The Finns are a somewhat withdrawn people - even sullen sometimes ! - but they reveal themselves in their contact with nature. And even when going up to Lapland, in the North of the country, you can see them walking, leaning on long sticks, or in winter, skiing... in rubber boots : the Nokias are THE prime model for the Finnish army ! (they have a particular crimped sole, to enable them to be easily adapted to skis – for cross country skiing…).

  An English article in the Finnish magazine Helsinki Happens (The guide to business, Life and happenings in the Finnish Capital) dated December 99-January 2000 talks about the Finnish people as follows (I have not add anything; these are the exact words):.

   « AS PLUGGED-IN AS THEY MAY BE, Finns are a reclusive lot, preferring the company of trees, lakes or the seaside to other people. Finns even refer to themselves as a forest people. And what could be closer to nature than picking sienlä —mushrooms— in the forest ?

   Mushroom picking, like any ritual worth its weight in exotic fungi, has a required dress-code, and saappaat —boots, especially rubber boots— are definitely the footwear of choise here. Finns feel no shame, but rather pride in wearing rubber boots, which are even elevated to a status symbol : sporting Nokian deck boots are it for sailing, berry picking and leisurely strolls in the mud. Wellies are not relegated to the countryside, but are dawned by urbanities and country bumpkins alike, an endearing trait in this modest Nordic culture. »

   Moreover, doctor Martti Hyvönen, the head doctor in the electricity company in Helsinki, says in a very authoritative Finnish article :

   « It is estimated that almost 3% of the population suffer from depression due the long polar night. Known under the name of Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D) it appears about all with middle aged adults.

The most effective natural remedy against this affection which occurs with the arrival of darkness, does not consist of costly apparatus to give a soothing constant light but in rubber boots and walks in the open air all year long.

People who suffer from S.A.D. have a tendency to stay indoors for the whole of winter ... When one thinks of all the reviving benefits of a walk in the open air, rubber boots win by 6 to 0. »

   The economic press (The Economist, The Financial Times in London) was interested (at the beginning of January 2000) in the prodigious economic rise of the Finnish company NOKIA. They are even fighting over its mobile phones in the whole of Europe. But any real rubber boot lover knows very well that NOKIA is above all THE Nordic company which makes the most numerous number of rubber boots : more than 670,000 pairs each year (that is more than 3,100 pairs each day !)  !

   But some other newspapers were also interested by a small news item which is directly connected to it.

   A Finnish town of 1,800 inhabitants, with a wooden church, at around 80 km North-East from Helsinki, Pukkila, inherited, in 1962, some Nokia shares from one of its inhabitants. Now there are big problems in the town about the use of these shares, which have now amounted to a HUGE amount. The Nokia shares quotations have multiplied by 291 since 1992 ! And by speculating, the town has now got more than 56,000 of them !).

   In fact, nobody knows very much about the deceased donor : Onni NURMI, a rather mysterious man, born in 1885 in Pukkila. Those who knew him, describe him as

« a silent man who always wore Nokia red rubber boots», in a time when rubber boots were not so popular in Finland.

   When his mother died, he was only 18 years old, and he moved to America, in the hope of making a fortune. When he returned, around 1928, he worked as a farmhand in Pukkila, then as an estate agent in Helsinki. In 1959, he decided to dedicate his whole fortune to the increase of leisure of the inhabitants of the local old people's home. He died on 18 November 1962, without any children, and bequeathed the whole of his estate - a small flat in Helsinki, some money and, above all, 760 NOKIA shares— to the Pukkila Town authorities, although he was buried in Helsinki. Since then the Pukkila old people's home has hung a picture of Onni Nurmi in the dining room in gratitude for that. Yes really !... « Onni » in Finnish language means « lucky » ! So, he was, in fact a lucky rubber booted man !

   Also, if spring gives you the idea to move around and you don't know where to walk in boots : Finland is waiting for you ! You could also go to Nokia City, which is about one hour and half hour's drive from Helsinki !This town is nevertheless universally known for its mobile phones and, of course, for all of us, for its supple rubber boots ! That much said, even under the snow and the sunshine and despite the surrounding lakes, the town itself is awful, without any style. It is essentially a working town marked by... the "Nokia" factories —in fact, all the factories, the types, the boots, the phones and other things are also called "Nokia" there— situated in immense brick buildings dating from the start of the XXth century, the rest of the town consists of small modern buildings. The surrounding air is itself charged with the lingering odours... of rubber ! Oh yes !

So go to the factory shop – it is not close to the factory! — of "Nokian Jakilneet" ("Well fitting Nokia") ...

NOKIA Footwear ltd, Pl Box 43, FIN—37 101 NOKIA, SUOMI / FINLAND.
Tel (+358) 31-2810 111. fax (+358) 31 2810 699.