To Be, a small Swedish company specialized in snowmobile clothing, is beginning to make inroads in the international market. The expansion comes as snowmobiling is catching on in Scandinavia as a sport, instead of just a means of transportation.
The Swedish company was established five years ago by Tomas Berntsson, a welder with his own mechanical shop in the center of the country. Until last year the shop has been paying for the clothing venture, but it has now become profitable and the owner is beefing up exports to Finland and Norway as well as the USA.
Snowmobile clothes distinguish themselves from other active outdoor apparel through the use of relatively long snow skirts on the jackets and the toughness of the fabric, which must resist to the rough and tumble of snowmobile riding. The seats of the pants are particularly water-resistant to prevent seepage in that area. Until recently, bulky and dark overalls were regarded as the uniform of the snowmobile users, who have a somewhat boorish reputation in Sweden, but To Be aims to change that through its hipper styles.
At the start, To Be sold its styles mostly through snowmobile dealerships, which tend to be located on the outskirts of Swedish towns, but this year it has begun to sell its products to sports and streetwear retailers. The company reached sales of about 5 million Swedish kronor last year, most of them still in Scandinavia.
To Be is backing up its business through a magazine, Sherpa, associating snowmobiles with extreme sports, but this pastime is restricted by environmental regulations and costs. Approached by local nature-lovers who resent the noise and smell, politicians are keen to seal off entire chunks of mountains for snowmobiles. Furthermore, the cost of the machine itself remains off-limits for many potential enthusiasts, not to mention the need for a trailer and the rising cost of gasoline. There are an estimated 200,000 snowmobiles registered in Sweden, where they are called simply sleds. That compares with 150,000 in Finland, 50,000 in Norway and 2 million in the USA.
