Nokian Footwear ( fi, Nokian Jalkineet) is a Finnish manufacturer of

rubber boots The Wellington boot was originally a type of leather boot adapted from Hessian boots, a style of military riding boot. They were worn and popularised by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. The "Wellington" boot became a staple of pr ...

. It was a part of

Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finlan ...

(which is today known for its mobile phones) from 1967 to 1990, when it split into its own company. It was acquired by the Finnish company in 2005.

History

The company's history extends back to 1898, when Eduard Polón and a group of other Finnish businessmen decided to establish the company Suomen Gummitehdas Oy (Finnish Rubber Works Ltd) in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

. After operating for a few years, the factory began to produce rubber galoshes, which competed successfully against Russian imports. After several years of production in Helsinki, the factory was moved to the town of

. Soon after, the company began to use the brand Nokia, communicating Finnishness, and to distinguish itself from the cheaper Russian products. Nokian Boots (2)

Suomen Gummitehdas was soon manufacturing rubber goods ranging from machine belts to hoses and vehicle tyres. Later Suomen Gummitehdas Oy changed its name to a more modern Suomen Kumitehdas Oy. In 1967, Suomen Kumitehdas and Kaapelitehdas (The Cable Company) merged with the forest and power industry company Nokia Osakeyhtiö (Nokia Company) to form

Nokia Corporation Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...

, the current telecommunications corporation. The group's fields of business were the

rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, a ...

, cable and

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

industries as well as electricity generation and

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

. At the end of the 1980s, the different industrial sectors of Nokia Corporation decided to focus on their own areas of expertise. Nokian Tyres left in 1988 to form its own, independent company and two years later, in 1990, Nokian Footwear was founded. The parent company Nokia Corporation focused on

telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than tha ...

and divested itself of all of its non-telecommunications divisions. ''Nokian'' is "Nokia" in the

genitive In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...

, thus ''Nokian Footwear'' means "Footwear of Nokia". In 2005, the Finnish family business Berner bought Nokian Footwear and assumed ownership of the Nokian Footwear brands and closely guarded rubber recipes. They sell retro design classics such as Hai and Kontio rubber boots.

Milestones

* 1898 – Finnish Rubber Works Ltd (Suomen Gummitehdas Oy) founded in

. * 1904 – Factory moves to the town of

. * 1967 – Finnish Rubber Works, The Cable Company and Nokia Company merged, thereby forming

. * 1973 – Kontio, a classic full-length rubber boot for men, introduced. * 1990 – Split from Nokia Corporation. Nokian Footwear Ltd. founded. * 2005 – acquires Nokian Footwear.

References

External links

Official site

Berner Oy
Manufacturing companies of Finland Clothing companies established in 1990 {{manufacturing-company-stub