Costo – What is it all about?

First there were four young men who had decided to make their own living and self-employ themselves. These friends were convinced that starting up their own company would be the right thing to do. In autumn 2006, there was no business plan, neither had they decided what their product would be, but yet everyone agreed on investing 700 euros on their future as entrepreneurs. These men had educational background from the fields of designing, clothing design, tailoring and business administration.

The idea for the hats was not totally new. Actually one of the members had created the design during his studies and therefor the patter was ready. Everyone agreed that “there’s already enough products in the world”, thus this group wanted to endorse the idea of creating something ecological. They decided to use recycled and left-over materials from the industry which they were able to get for free through their networks in the beginning.

The guys had no prior experience in starting a business, but they decided to take the risk. The first ten hats were sewn and sent to a friend’s store in Helsinki downtown for test selling. The second ones were taken to a concept store in a nearby shopping center. Against the odds, all the hats were sold in a few weeks regardless of their premium pricing.

The increased interest towards their hats required the company to expand –production was located to Jyväskylä and Estonia and the fabrics came now from European companies’ leftover stocks.  Costo was able to grow without having a well-planned or massive marketing mechanisms to support them.

Currently Costo is sold outside their domestic market through retailers in Middle-Europe and Asia. They also have an online store that delivers globally. The product range has increased from the classic hat model to beanies and other types and the collection also includes accessories, for example shopping bags, and cases for mobile phones, tablets and such.

Sources: Inari Fernandez, Taru Costo-hatun herroista, City-Lehti 24.10.2011, picture from the same article. Product and retailer information from: www.costo.fi