
Jukka Lehtinen
At one point I was organizing Karhu’s 95th anniversary exhibition, where they displayed archive material — and in walked Pekka, who’s a shoe nerd just like me. We got to talking and he invited me to visit his own shoe-workshop in Helsinki. The three of us connected instantly. So, Harri and I were already dreaming of doing something of our own, and there was Pekka, who actually knew how to make it real. At first, it was just a hobby, of course — three guys playing around. By 2016 we decided: “okay, let’s give this thing a try.”
Lukas Mauve
And what was your next move?
Jukka Lehtinen
We started contacting different production sites in Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, and Finland. That took about 12 months. By December 2017 we were ready to launch Tarvas. We started with just one model — the ‘Explorer’ — in three colors. Our first production run was really small, maybe 60 pairs. That first model is still in our collection, and it’s still made at the same factory with the same people here in Finland.
The good thing about producing in Finland was and actually still is that we don’t have any minimums. Back in 2017 this was helpful for us because we weren’t forced to start with 1200 pairs — which is usual when you go to China — or 500-600 pairs — if you work with factories in other parts of Europe. We first launched with three retailers, one in England (Peggs&son.) and two in Finland.
Lukas Mauve
Tarvas currently has four different models…
Jukka Lehtinen
…that’s because we’re not interested in creating new products just for the sake of it. We much rather refine and improve existing models for each new season.
Lukas Mauve
What does your production in Finland look like?
Jukka Lehtinen
Where I’m sitting now is our basement workshop in Helsinki. It’s where the creative process happens and where we have the machines to hand-make our prototypes, allowing us to test them in and around the city. And there’s also the Finnish factory — which is 2,5 hours away from Helsinki by train, to the northwest. It’s a small-scale factory, more like an atelier, with only three employees.
Lukas Mauve
And they can still handle your production runs?
Jukka Lehtinen
They’ve tried to hire new people, but it’s super hard to find skilled shoemakers in Finland — which is one of the reasons why we also produce in Portugal. There’s a deeper story behind it, actually. The shoe industry in Finland is almost non-existent. It used to be quite big up until the early 90s, when the country’s connection with the Soviet Union was very strong. There were a lot of shoe companies and brands that exported tens of thousands of pairs to the Soviet Union. When it collapsed, that business just got wiped out more or less. Since then it has declined dramatically. There are now only a handful of companies doing production here in Finland.
Lukas Mauve
And how’s your relation with the Finnish factory you’re working with?
Jukka Lehtinen
We’re super close with the factory owners. Last year I spent 95 nights at the factory. I have my own room there and the keys to the factory itself. They’re part of our family, really. But they’re all in their 60s now, and they’re eager to retire. But they’re having a hard time finding people who can take over their work. It’s physically demanding and you can get the same salary at a supermarket.
Lukas Mauve
What will happen to the factory next, you think?
Jukka Lehtinen
They’re trying to talk me into buying the factory, basically. It’s an option, but also a huge step, of course.
Lukas Mauve
But then again, you’d save Finland’s shoe culture!
Jukka Lehtinen
Yeah, well, it does sound attractive. And the asking price is good, but running a factory is a whole different thing from what we do now. Let’s see what happens!
Lukas Mauve
Okay, let’s have a look at this new model you’ve just introduced: the Wanderer. What’s the story behind it?
Jukka Lehtinen
To tell the full story of the ‘Wanderer’, I have to go back a little bit further. For the ‘Explorer’ we created our own sole, and this shoe is produced entirely in Finland. With the ‘Easy Hiker’, our casual hiking shoe, we explored different route by starting a partnership with the Italian sole-maker Vibram. At one point we discovered some of their other soles which we found interesting and felt could work really good for a shoe that’s a bit less robust than the ‘Explorer’ and ‘Easy Hiker’.
The inspiration for the ‘Wanderer’ came from pro climbing shoes. But we wanted to mix that with some contemporary menswear esthetics in a classy way. We took a super nice low profile Vibram sole, elevated the upper by using Italian cow leather, and added our own signature mudguard which wraps around the entire shoe for extra protection. It’s still classic and minimalistic, but the design is definitely a bit more “risky” than some of our other models. We’re really happy with it.
Lukas Mauve
I’m curious to hear more about Vibram. They’re a company, but have also become a sort of mark of quality. How does a partnership with them work: do you pick a sole to fit your design, or do you adapt your design around an existing sole?
Jukka Lehtinen
It could go either way. In our experience it’s best to design a shoe from the ground up, also because it’s easier to create an upper than to create a sole. And a sole is quite a big investment, at least if you want to create a one of your own — you need a mold, and then make a mold for each size, etcetera. We did that for the ‘Explorer’, which we did in collaboration with a Finnish manufacturer 30 kilometers away from the factory where our shoes are made.
Maybe in the future we’ll have our own Vibram-sole — who knows. For now, the soles we use aren’t our own design, but Vibram’s. They have a great catalog with many different options. I believe the one we chose for the ‘Wanderer’ was first created in the late ‘90s or early 2000s.
Lukas Mauve
For the ‘Wanderer’ campaign visuals you teamed up with Nitty Gritty. How did that come about?
Jukka Lehtinen
Yeah, it’s a new partnership. Nitty Gritty is a store, of course, but they also run their own sales agency. Since the beginning of this year, they’ve been representing us in the Nordic countries. We’ve always loved their story and the styling they’re doing for their own channels. One thing led to another, and we ended up co-creating this photoshoot: they directed it, Eric Nordstedt handled the styling, and I oversaw the process and helped out where needed. Working with them has been so easy — it all felt very natural and aligned.
Lukas Mauve
The ‘Wanderer’ launched on your own webstore and at Nitty Gritty a few days ago. How has the release been going so far?
Jukka Lehtinen
At Nitty Gritty it’s already sold out in most sizes, actually. And it’s pretty much the same on our webstore. Other stores are putting them online as we speak, I believe — Goods in Copenhagen, for instance, Havn in Melbourne and C’H’C’M in New York. And in the next few days there’ll be a couple more.
Lukas Mauve
No Finnish retailers?
Jukka Lehtinen
Don’t get me started on the Finnish retail landscape. Right now, we don’t have a single retailer in Finland, even though we’re based here. There are a couple of decent stores though, so let’s see what the future brings!
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