Denimland Sweden
Sweden has a long and well rooted Jeans culture. Partially it’s thanks to the local Rock n’ Roll subculture which is very present. «Swedish Denim brands are so popular at the moment, because Denim has been over worked these last couple of seasons» says Peter Lindh (Swedish product manager at Lee). For the Scandinavians, clean, minimalistic Design is part of their cultural expression.
Swedish Denim is preferably raw or dark. The cut slim and straight.
Swedish Denim Companies all have another thing in common - they don’t spend much money on traditional marketing. Instead, the internet has become their most important platform. Here, even with a small budget, it is possible to reach a broad audience. Smart and user friendly websites enable the potential customer to scroll through the pages and research the product independently. The media also helps with cheap marketing. Cheap Monday for example, became known overnight, after an article in a US national newspaper called their pants «The Devil’s Dungarees». In the article the brand was labeled anti-religious and the founders where called devil worshippers. The brand logo is a grinning scull- the wires have been running hot ever since.
One of the first of the new Swedish Denim movement was Nudie Jeans. The brand was founded in 2000 by the designer Maria Erixon. A couple of years later she added the girl’s brand Denimbirds. Today, the company retails at 20 million Euros, which makes them the most successful Swedish apparel company ever.
The classic Nudie styles are the Regular Ralf, the Straight Sven, the Bootcut Ola, the Slim Jim and the Superslim Kim. The ladies styles are among others the BStraight, the BTight and the Baggy Narrow.
Check out our Nudie Jeans special for more infos.
The young «shooting star» on the Scandinavian Denim market is Julian Red. The brand was founded in 2002. The company’s headquarters are in the countryside, about two hours away from Gothenburg. For them, the internet is the most important access to customers and wholesalers. The Name Julian Red is composed of «Julian» (Punk character in B.E. Ellis’s «Below Zero») and «Red» (which stands for life, passion and politics). Their most important styles are the California, the Hoboken, the Detroit and the CaliX. The pants are often sold as unisex styles. The CaliX finally brings back a touch of color denim.
Cheap Monday are not only notoriously-famous these days, they count on selling 500 000 to 600 000 pairs of jeans in 2006. Part of the success story is probably their customer friendly retail price. Even then, not bad for a company that was founded in 2004.
Behind the anti-beauty brand name Acne Jeans stands the company’s moto «Ambition to Create Novel Expressions». In Stockholm the name «Acne» doesn’t only stand for apparel, but also for TV commercials, video games, stuffed animals and a magazine.
The «wearable» Design was added to the Acme assortment in 1997, when founder Jonny Johansson had a 100 pair of jeans with red top stiching produced for his family, friends and customers. Several stores asked, who the manufacturer was- the rest is company history. In the meantime, the company retails at 15 million Euros a year- a big chunk contributed by the denim lines. Even the name «Acne» has been established- according to a survey, youth in Stockholm now first associate the word with jeans and then with pimples.
