We actually began in the early 1900's selling a totally different product; condoms!
Goodbye to the blue doorIn 1974 pharmacies in Sweden started to sell condoms. With sales of medical supplies plummeting, we decided to focus on the childrenswear range instead. We didn’t sell clothes of our own design at first, we purchased from a wholesaler.
We brought in Gunila Axén to develop an in-house design and in 1974 she launched what was to be the beginning of our next major success: a basic range of striped clothes that we now call PO.P Originals, and have been with us ever since.
Polarn is added
Once we started making clothes for older children as well, the name Pyret (little one) no longer worked.
“We added ‘Polarn’ (Buddy) in the mid-70s. It felt completely right,” reports Katarina af Klintberg. “We wanted to be a buddy to our customers, and we had in mind the role of older siblings as buddies to their little sisters and brothers. It was also a word that appealed to older children, who needed an element of coolness that ‘Pyret’ didn’t provide.”
So POLARN O. PYRET was born!
Fast forward to 2006 when Mats & Jo Nilsson brought Polarn O. Pyret to the UK with the vision of providing families here with the sustainable & quality clothing available in Mats' native Sweden.
