Fashionable, handmade leather shoes made in Italy, which have become a favorite of some stars. One would not necessarily guess that the business is run by a family business based in Tampere.
You, too, have probably come across thick, trendy leather shoes on social media or on the feet of a TV presenter. This is the Vamsko brand, which is run by a family business based in Tampere.
The same Laaksovirta family was previously known for their plush, skate-style sneakers with the SoWhat logo. For years, the shelves of the Laaksovirta home in Tampere have sunk into international fashion magazines. Tino Laaksovirta33, has grown amidst trendy shoes.
The Laaksovirta family founded the import company Bella Luna Oy in 1986. At that time, the selection included shoes, bags, accessories and furniture. Tino’s father Kimmo Laaksovirta He toured the Italian factories by car and then sold both shoes and accessories to Finnish chains.
Shoe imports from the Far East increased at a time when the skate boom was at its hottest. Kimmo and his wife Jaana found that all of their children and children’s friends had skate-style sneakers and decided to jump on the trend.
– Skate style was a big fashion craze and the demand for products exploded immediately, says Tino Laaksovirta.
Like Bella Luna’s products in the past, Vamsko’s shoes are handmade in Italy.
Great investment in e-commerce
Tino’s first summer jobs at the family business were small-scale, such as mailing catalogs and helping with warehousing.
– At the age of 18, I gave up the dream of a tennis profession, went to the army and then studied. After that, I actually joined the family company in 2010, Tino says.
Top Tino was involved in the furniture side, where the family company acted as a wholesaler. He then started building online stores because he saw that there was a future in it. Under Tino’s leadership, Bella Luna began setting up an e-commerce business. He had a strong passion for developing the SoWhat shoe brand and he succeeded. The launch of our own new brand also knocked in the back of my head.
SoWhat shoes were mainly imported shoes from the Far East. They were completely abandoned in the autumn of 2020, when the focus had been on developing our own Vamsko brand for years. Quality and accountability issues were important values on the desktop.
Unlike before, the focus has now been on the individual consumer, who is served through his own brand and his own online store, as well as a stone footing.
– My parents’ experience and knowledge of working as a retailer is also worth its weight in gold for a new kind of business, Tino says.
Laaksovirta’s company now employs about 20 people, including warehouse workers, staff at a stone-foot shop in the heart of Tampere, e-commerce customer service and a marketing team.
More than half of Vamsko’s sales already go to other parts of Europe. There is a lot of shopping in Germany, the Netherlands and Italy, for example.
“We want to avoid overproduction”
After all, it was a huge change: from a fairly inexpensive volume product to a handmade leather product. Now Tino is responsible for the Vamsko brand in the family business and its development as a whole. Supported by a spouse Riikkawhich produces content and supports marketing efforts.
When the corona pandemic began, the Valley Currents sat down and made an action plan. On the shoe side, it was decided to put all the bangs on the Vamsko brand.
The business model was completely changed, which changed the price category of the products. It was decided to give up SoWhat shoes, as factories in the Far East closed, communication became more difficult and the situation became unstable anyway. The closure in Europe also slowed growth and sales. Korona transferred sales almost entirely to the online store. Homemaking became fashionable, leaving high heels on store shelves.
Riikka Kuusisto and Tino Laaksovirta are jointly developing the Vamsko shoe brand. Sini Leppänen
While Korona brought challenges to the business, it also gave time to think. Although the wall was met, so to speak, according to Laaksovirta, the Korona period has gone well, at least. As a moderately sized player, Laaksovirta has been able to adapt to changing situations and react quickly. They smell trends and react sensitively to them. The collections are not produced a year in advance, but new products can be developed with a month’s notice. Some of the models remain in the selection from season to season.
– Let’s go with the tube! There is a lot of demand for the collection and many products have been sold out. We also want to avoid overproduction so that we do not prepare products to wait in stock, Riikka says.
Products are not produced in excessive quantities, so there is no need for giant stock clearance sales.
– If the demand for a product wanes, it will be left out of the collection and we are planning a new one, Riikka continues.
Bella Luna’s selection also continues to include furniture and décor, which is handled by Tino’s sister, Sara Niskala. Tino’s mother, Jaana, manages the company’s finances.
– My father Kimmo is still the company’s top guy. He manages connections with factories with decades of experience. E-commerce and other online as well as marketing are the responsibility of me and Riga, says Tino, who works as the chief operating officer.
Design together with factories
Riikka originally started as a salesman in the stone foot shop in Bella Luna’s Vamos shoe store. From there, he moved into office work and now does content production, photography and business development. He is also involved in designing the collections.
The design of a pair of shoes usually starts with the fact that the Vamsko team has a vision of what style of footwear is desired. Based on these plans and visions, the manufacturer draws the formulas of the shoe, the result of which is further modified together.
– Our partners know our requirements and what we want to invest in. For example, the mixture of the base material must be of a certain type in order for it to stand up to the slippery weather of the Finnish winter. Style and fit are the most important things for shoes, Tino emphasizes.
Many of my shoe fans have found Vamsko next to their shoes through social media. Thoughtful collaborations with influencers have brought more visibility. For example, according to Riga, the sandal collection made with photographer Janita Auto was a perfect brand match: in terms of visuality, Vamsko and Autio are on the same lines, which means more is more.
In search of suitable eco-material
Influencers have embraced Vamsko’s shoes. The footwear is on a trend wave brush, like the SoWhat shoes in the past, but from a completely different angle. Vamsko’s shoes are leather, handmade and feminine trendy. The selection is not pale for the selections of top fashion houses.
The prices of the shoes range from just over 100 euros to about 300 euros. The shoes are made by the same reliable contacts in Italy, Portugal and Spain that Bella Luna has known for years.
Responsibility issues with regard to materials are on the surface. Leather has been selected as the main material for Valley Currents due to its durability and repairability. No strong chemicals or chromium are used in the manufacture of the shoes.
– Plastic and oil are used in wild quantities in the manufacture of imitation leather, and plastic shoes cannot be repaired very easily, Riikka reminds.
The world is constantly developing vegan alternatives to leather, such as fruit peels. So far, no suitable eco-material has been found for Vamsko’s shoes.
– We have not closed our eyes to this, but we do not want to take a plastic alternative to our selection, knowingly and under pressure.