Smålands Band is our partner in crime for developing and manufacturing The Tape. The company lies 30km outside our headquarters in Jönköping in a small town called Skillingaryd. It is one of the few textile production companies left in Sweden and enjoys a long heritage, which we'd like to share with you.
Smålands Band focuses on the production of woven belts and ribbons (surprise!). Their product portfolio ranges from decorative ribbons for presents or flower arrangements to industrial applications, such as tension belts and safety harnesses. And most recently also: handlebar tape. :)
The company is run by Anders Berg in its 4th generation. It started with Anders' grand-grandfather who was a German migrant and built up the company from scratch. Anders has been working in the factory as a teenager already. Our product thus benefits from the combined knowledge and understanding of four different generations! We are so lucky that he agreed to help us with developing our handlebar tape.
From Day 1 Anders was eager to help us out. Smålands Band is a small company with only three other employees. But they are working very closely with their partners and have helped many other entrepreneurs to implement their ideas. Our handlebar tape is based on a previous product he developed for his daughter's floorball team. Through several rounds of testing and refining, Smalands Band helped us to adapt it to the cycling industry.
The closeness, smallness, and familiarity of Smalands Band definitely helps us because Anders is really caring about our product and is always open for critique. We can call him anytime and whenever an idea strikes our mind he is already one step ahead showing us one of his past solutions we could base a new product on. The Tape is only the beginning and we are looking forward to many years of fruitful cooperation!
Take care,