The Story Of Rainer

Many outdoor brands have incredible stories of how the founder summited peaks in distant countries, or crossed snow-covered mountain ranges with only home made gear. For us, his name is Rainer plain and simple.

And you could argue that he founded his brand somewhere along road 153 east of Ullared, in the fall of 1994. There he was in a rest area, sitting in a rusty Opel Ascona from ’83, and had just sold his first container of the future classics that would become synonymous with his company: large-checkered Canada shirts. The smile filled the little green car. The shirts were the last of exactly 8016, that Rainer had brought home from his university friends in Beijing, in two slow containers over three oceans. But the first of what would become Pinewood.

If you want something done, you better do it yourself’ is a saying that fits the small entrepreneurial town of Gnosjö in southern Sweden, which played a part in Rainer’s youth. The big forest started only 50 meters from his house, and there also began exploring, hut building, scouting, and a life-long interest in hunting and the outdoors. In Gnosjö, life revolved around small business, and in his young years Rainer got to witness his farther starting up one leather company after another. But one day it all went away.

The parents split up, and the 12 year old Rainer was shipped off alone to Taiwan, of all places, where he quickly had to learn to take care of himself in one of the multi-million city Taipei’s many student corridors. Without knowing a word of whatever they were speaking.

To be abandoned in a foreign country as a 12 year old may sound dramatic. At the same time, there are many examples of people that have managed remarkable things at a young age. Mozart wrote operas, Jean d’Arc led an army, Laura Dekker circumnavigated the earth and Nadia Comeneci won an olympic gold. Rainer began to understand Chinese.

After the years in Taipei, a hunger for more opportunities woke up. At this point, nothing felt impossible, and Rainer eventually started to study Mandarin at the University in Beijing. This place was filled with interesting personalities, and a few of his closest friends came from textile families. So, one day the question came. Would he possibly be able to bring a couple of containers with lined flanell shirts to Sweden, and see if they could be sold there? He could. And he did.

It’s not that strange, that it ended up being a pine. Pine is a very common tree, strong by itself, but forms magnificent forests together. It grows from north to south and has been a resource for a thousand years. It also makes a great logo. Pinewood. Simple. International. Common. Like Rainer.

Today, Pinewood has developed into an international outdoor brand, from 2 containers of Canada shirts to a turnover of more than 10 million Euro. But while everything has changed, nothing has changed. The Canada shirt is still around. Rainers point of view is the same. The team spirit and belief in the group - which now amounts to 28 people in Värnamo. To exist at the heart of reality is still what inspires the most. Meeting people each day, who share experiences from the nature next door. How do you make a jacket so simple, yet thought-through, that it’s always the one that goes with you to the forest? It’s not more complicated than that.

People are mostly the same anywhere in the world. On good days, we’re driven by the joy of doing what we love. Getting outside should be easy. Out in nature, in the sun, or rain. Let the impulse guide, without clothes setting the limit. Somewhere in there, we find Rainer’s view on design. Well, on himself, others and life in general. We’re in this together. And for all those moments, there’s a brand from southern Sweden creating gear made to be used.