Recently a question was keeping our mind busy: Is this just us, surrounded by Scandinavian culture, or is it happening everywhere? Before going in to deep, let’s list countries that form up this Scandinavian culture: Sweden, Norway and Denmark

We would like to list our top 10 brands that are both part of Scandivaian culture and our lives.

1- Volvo

Volvo Group is a Swedish multinational manufacturing company headquartered in Gothenburg

When we went shopping to Dundrum Shopping Centre last summer, we spotted a Pop-up Volvo Store just next to Harvey Nichols. Volvo was presenting their latest line of SUVs, including Volvo XC40, XC60 and XC90. The brand has become one of our favourite car brands and we are looking forward to buy XC40 Recharged, full electric version of SUV from Volvo. Watch it on YouTube: The New XC40 Recharge - Our first pure electric SUV Recently Volvo committed, 50% of Volvo Cars’ sales volume to be fully electric by 2025.

Volvo XC40 Recharge AWD in Glacier Silver

2- Spotify

Hands up if you are already a Spotify Premium user. It is no surprise that Spotify is the top premium music streaming service around the globe but it may surprise you that Spotify is a Swedish media services provider which is based in Luxembourg. The company was founded in 2006 in Sweden and rapidly became the king of music streaming. (qz.com) with 113 million subscribers. Closest competitor, Apple Music has 60 million subscribers.

Spotify preparing to go public on the NYSE

3 - Urbanears

With it is outstanding design, ease of use and affordable prices, Urbanears started to fill our ears with loud music. In 2009, Noora Noor who is a Somali-Norwegian neo soul singer, partnered with Zound Industries to form Urbanears. Headquarters is based in Stockholm, Sweden and the company now produces headphones for other brands as well like Marshall and adidas. (see the company website)

4 - IKEA

A Scandivaian list would never be complete without IKEA. It is a multinational furniture company that was founded by Ingvar Kamprad, from Sweden. The founder was Swedish business magnate with US$58.7 billion fortune and we lost him last year in 2018. Now IKEA operates in 52 countries with 433 stores and it is not just making our homes nicer and stylish but it is also bringing Swedish culture to our lives.

5 - Zendesk

Couple of my friends have started to work in Zendesk, located in 55 Charlemont Pl, Saint Kevin's, Dublin. The company is a customer service software company headquartered in San Francisco, California, USA but Zendesk was founded in 2007 by Mikkel Svane, Morten Primdahl, and Alexander Aghassipour in a loft located in Copenhagen, Denmark.

6 - Lego

We can’t imagine a kid grew up without a Lego bricks. We think Lego is not just for kids as well. We are fans of this toy and playing with it whenever we visit a Google office. Still I keep a Lego LEGO 21050 Architecture Studio Building Set (see it on Amazon). Lego is a company based in Billund, Denmark

7 - A thriller movie about Sweden’s fest season? Midsommar

Even in popular culture in the US, we see Sweden’s culture is used in the entertainment business. Midsommer is a movie directed by American director and screenwriter, Ari Aster. Recently we went to see the movie in Lighthouse Cinema in Dublin, which was pretty interesting (7.2/10 IMDB). Here is the trailer on YouTube.

8 - Oatly

In order to move milk out of our lives, we tried a couple of different alternatives like soya, almond, rice and of course Oat Milk. We were a bit surprised when we found that most popular oat milk brand is a Swedish one. Oatly AB is a Swedish food company with head office in Malmö and a production facility in Landskrona. The company once found in Lund University. Now the company also produces cream cheese, yoghurt and ice cream. For a nice flat white, definitely go with Oatly Barista Edition.

9 - King

You may not have heard King as a company, but we are pretty sure you are aware of Candy Crush. King Digital Entertainment was founded 16 years ago in Stockholm, Sweden. The company is the owner of many Candy Crush and Pet Rescue versions. King was acquired by Activision Blizzard in February 2016 for US$5.9 billion, and operates as its own entity within that company. Download and try one of their games now. Candy Crush on Google Play | Candy Crush on Apple App Store

Candy Crush Friends are one of many Candy Crush versions

10 - H&M

For years Italian and French brands has shaped clothing industry with its design philosophy. Nowadays we see a huge trend shift to Nordic design.

Hennes & Mauritz, H&M in short, is a Swedish multinational clothing-retail company known for its fast-fashion clothing for men, women, teenagers and children. H&M and its associated companies operate in 62 countries with over 4,500 stores and as of 2015 employed around 132,000 people. It is the second-largest global clothing retailer, just behind Spain-based Inditex.

First Hennes store opened in the Swedish city Västerås back in 1947. H&M now has 8 different brand H&M, COS, Monki, Weekday, & Other Stories, H&M Home, ARKET and Afound.

We think, they are making our lives better and for a good reason these Scandinavian brands are part of our daily lives.

Hej så länge!

10 Brands: | Surprisingly Scandinavian