sporting goods owner karhu holding b.v. country finland introduced 1916 website http www.karhu.com http www.karhuski.fi http www.karhusportswear.fi http www.karhupesis.fi karhu is a finnish sports brand . karhu meaning bear in finnish was first using as a sporting goods brand in 1916 by the finnish company ab sport artiklar . the brand is currently owned by karhu holding b.v. which purchased it in 2008 and is used to market running shoes sportswear and skiing and other sports equipment in finland and abroad . contents 1 history 2 current use of the brand 2.1 karhu shoes 2.2 karhu skis 3 references 4 further reading 5 external links history edit the karhu brand was established in finland in 1916 by the company ab sport artiklar which used a bear as its logo . in 1920 ab sport artiklar changed its name to karhu . in addition to the discuses and javelins that were karhu s main products the company also produced running shoes and track spikes . 1 the karhu brand featured prominently at the 1920 antwerp olympic games where finnish athletes took all three medals in javelin using karhu javelins 2 and the flying finns took five gold medals on the track wearing karhu spikes . four years later at the 1924 summer olympics in paris paavo nurmi won five gold medals in track events wearing a conspicuous pair of white karhu running spikes . 2 in the 1930s karhu s production expanded to include cross country and ski jumping skis . during the winter war and continuation war from 1939 1945 karhu produced snow camouflage suits tents and skis for the finnish military . 1 in 1951 karhu sold the three stripes trademark it had been using to a then little known german brand called adidas for the equivalent of 1600 euros and two bottles of whiskey . 2 3 in the 1960s karhu began to use the m logo 1 which is still in use on karhu shoes . in the 1960s and 1970s karhu s innovations included the first use of nylon and air cushioning in running shoes . the 1960s also saw the development of karhu s line of pes pallo finnish baseball equipment . in 1966 the karhu company changed its name to oy urheilu karhu sport ab and in 1972 to karhu titan . 1 by the 1980s the brand had started to struggle and sold off its outdoor shoe division to merrell . however a collaboration of research and design with the university of jyv skyl led to the development of fulcrum technology . in 1997 karhu titan s name changed to karhu sporting goods . 1 in 2008 karhu sporting goods sold the karhu brand to karhu holding b.v. a dutch holding company led by huub valkenburg and jay duke . 4 5 current use of the brand edit the karhu brand is owned by karhu holding b.v. and is licensed to several different manufacturers . karhu holding b.v. itself produces karhu branded running shoes . karhu skis continue to be produced by karhu sporting goods which in 2010 changed its name to karhu ski and in 2012 to kitee ski as the licensing rights for karhu skis was transferred to startex . 6 karhu sportswear including the official apparel of the finnish national track and field team is produced by the naantali finland based appleby finland oy . l tec sports based in porvoo finland produces karhu branded pes pallo a derivative of baseball and floorball equipment . products branded as karhu fitness equipment are produced by truebell finland oy located in vantaa finland . 1 more recentally karhu signed an important ethical partnership with cip for dress the italian paralympic committee at the 2016 summer paralympics rio 2016 . karhu shoes edit karhu s main line of running shoes is based on their fulcrum technology which has been developed in cooperation with the university of jyv skyl since the 1980s . the line includes several models for both men and women intended to suit different types of pronation and training off road or trail running shoes and racing needs . in 2009 the karhu fulcrum strong model of running shoe was awarded best debut by runner s world magazine . 7 the karhu brand has also been used for a line of casual shoes called karhu originals . karhu originals are a range of retro inspired footwear which were nominated for sneaker of the year 2005 at the global sports style awards in munich in 2005 . 8 karhu skis edit approximately 200 000 pairs of karhu branded skis are sold in finland each year . the major export markets for karhu skis are sweden japan estonia and germany . production of karhu skis ended in spring 2013 at kitee ski oy known until 2012 as karhu ski oy in kitee finland . 9 the licensing and marketing of karhu skis were transferred in september 2012 to startex oy a finnish firm known for its ski wax products . 6 references edit a b c d e f vehmanen jukka 18 december 2010 . karhu kirmaisee juoksuun . turun sanomat in finnish . turku finland . p. 12 . a b c smit barbara 2007 . pitch invasion adidas puma and the making of modern sport . penguin . p. 44 . isbn 0 14 102368 6 . simon chadwick dave arthur 2007 . international cases in the business of sport . butterworth heinemann . p. 438 . isbn 0 7506 8543 3 . industry veterans acquire finnish running brand karhu . prnewswire . 25 june 2008 . karhu merkki tallustaa ulkomaille . taloussanomat . 25 june 2008 . a b karhun lisenssioikeus vaihtoi omistajaa . kauppalehti . 13 september 2012 . http www.runnersworld.com cda shoefinder detail 1 s6 240 325 329 0 0 0 0 1599 00.html http www.karhuoriginals.fi news.php n 6 itkonen anja 18 december 2010 . hiihtobuumi ja pitopohja vahvistavat suksiyhti it . turun sanomat in finnish . turku finland . p. 12 . further reading edit hannu teider 2006 . karhun aika 90 vuotis juhlakirja 1916 2006 in finnish . karhu . isbn 952 92 1206 2 . external links edit look up karhu in wiktionary the free dictionary . karhu running shoes karhu ski karhu palloilu pes pallo equipment finnish karhu sportswear finnish karhu floorball equipment retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title karhu sports brand & oldid 739178750 categories sportswear brandsfinnish brandssporting goods manufacturers of finland1916 establishments in finlandski equipment manufacturersclothing companies established in 1916hidden categories cs1 finnish language sources fi articles with finnish language external links navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutschfran aissuomisvenska edit links this page was last modified on 13 september 2016 at 06 49 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to 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