Living in an era in which hype seems to prevail over traditional sales techniques, there still are brands that can give much more than what you can find on the market.
Karhu is a Finnish brand born in 1916 by the will of making the best running shoes for Finnish athletes. The name is simply the translation of the word bear in Finnish and it’s obviously a reference to the animal symbol of the nation.
The brand has always been characterized by an experimental attitude, each model has been revolutionized during the time and still stands in antithesis to large modern houses such as Adidas and Nike under various aspects. For example the conception that they have of sole and fit: while Nike and Adidas, with respective air and boost technologies, favor a soft and reactive support on the plant of the foot, Karhu moves in the opposite direction and through the patented technology Fulcrum prefers a stiff and natural fit, giving the wearer the effect of barefoot running.
Karhu has been famous since the 20s because of the huge amount of athletes who managed to get wins during the athletics competitions, allowing Finland to position itself fourth in the medal table in Anverse and win 9 gold medals; the fantastic sporting exploit then convinced the directors to sew the M of mestari (champion) on the side of the shoe, a tradition recurring even in current models.
It also received important acclaims in 2017 after Kanye West (coming from a long trail of success due to Yeezy) showed up in front of paparazzi wearing Karhu.
Karhu heads toward 2018 as one of the most fashionable emerging brands for sneakers. Do not miss the next release of two new colorways (deep cobalt/boat e deep cobalt/black) for the Fushion 2.0 model, available from April 14 online.
