Elegant, wooden cases have been one of the favourite Jolla accessories. Here’s a small introduction to the Jolla and Lastu story, which started two years ago.

Droplet Hitech Design Ltd. a.k.a. Lastu is making beautiful, hand-made wooden cases for the Jolla smartphone and the Jolla Tablet. The Design Deed of the Year 2014 awarded company has designed over 20 different LastuCases and Lastu Wallet Cases for Jolla, and other brands.

Passion for tech and design

Lastu was founded by Sakari Arffman in 2011 with a thrill to make his long-time dream come true: start his own company. With a passion for design and mobile technology, he first started to design laser-drawn logos on the back of handsets.

Soon, the founder’s eco-friendly philosophy brought natural materials to the picture. In the core of Lastu lies a love for the nature and Nordic design that is clearly visible from the sleek, simplistic cases. “Wood combined to smartphones was something new at that point, and there was no manufacturer in Finland – even though we have so much of it here,” says Sakari.

Exotic raw materials inspired by Finnish nature

How does a little company like Lastu succeed in the competitive accessory market?  “We are different because of our use of materials. Our sustainable way of working is important to us and to our customers. We use renewable, natural and exotic materials that our competitors can’t, such as curly birch, reindeer and elk skin, all in a sustainable manner,” Sakari explains.  “Fish skin is one material that always draws attention. It’s also one of the few materials that don’t come from Finland, as skin of freely grown salmons can best be found in Iceland.”

Lastu loves to test different materials and has done a lot of research in order to find the best combination of natural composite. Their Jolla Tablet case, for example, contains a unique mix of wood and hemp composite.

Small team with a big heart

The Lastu cases and covers are made of high-quality materials and designed and manufactured by hand by a small team, mostly Sakari himself and two other employees.

For Sakari, the most fascinating part has been testing the new materials. He wanted to create something useful that combined design and the respect to nature. For the first two years he made all the cases himself while trying to get a foothold in the market. Most LastuCases can be found from Lastu’s webshop and many of them are available in Finnish retail stores too.

Most photos with #Lastu have a Jolla Phone

Lastu was surprised by the passion of the Jolla community. “We’ve received a lot of good feedback from Jolla users. If your customers really love something, they say it out loud!” Also Jolla’s customers seem to like small brands like Lastu, because of their originality and passion. “With Jolla, we’ve learnt to look at smaller brands from a different point of view.”

So what’s up next in the Lastu & Jolla collaboration?

The LastuCases for the Jolla Tablet will soon start to ship to the Jolla Tablet Indiegogo contributors.

Jolla smartphone users: don’t miss your chance to get your hands on super cool Lastu wallet cases for the Jolla phone. We have a limited batch now on sale now in our webshop.

Be sure to get nice Lastu cases for your other brand products too, there are lots available in Lastu’s own webshop.

P.S. Here’s a link to the making of -video of Lastucase for Jolla Tablet, published one week after this blog post. Check it out!