Hands and gloves are our focus

After 80 years of glove manufacturing, a lot has changed, but hands and gloves have always been our focus and we are still in Hestra.

HESTRA A GLOVE COMPANY WITH LONG HISTORY

The family business Martin Magnusson & Co. was founded in 1936 and is now run by the third and fourth generation of Magnussons. Both design and development is done at the headquarters in the small village Hestra, Sweden. Our gloves are manufactured in our own factories and we personally buy all leather, fabric, wool and other materials. This gives us control of the production chain and ensures a high level of quality. Several of our models are handmade by some of the most experienced glove makers in Europe. In 2021, we produced over 2 million pairs of gloves. The company has about 60 employees at its headquarters in Sweden. We also have a subsidiaries in United States, Norway and Germany as well as agents, distributors and retailers in over 40 countries.

FROM LUMBERJACKS TO MOUNTAINEERS

Hands comes first at Hestra. For 80 years, we have been developing gloves that provides warmth, protection and fingertip sensitivity in the most varied conditions. Today, our range comprises more than 400 styles. It may sound a lot, but people and hands are different. That's why different gloves are needed.

Everything that we do today has grown out of the timber forests of the uplands in the Swedish province of Småland. That is where Martin Magnusson and his family settled and where he began making gloves in 1936. Magnusson set up his workshop in a farmhouse and started making gloves for the local lumberjacks.

In 1937, a ski slope was created nearby and as its popularity grew, Magnusson saw a new market for his high quality, durable gloves. His sons Lars-Olofs and Göte, became keen skiers and started working in the family business in their teens.

Over the years, the word about our gloves spread to places beyond the village that gave us our name. Sweden was becoming a nation of enthusiastic skiers and the sport's popularity grew in the 1960s. With their avid interest in skiing, Lars-Olof, Göte and their brother-in-law Lennart made sure that Hestra jumped on the bandwagon.

80 YEARS OF GLOVE MANUFACTURING

Since then, two more genrations of the Magnusson family have entered the company; Svante and Claes, who grew up among skis and gloves, and now their sons, Niklas, Jacob, Anton and Jonas too. Today, Hestra has presence all over the world, although we now have four factories and manufacture gloves for sports, fashion and professional uses, much hasn't really changed. The focus remains on hands and gloves. And Hestra is still our home. Over 80 years of making gloves has taught us that every day is different.