Eton AB is a Swedish manufacturer of men's

shirt A shirt is a cloth garment for the upper body (from the neck to the waist). Originally an undergarment worn exclusively by men, it has become, in American English, a catch-all term for a broad variety of upper-body garments and undergarments. I ...

s. It was founded in 1928 by David and Annie Petterson in the small village of

Gånghester Gånghester is a locality situated in Borås Municipality, Västra Götaland County Västra Götaland County ( sv, Västra Götalands län) is a county or '' län'' on the western coast of Sweden. The county is the second most populous of Sw ...

in Sweden. Eton is now a global brand, being sold in more than 1,500 stores in over 50 countries, with flagship stores in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, Frankfurt, London and

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

History

Early history

During the

1920s File:1920s decade montage.png, From left, clockwise: Third Tipperary Brigade Flying Column No. 2 under Seán Hogan during the Irish War of Independence; Prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol in accordance to the 18th amendment, whic ...

, Annie Petterson started to sew dresses in the family kitchen. When the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

forced her husband David to close down the family sawmill, he joined his wife's quickly growing business. The company was originally called ''Syfabriken Special'' (Specialized Sewing Factory). With an increasing focus on men's shirts, the company soon changed its name to ''Skjortfabriken Special'' (Specialized Shirt Factory).

1950–2000

At the beginning of the 1950s, Skjortfabriken Special launched the so-called "Eton shirt", created with inspiration from the famous Eton College. In the mid-1950s, export started to Great Britain but since ''Skjortfabriken Special'' was difficult to pronounce for non-Swedes, "Eton" was adopted as the company name. In connection with the international expansion, a new and modern factory was built in Gånghester. The building still functions as the company headquarters. During the 1980s, Eton started working to offer high quality, premium shirts. In 1992, Eton presented, after a collaboration with Swiss experts, the world's first

non-iron shirt Wrinkle-resistant or permanent press or durable press is a finishing method for textiles that avoids creases and wrinkles and provides a better appearance for the articles. Most cellulosic fabrics and blends of cellulosic rich fabrics tend to c ...

in 100% cotton. The first reseller was the British department store

Harrods Harrods Limited is a department store located on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London, England. It is currently owned by the state of Qatar via its sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority. The Harrods brand also applies to other ...

, which sold more than 600 shirts the first week alone.

2001–present

In 2012, family-owned Eton was acquired by the Swedish private equity firm Litorina. In 2016, Swedish private equity group EQT Partners became Eton's new owner.

Key people

Eton's creative director and responsible for design is Sebastian Dollinger. Hans Davidson, grandson to the founders Annie and David Petterson, was the CEO between 1989-2019. At the beginning of 2019, Eton announced that Hans Davidson, after more than 30 years as acting CEO, would step down and hand over the role to David Thörewik, former managing director at Weekday, one of the independent brands in the H&M group.

Operations

Eton has its own branded stores in Europe and the United States, including an official online store. It is represented by more than 1500 resellers as of 2018, including department stores Harrods, Selfridges, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Harry Rosen Inc, Le Bon Marché, El Corte Inglés, La Rinascente,

TsUM (Moscow) TsUM — Central Universal Department Store ( rus, ЦУМ – Центральный универсальный магазин, r=TsUM – Tsentralʹnyĭ universalʹnyĭ magazin) is a high end department store in Moscow. The store is in a six-st ...

, and

KaDeWe The Kaufhaus des Westens (), abbreviated to KaDeWe, is a department store in Berlin, Germany. With over of retail space and more than 380,000 articles available, it is the second-largest department store in Europe after Harrods in London. It att ...

. Besides its Gånghester headquarters, Eton has offices in Stockholm, Düsseldorf, Cantù, London, New York, and Atlanta. The turnover for 2018 was a record high, with double-digit growth.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.etonshirts.com Clothing brands of Sweden Luxury brands Shirts Swedish brands