Eureka 424: The cool evolution of 66°North

0:14You're listening to Eureka on Monocle Radio, brought to you by the team behind the entrepreneurs, the show all about inspiring people, innovative companies, and fresh ideas in global business. I'm Laura Kramer. Helgi Oskarsson is the CEO of 66 North, an Icelandic outerwear company founded in 1926 to craft durable protective gear for the country's fishermen, braving brutal conditions at sea. Today, 66 North is a global brand known for producing practical, long-lasting garments designed to withstand the coldest climates and toughest conditions, no matter the location. After 13 years leading the company, Helgi has expanded 66 north beyond Iceland, opening stores in Copenhagen and London.

1:01In celebration of its 99th anniversary, the company will host a special exhibition during Copenhagen Fashion Week, showcasing its history and rich heritage. So how do you keep things fresh and innovative at a nearly century-old brand? and how you expand globally while staying true to your central ethos. Here's Helgi with more on how the journey began.

1:29My name is Helgi Oskarsson. I'm from Iceland, born and raised there. I'm one of the owners of 66 North and the CEO of the company for the last 13 years. We're celebrating our 99th birthday this year. We are a very slow fashion company. So many of the styles that we still produce today were first introduced decades ago. And we kind of tweaked them and evolved them, of course. But we started making clothes for Icelandic fishermen back in 1926. Then it evolved. So later on, the brand started dressing Icelanders up for every day because we need performance clothing every single day. But what has always been kept in the kind of DNA and we have top of mind when we're designing something is that there should always be this performance element in the garment that we make.

2:20But it should also look classical so you can own it and wear it for many years. We also to help our customers with, you know, having it for a longer period of time. We have always been operating our repair shop. So if something breaks, a zipper or something, or you tear it up by mistake, then we will repair it for you.

2:42When you start making clothes for fishermen, that basically has the purpose of saving their lives, because the coat was often the difference between life and death. Then you can't compromise on quality and durability. When the company started, Iceland was one of the poorest countries in the world, so we didn't throw anything away. So when we were making a sweater and there were some cutoffs, we made something else out of it, whether it was a glove or a hat or whatever. That is still a part of who we are. So it's not like we're doing it just to try to look more sustainable. We've always done this.

3:16That is also one of the responsibilities that we see companies need to have. And so when we've done collaborations with Charlie Constantinio, who is an emerging designer and brand from London, We worked very much with leftover fabrics from our factories in Latvia, and we did the same thing also when we did a collaboration with Ganni from Denmark. We decided to make jackets made out of leftover fabrics, and sometimes it really doesn't make sense business-wise, because, I mean, with one of the jackets, we could only make like 20 pieces, and that doesn't make much of a business sense, but we also want to set a good example and kind of encourage companies in our business sometimes to think a little bit beyond the bottom line and be a good role model.

4:03I'm born and raised in Iceland and nature becomes such a big part of you when you are there. I mean, the mountains are just, you open the door and the mountain is there. And so, and I used to work at a farm during the summer when I was a kid and ride horses and then going into the highlights. And so when you live in Iceland, nature is just a part of your everyday life. And sometimes we say that we are kind of a, we want the world to experience the Icelandic way of living. And what do we mean by that? That means that you work hard. You don't have any limitations, even though you come from an island in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean.

4:38But then, of course, we have to remember to take a deep breath and connect with nature. And that kind of ties also into my passion for sustainability, because if you connect with nature, then you start to respect it. It's just like when you connect with other people, whether it's other genders or people of other nations or colors. Once you connect with these people, you start to respect them and you treat them differently. And that's what I believe we Icelanders have been a good example for because we have responsible fisheries and we treat nature with responsibility. And that's what I would like to do as a business person coming from Iceland.

5:15Setting a good example in that respect as well. We became carbon neutral in 2019. We work with the Icelandic forestry. They donated land to us and we donate money and our own staff plants trees. So we go with our people and their families and we plant trees. So we personally plant around 2 ,700 trees every year. And then we donate money so the Icelandic forestry can do the same. We only need 2 ,700 trees to stay neutral, but then we wanted to do some additional things. So we're building the 66 North Forest in Iceland. 66 North is and has been from day one a very sustainable company in many ways.

5:59And, you know, whether it's how we treat materials or how we treat people.

6:06What we are doing in Copenhagen is that we're showcasing the brand for the first time. and we're going to be celebrating the history and the heritage of the company by showcasing many of the vintage pieces that we do have in the collection and some of the interesting things we've been doing for the last century. And so that will be open to the public. So we want to invite friends of the brand and anyone who is interested in coming and having a look at what we have been doing. We are now going thoroughly through our, you know, vintage pieces And we are even working with the Icelandic nation, going into their old closets and see if they have something old from 66 North.

6:48And it's quite interesting having been with the brand so long, 13 years. Sometimes people show up and say, my grandfather passed away and I found this jacket. Can you do something with it? And so we are kind of revisiting now some of these pieces from our heritage collection. and then we are also doing anniversary editions of some of the pieces that are our best-selling pieces today. So I think for people who know the brand and have been following the brand through the years, there will be a lot of interesting and exciting things happening both this year but even more next year when we turn 100.

7:33That was Helgi Oskarsson, the CEO of 66 North. You can learn more by heading to 66north.com or by stopping by their exhibition at Copenhagen Fashion Week. And that's it for this episode of Eureka. Tom Edwards is back next week. In the meantime, look out for The Entrepreneurs, available every Wednesday. Eureka was edited by Jack Jewers. Listen again and find out more at monocle.com. That's where you can also join the club and subscribe to Monocle Magazine. Or you can also follow us and catch up with the archive via your preferred podcast platform. To contact the team, email me on lrk at monocle.com.

8:10I'm Laura Kramer. Goodbye. And thanks for listening to Eureka.