Gaston Luga: Lifestyle fashion

A journey to a new continent and the acquaintance with “an interesting Frenchman” is the inspiration behind Gaston Luga, a Swedish lifestyle fashion brand with a unique line of backpacks and accessories designed to be ideal companions when discovering the world.

When Carl Sundqvist, founder of Gaston Luga, met the said Frenchman, he was struck by both his strong sense of style and the time and effort he put into creating something out of the ordinary, performing several modifications to his designer-brand bag. This inspired Carl to create his own backpack brand, combining a classic elegant style with practical details.

“We understood the industry was lagging behind when it comes to what customers wanted” explains Carl. “Backpacks are usually something aimed at younger people, but there was an unexplored market for sophisticated adults”. His vision was to develop a line combining Scandinavian minimalism with elegance, apt to suit all different occasions. It was important for Carl to create something he would wear himself and be proud of.

In the process of launching the brand, Carl turned to Almi and secured a loan backed by EIF through the EU’s Employment and Social Innovation programme. “It was critical to have Almi with us, and we contacted them early on. Without the loan, we would have had significantly slower progress and we would be a much smaller team at this point. It allowed us to get going” he explains.

Eventually the new brand was born out of leather parts, quality cotton, metal details and a mix of carefully selected colours. Other exclusive design elements were incorporated into the products, like a functional special pocket for a passport or travel ticket and a variety of address tags to mix and match with the backpacks.

The company is now actively hiring more staff, with a focus on sales and marketing, expecting to grow the team significantly in the short term. In addition, it continues to expand into new geographical markets and develop new products.

Company: Gaston Luga (Sweden)

Type of business: Fashion (backpacks and accessories)

EIF financing: EaSI Guarantee Financial Instrument

Financial intermediary: Almi

For further information about EIF intermediaries in the Netherlands, please refer to: http://www.eif.org/what_we_do/where/se/index.htm