“We started from north of the Arctic Circle, searching for the most beautiful landscapes in Norway. Only 15 locations met our specifications — they had to be at the end of a road, or on an island; there had to be mountains nearby and access to the sea; the scenery had to be spectacular, and the area sparsely populated. We plan to build destinations in five of them, and this is something no one else will ever be able to replicate.”
This is how Jørgen Jørgensen, CEO of the Norwegian premium outdoor brand Norrøna, described to Luxe.CO, the standards he uses to select destinations for the brand’s adventure travel project, Norrøna Adventure.
Spending nearly 150 days outdoors every year, Jørgen Jørgensen returned to China for the first time in fifteen years on this visit, and also gave his first interview to a Chinese-language media outlet. During a nearly two-hour conversation with Luxe.CO in Shanghai, we saw a vivid portrait emerge of an unconventional brand leader:
He grew up between nature and the family workshop, and has retained an instinctive passion for the outdoors. Playful, deeply knowledgeable about outdoor pursuits, highly sensitive to product, and drawn to all things creative, he is, as the fourth-generation leader of the family business, a natural inheritor of the founder’s name, Jørgen Jørgensen, whom we refer to below as J.J. He has also inherited an extraordinary founder’s spirit — courageous, pioneering, and willing to forge a path of innovation entirely his own. It is this spirit that has truly taken Norrøna from Norway to the global stage, and is now guiding its evolution from an outdoor apparel brand into a fully fledged nature experience brand.
Above: J.J outdoors (2005)
Brand Identity and Product Architecture: Condensing the Viking Outdoor Spirit
In 1929, outdoor enthusiast Jørgen Jørgensen founded the J.J Norrøna sporting goods and leather factory, determined to make it the highest standard in outdoor products, creating durable, high-quality outdoor gear capable of withstanding Norway’s harsh natural conditions.
Using the image of a warrior symbolising mountain endurance, combined with shield and ski elements, the initials “J.J”, and the ancient Viking-era word “Norrøna”, he distilled the Viking outdoor spirit into a single logo.
J.J, who inherited his great-grandfather’s name, told us that “In Norway, you can never predict the weather. If you plan to go out but keep waiting for good weather, you may never get out. So from a very young age, you have to get used to this — if we are going out tomorrow, you just dress according to the weather. No matter what, you have to get the job done.”
Above: The evolution of the Norrøna logo
During the outdoor expedition boom of the 1970s, J.J’s father, Ole Jørgen Jørgensen, together with a team of product engineers, began what the brand called “extreme user driven product development.”
They boldly introduced Gore-Tex just as it was beginning to take commercial orders, created Europe’s first Gore-Tex shell, and took the first prototype to Trollveggen in Norway, one of Europe’s highest vertical rock faces, for field testing. The product was named after the site. Throughout the 1980s, Norrøna supported explorers in a series of landmark ascents, with the performance of its products repeatedly proven in extreme environments.
Above: Europe’s first Gore-Tex shell, created by Norrøna in 1977
Above: First winter ascent of the Swedish Route, 1980
Above: Four explorers complete the Great Trango Tower expedition, 1984
When the outdoor-product- and sports-obsessed J.J took over research and development in early 2000, he further upgraded the entire system and design philosophy.
Luxe.CO: Norrøna has created many classic product series. Please choose one and share the full process, from inspiration to launch to iteration.
J.J:
In 2001, I had just taken over product development. Freeride was a growing trend, but we saw there was no dedicated clothing for freeride skiing, so we felt this was an opportunity and developed the lofoten collection.
There were three key parts to the development of this series. First, brand ambassadors were deeply involved in the process: they articulated the original needs, and I sketched them out by hand before passing them to the designers. At the same time, we established our core design philosophy, Loaded Minimalism™, which runs through all our products. We also changed the traditional product development model led by a single designer, opening up the process and bringing in a large number of young designers.
Above: The Norrøna lofoten collection
This was a product that completely changed the freeride landscape: it featured bright colours, used the latest ultra-durable Gore-Tex fabric available at the time, added waterproof performance, and carried over reinforced shoulders from traditional mountaineering garments.
The second generation of lofoten came three years later, when the new Gore-Tex Pro Shell fabric was introduced. In the early years, we updated products every year. Now we do it every four years. You have to get feedback from the market, and users need time to wear the products before you can develop a better next generation.
Above: The latest The lofoten Gore-Tex Pro men’s jacket
Luxe.CO: What internal principles does the brand’s product architecture follow?
J.J: We organise products into collections based on five core activities and other outdoor pursuits, like different teams. Each collection has its own personality and is designed for different extreme users. At the same time, we think about year-round use, focusing on an activity for every month of the year.
