PaaPii has walked its own lively path for ten years now. In 2011 Anniina Isokangas decided to take a leap from her crafting hobby to being an entrepreneur – and so PaaPii was born. At first PaaPii produced small PaaPii has walked its own lively path for ten years now. In 2011 Anniina Isokangas decided to take a leap from her crafting hobby to being an entrepreneur – and so PaaPii was born. At first PaaPii
PaaPii has walked its own lively path for ten years now. In 2011 Anniina Isokangas decided to take a leap from her crafting hobby to being an entrepreneur – and so PaaPii was born. At first PaaPii produced small amounts of stuffed animals and interior products as well as fabrics – which Anniina printed by hand herself. Moving to industrial printing has raised the amounts of fabric extensively.
- The first fabric orders were 300 meters – and it felt wild! Last year, PaaPii sold over 70 kilometers of organic jersey as clothes and fabric, and 21 kilometers of sweatshirt knit, says Anniina.
Anniina created PaaPii from scratch and did all the work from designing to production and marketing all by herself. Now the work is divided between almost twenty co-workers. Anniina has gathered around her a power team, that shares the same enthusiasm and values. When Anniina first started to work at her kitchen table, she couldn’t even dream that in then years PaaPii would have a large sewing factory in her own hometown. The factory also includes a store, storage and office space.
- We do not aim for growth - it will follow if we do things right.
And so we have strived to do. PaaPii has designed fabrics since the very beginning, clothing lines were added to our selection in 2015. All of our clothes are designed by Paula Isopahkala. Paula approached Anniina years ago with an idea of producing baby hats out of PaaPii fabrics.
- When Paula approached me, I wondered if it would be profitable to make clothes in Finland? Would anybody buy them, Anniina reflects.
At first Anniina hesitated, but then took action and at the end of 2015 PaaPii brought its own clothes for sale online. The very first clothes were women’s Heija -tunic and kid’s Uljas -shirt, which are still included in our selection. To this point, the biggest amount of PaaPii’s customers had been seamsters. However, the clothing production found its audience and the rest is almost history. Today, PaaPii’s clothes for babies, kids and women are sold for dozens of retailers in Finland and abroad. The production amounts for the clothing lines are continually growing – the production has almost doubled since 2018!
- PaaPii offers ecological and high-quality products. Domestic production is a great advantage in this business!
Although the baby hat was never taken to production, it is still topical – the pattern for the hat will be published in the new pattern book for babies this year. PaaPii already has two pattern books – one for kids and one for women. They have been received very well all over the world.
- When the first pattern book was published, it was an exciting and important moment for both me and PaaPii, for it was our first book, Paula thinks back.
Pattern books are one of the tools PaaPii offers to help and support creativity. We want to nurture craftsmanship by encouraging our clients to sew by themselves too! PaaPii’s pattern books and fabrics offer the instructions and materials needed for crafting hobby.
In the past decade, PaaPii has accomplished a place as a reliable producer in the domestic clothing industry. Clothing industry has a long history in PaaPii’s hometown Kokkola, and we are proud to get to be a part of that colourful history. As well as the exciting future! Our production has always been based on sustainability, domesticity, positivity, and our own path. All our products are designed in Finland, and the clothes are made in our own factory in Kokkola, a small town on the west coast of Finland. The team PaaPii describes PaaPii as happy, brave and a good place to be. We hope that all these things --- through our products to all PaaPii’s friends as well.
- The best thing about this job is the feedback we get from our customers, co-workers and the fact that we can actually see the development we have achieved. For example, our online store has grown wildly, and we have big piles of shipments compared to the last few years, says Paula.
Anniina has designed nearly 200 different prints for PaaPii. The prints grow and develop together with PaaPii. The playful designs express our positive way of looking at the world and encourage everyone to be themselves. Nature is a big source of inspiration to everything we do. Sustainability and our own production tell about our love for nature and the desire to affect environmental issues. As the years have passed, our production has developed to be even more environmentally friendly, and now we can say that we use only green power at our factory. We have just recently started the process of counting our carbon footprint.
10 years is a long time, but a ten-year-old is still quite young. PaaPii grows and evolves just as any other ten-year-old – open to the world and filled with curiosity. In the future PaaPii dreams of nice things – things that will tickle your stomach with excitement and make you smile with just a thought of them. Where might we see Myyry and Siiri in the future?
- Different possibilities of collaboration keep coming up all the time! Says Anniina.
