Many of you will be familiar with the Swedish shoe shop, Skoaktiebolaget. Few of you might, however, be familiar with the history of the owners and how they came to be. Best friends from youth, Patrik Löf and Daniel Tung have been doing things for a long while as a team, a partnership. With a background (and another company) in IT but a liking for menswear, specifically shoes, they started their shoe adventure as agents for the Swedish market, at one point repping brands like Gaziano & Girling and Loake. This entry into the shoe industry only slightly wet their appetite and their need to be more involved in a greater capacity spawned the birth of Skoaktiebolaget, the first real multi-brand shoe shop in Stockholm selling upper caliber shoes.
In a market that is forever evolving thanks to the internet and social media, it becomes increasingly hard to be a retailer as every brand has their own e-commerce site these days and ‘good service’ has pretty much been replaced by ‘lowest price offered online.’ And with the drop of their most successful brand in the store, that being Carmina, Skoak had to fill a void. The only problem being that the void was a hard one to fill. So instead of try and find yet another brand to make up for the lack of sales of what once was their Carmina trade, the owners instead decided to give it a go themselves and create their own brand,� Löf & Tung. Their goal was to make well-made shoes, classic in nature, at a great price. Plain and simple.
So they spent the last year doing so, attending leather fairs, sampling shoes and ultimately coming up with a pretty solid shoe line set to impress many, as you can see in the photos.
Here is a little excerpt from one of the owners to get it direct from them on what the brand is all about
Patrik Löf Co-Founder of Löf & Tung
Usually, this is the part where someone will go on in length about how their grandfather’s father’s father was a shoemaker and they were born into the trade and started making shoes at nine. Or how they were suddenly inspired to start their own brand after eating their grandmother’s strawberry pie on a sunny�Sunday�afternoon. But I’m not here to tell you sagas.
In 2013 I founded Skoaktiebolaget together with my childhood friend and business partner Daniel Tung. But long before this, we were both dedicated shoe nerds. Since 2013 Skoaktiebolaget has grown from being a tiny brick & mortar store to becoming one of the world’s most respected and renowned premium shoe stores. During these years I’ve visited more shoe factories than I can count. I’ve had the pleasure to work with some amazing people, undoubtedly some of the most skilled shoemakers and craftsmen in the world. I have watched. I have learned. And I’ve built up an ever growing desire to carve out my own path instead of following someone else.
Our mission is simple. Our mission is crystal clear. We will provide you with the best looking high-quality shoes we possibly can. It’s as simple as that. Just a shoe nerd making shoes for other shoe nerds and anyone else willing to join us.
Well, I hope that you all enjoy the launch of this new brand and having seen them in person myself, I can definitely attest to the quality.
Happy Shopping Readers!
Justin, ‘The Shoe Snob’