Finnish Man Does Finnish Thing in Non-Finnish Country — Press Baffled
In a development that surprised absolutely nobody who has ever met a Finn, Petteri — founder of Sisu Sauna Co., Ltd. — moved to Thailand in 1999 and started building saunas in 2017. Finnish newspaper Iltalehti found this interesting enough to write about. We found it interesting that anyone found it interesting.
You can read the full Iltalehti article here — it is in Finnish, which is a language that sounds like someone trying to speak Swedish while eating a reindeer meatball, but Google Translate will do its best.
A Brief and Completely Accurate History of How This Happened
Step 1: Petteri is Finnish.
Step 2: Petteri moves to Thailand.
Step 3: Petteri notices there are no proper saunas.
Step 4: Petteri experiences what psychiatrists call sauna withdrawal and the rest of us call being Finnish.
Step 5: Sisu Sauna is born. Thailand has never been the same.
This is, frankly, the most Finnish thing a person can do outside of Finland. The only way it could be more Finnish is if Petteri had built the sauna in silence, grunted once in satisfaction, then gone for a swim in a river without telling anyone.
What is "Sisu", and Why Should You Care?
Sisu is a Finnish concept with no direct English translation. It roughly means grit, resilience, stubborn determination to do the hard thing even when the hard thing is — for example — building a custom sauna company from scratch in Southeast Asia in a language that is not your own, in a climate that is the direct opposite of Finland, surrounded by people who thought a sauna was a type of spa treatment involving cucumber slices.
It is, in short, exactly the word you would pick for a company that hand-builds custom saunas in Thailand out of teak, red cedar and pine, ships them across the country (and the world), and has been doing so since 2020. The name was not chosen randomly.
What Sisu Sauna Actually Does (For Anyone Who Arrived Here Via Google Translate)
In case the Iltalehti article sent you here and you are now wondering what exactly is going on, here is the short version:
We design and build custom saunas — every single one made to order, no two identical, using Thai teak, Canadian red cedar, or Russian pine.
We also build ice baths, supply chillers, heaters and accessories.
You can design your own sauna right now, in 3D, in your browser, at sisusauna.app — the price updates live as you change the size and wood.
We deliver across Thailand and ship globally. Yes, globally. A Finnish man will ship you a Thai-built sauna to wherever you are on this planet. The world is a strange and beautiful place.
Is Petteri Available for Comment?
Petteri is probably in the workshop. Or in a sauna. Most likely both simultaneously, which sounds dangerous but is apparently very efficient.
If you have a genuine question about a custom sauna build, dimensions, wood types, lead times or anything else, you are warmly invited to contact the team at sales@sauna.in.th. Someone will reply. It might even be Petteri, between rounds.
The Takeaway
A Finn built a sauna company in Thailand. A Finnish newspaper wrote about it. You are now reading about it on the sauna company's blog. This is the internet working exactly as intended.
Welcome to Sisu Sauna. The wood is real, the heat is real, and the Finnish stubbornness behind it is very, very real.