In Finnish, the word “Keli” means the weather conditions of a road or a path.
Keli was born out of our own need and desire to build a cycling clothing brand that would
produce simple, stylish and responsibly made cycling clothes.
In the late autumn 2015 I was expecting our daughter and we were taking long walks in the nearby forest. During these walks we started to talk about the idea that we’d had about making merino wool cycling wear here in Finland. The autumn was quite warm and the pine tree forest looked spectacular in its shades of moss green and rusty red, that is when we decided to pick out those beautiful colors of the nature.
We had noticed that merino wool has superior qualities as a sportswear and when we were able to find a fabric manufacturer that met our standards in being responsible and producing mulesing-free fabric, we decided to take the plunge and make our first ever collection. At the same time we had just become parents to our daughter who was born in January 2016, so as were keeping busy with her, in our spare time we were thinking hard to come up with the designs for our clothes. That spring was quite hectic (and filled with sleep-deprivation) but the prospect of creating something that would maybe have a positive impact on the environment kept us going.
Competing with huge corporations is not our game, we produce small batches of high-quality merino wool clothes that are made responsibly from the best materials that we could find. We do this not because we aim to make millions but because we feel that there should be choices for consumers who care about their impact on the environment. Our merino wool clothes are made in Finland, we know the people who work at the small factory in Eastern Finland and even though it’s way more expensive to do the production here in Finland, we want to be sure that the individuals that do the sewing are paid properly. Boosting the Finnish clothing industry that has become a rarity is an added bonus.
We want to include the people who wear our clothes to the design process. Our clothes are made for the average avid cyclist. We like to hear from our customers and fellow cyclists and runners about their thoughts on how to make the clothes better.
Timo & Sanni
