KOLO

KOLO is a Finnish sauna-accessories brand founded in 2016 [1] by Emendo Oy, a sauna and wellness company established in 1986 [2]. Rather than cosmetics or skincare, KOLO makes the objects used in the sauna itself — buckets, ladles, thermometers, hygrometers and bath brushes — built around a minimalist design language and a palette limited, as the company puts it, to "all the essential colours. That is, in black and white." Its stated purpose is to carry Finnish sauna culture abroad, "one bucket and ladle at a time."

The brand is based in Vaasa, on Finland's west coast, and is sold through its own webshop alongside design-led retailers in Europe, the United States and Australia. It remains active, though its product range has stayed largely unchanged since a 2017 expansion, suggesting a settled line rather than one in rapid development.

KOLO was created in 2016 as a design-focused offshoot of Emendo Oy [1], a Finnish company that, by its own account, was established in 1986 and offers "a wide selection of sauna and wellness products." Emendo runs two brands in the sauna category: the broader Emendo line, which covers items such as sauna scents, honey and body-care products, and KOLO, the design-led accessories label.

No individual is credited as KOLO's founder; the brand was launched by the existing company rather than by a named entrepreneur. Its defining product, however, has a clear author. The Bucket+Ladle set was designed by Brita Flander, a Finnish designer born in Vaasa in 1957 [3] — the same city where Emendo is based, a local connection that helps explain the collaboration. Flander trained in industrial design and graduated as a Master of Arts in 1989 from the University of Art and Design Helsinki, today part of Aalto University [3]. She is known primarily for her work in glass and lighting, with pieces for design houses including Artek, Marimekko and Iittala, and works held in collections such as the Design Museum Helsinki and the Corning Museum of Glass [3]. KOLO marked a later chapter in that career.

KOLO's launch product, and the one most often pictured in design press, is the Bucket+Ladle set. The two pieces are sold together and treated as one object: the ladle doubles as the bucket's carrying handle, and the bucket serves as the ladle's resting place. The handle is bamboo and the body is painted aluminium [4]. According to the brand, that material choice is deliberate — aluminium buckets do not become burning hot in the heat of a sauna the way steel does, and unlike all-wood buckets they stay leak-free.

From there the range grew into what the company calls "a comprehensive sauna product family": additional bucket and ladle sizes, thermometers, a hygrometer and bamboo bath brushes, all in the same black-and-white scheme. The aesthetic is consistently understated. KOLO frames its approach as a kind of anti-spectacle design, summarised in a line it repeats across its materials: the products "are not designed to make your sauna experience unforgettable, nor do they glow in the dark or have a special scent. What we do guarantee, however, is that our bucket won't leak and our ladle will bear the weight" [5].

The brand positions itself within a Nordic functionalist tradition, where utility comes first and ornament is stripped away. The Finnish sauna industry association Sauna from Finland describes the line as "modern Nordic decor that represents beautiful minimalism and functionality," adding that "KOLO proves that designing does not have to be difficult, what matters is how the product works" [5]. The Australian retailer Sauna Culture similarly characterises KOLO as "a Finnish design company that creates user-friendly and clever products" [1].

Underpinning this is a cultural mission. KOLO opens its homepage by noting that Finland has 5.5 million people and more than three million saunas, and frames its goal as spreading that tradition worldwide. The brand also sells itself under the tagline "From the Home of Sauna."

KOLO has been featured in international design media. The interiors publication Remodelista lists the Bucket and Ladle in its product directory and includes it in a roundup of notable Finnish and Japanese sauna designs for the home spa. The brand is profiled by Sauna from Finland, the Finnish sauna industry's association, and its products are stocked by Finnish Design Shop, a global retailer of Finnish design. KOLO's homepage carries the Design from Finland mark, an official Finnish design label.

KOLO is owned by Emendo Oy (also rendered Emendo Ltd. or Emendo Ab), the Vaasa-based company that created it [2]. Emendo operates KOLO as one of its two sauna brands and distributes its own products, by its account, through "supermarkets, discount stores, department stores, natural product stores and pharmacies" in Finland and abroad [2]. KOLO itself reaches customers through its dedicated webshop and a network of international design retailers.

Sources differ slightly on the spelling of the company's home city. Emendo's corporate site gives the address as Kauppapuistikko 25, 65100 Vaasa [2], while KOLO's Swedish-language site lists Handelsesplanaden 25, 65100 Vasa [6]. These are the same location: Vaasa is officially bilingual, "Vaasa" being the Finnish name and "Vasa" the Swedish, and the two street names are Finnish and Swedish renderings of the same address.

KOLO is an active brand. Its parent, Emendo Oy, remains operational, and KOLO products continue to be carried by design retailers internationally. At the same time, the brand shows signs of operating in a settled, maintenance phase rather than active expansion: a source comment on its website points to November 2017 as the last addition of new products, and the site has not been substantially rebuilt since its mid-2010s launch, with its copyright notice running 2016–2026 [6]. The result is a stable, single-category brand rather than a dormant or discontinued one.