Estonian saunas to tour America
A luxurious mobile sauna from Estonia will tour the United States next year, inviting members of the local public to try it out.
Estonian sauna technology firm HUUM has seen rapid growth across Europe, but the first 175 sauna stoves and WiFi-connected sauna controllers specially made for the U.S. were completed and began delivery last week.
Interest in building home saunas has surged in 2020 as more people invest in both home and mobile saunas. These trends have been accelerated by the pandemic and are expected to continue this winter.
“Not too many Americans can currently find Estonia on a map, but our reputation for design and technology is steadily rising, especially among sauna enthusiasts,” Adam Rang from Estonian Saunas OÜ, said in a statement.
“Estonia has done a good job telling the world about its digital services, but we are still too modest about what we can offer the world offline. Estonia can be as famous for saunas abroad as it already is for things like e-Residency. To export Estonian sauna design and technology, we must export our sauna culture too so people understand how to enjoy it. Introducing Americans to Estonian culture will be a key part of our US marketing. We even want to encourage Americans to start using the word ‘leil’ as there is currently no word for it in English.”
Estonian Saunas OÜ is a family business run in Tallinn by Anni Oviir and Adam Rang. They have created saunas in Estonia to showcase Estonian sauna design, technology, and traditions to visitors. In the absence of tourism, they have invested in helping other people around the world build their saunas.
Most orders through their website, estoniansaunas.com, currently come from the UK (including one ordered by a top English football club) but most interest comes from American sauna enthusiasts who have been unable to place orders until now.
As a result, Estonian Saunas has partnered with Cedar & Stone Nordic Sauna, a highly respected American sauna builder in Duluth, Minnesota. They are jointly investing in the large scale import of HUUM sauna stoves to the US, which are being warehoused and showcased at their facility before distribution across America.
HUUM sales in 2020 so far are nearly double (95% higher) than last year and surged nearly 3 times (221% higher) when lockdowns began in March, compared with the same period last year, Estonian Saunas said in the statement.
