AALTONEN®

Emil Aaltonen

In 1889 Mr Emil Aaltonen (1869-1949) started as a private entrepreneur to produce footwear and even he used other trademarks it has been considered the birth year of Aaltonen trademark. It was a remarkable achievement for Finnish footwear industry to start industrial production in 1902 when he purchased almost new shoe machinery and established shoe factory in Hattula.

After serious setback in 1905 when the factory was almost completely destroyed in fire Emil Aaltonen decided to start with a new factory in Tampere that was restructured to limited liability company Aaltosen Kenkätehdas Ltd in 1917. From this on the production raised rapidly and if the season collection was 20 models in 1910 then in the second half of 1930-s it was 4500 models with 600 different color shades.

Aaltonen production was noticed abroad as well and Aaltonen ladies’ shoes were awarded gold medal in 1929 Barcelona Universal Exposition as acknowledgement.