We do not want to make competitive gear, so we do not enter competitive sports. What we promote is the experience of nature. All the activities we are involved in are built around the idea of enjoying nature alone or with friends, and competing with yourself rather than with others.
Luxe.CO: On the brand’s official website, customers can search for products by colour. What is the thinking behind this colour system?
J.J: These colours, of course, have different meanings. One is safety: when you are climbing on a dark rock face, wearing a bright colour makes it easier for search and rescue teams to spot you if something happens. And when you are skiing in winter snow, bright colours can make you feel happier. We also created seasonal colours to bring freshness and uniqueness, producing them in small quantities. The brighter the colour, the fewer pieces we make.
Above: Norrøna’s colour system
We want colour to become part of our design expression — not to follow trends, but to create colours that belong to us. Today, we have developed a complete colour system, not only bright colours but a full spectrum.
Global Market Expansion and a Second Entry Into the Chinese Mainland
In 2009, under J.J’s leadership, Norrøna opened its first brand store in Oslo, 80 years after the brand was founded. In 2011, the brand opened a store in Stockholm, marking its first step outside Norway.
Today, Norrøna has 40 directly operated offline stores around the world, across Norway, Sweden, Finland, the United States, Germany, France, Italy, and Switzerland.
Above: Norrøna’s global store network, including directly operated, wholesale, and outlet stores
Norrøna first tested the Chinese Mainland market in 2016, before exiting in 2018. In May 2025, Norrøna announced a partnership with Chinese sports retail operator TOPSPORTS. As the brand’s exclusive operating partner in the Chinese Mainland market, TOPSPORTS will take full responsibility for Norrøna’s brand communications, marketing activities, omni-channel sales, and customer operations in the Chinese Mainland.
In October 2025, Norrøna officially returned to the Chinese Mainland market, launching its official Tmall flagship store and opening a temporary offline experience space at Kerry Parkside in Pudong, Shanghai. In January this year, Norrøna opened its first permanent store at Beijing SKP.
J.J, together with core team members who have worked with him for more than twenty years, visited Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing, where they saw the dramatic changes and the vast potential of China’s premium retail market and sports-outdoor sector.
Luxe.CO: What changes do you see happening in the Chinese Mainland market?
J.J: When I went to Shanghai in 2011, the outdoor store landscape looked completely different from what it does now. I think China is one of the leading retail markets in the world, especially in the development of brand stores, and the same is true of the outdoor industry.
Chinese consumers’ awareness of outdoor products, and their pursuit of high-quality outdoor gear, have both clearly increased. I’m very happy to see this desire for premium outdoor products in China, and I appreciate it very much — because we ourselves are positioned in the premium segment.
Above: Norrøna Beijing SKP store
Luxe.CO: The Chinese Mainland outdoor market is highly competitive. Where does Norrøna’s differentiated advantage lie?
J.J: Our goal is to become the world’s most premium outdoor brand — not the biggest, but the most technical and the most high-end.
What I think is cool about the Chinese market is that consumers are willing to invest in premium products. Chinese consumers really appreciate craftsmanship and quality. They value the effort we put into our products, and they are willing to pay for it. That is very important to us.
Above: Norrøna Beijing SKP store
Luxe.CO: What do you believe is a healthy scale and growth rate for the brand?
J.J: I think the ideal size for us is a little bigger than we are now. We could easily become twice our current size. But in the long term, I think a healthier growth rate is between 10% and 20%.
What matters is that we sell the products in the right way and to the right people. So if it is not quality growth, sustainable growth, we would rather not have it. If growth comes through the wrong way of selling, we do not want it.
Both Heir and Pioneer: Norrøna Adventure
Since the company was founded, Norrøna has remained 100% owned and operated by the Jørgensen family. J.J recalls that he began helping with inventory counts at the age of five, and later became fascinated by the sewing machines around him, starting to make products himself — first headbands, and then other kinds of gear.
“While I was in school, I started trading a lot of stocks, so I also hesitated over whether I should go in this direction or that one. But later I realised that what motivates me is this: when I wake up in the morning, what I want to do is create things. So after finishing my finance degree, I went to work at a multi-brand retail store, where I was responsible for buying and other tasks. Interestingly, I was the first person to sell Norrøna products,” J.J shared when speaking about his own journey.
Above: Jørgen Jørgensen at the company (2015)
Today, Norrøna is not a large company. With just over 120 employees from more than 20 countries, most of them work at Norrøna House on the outskirts of Oslo. “When people communicate face to face, it is much easier to build company culture,” J.J said. “We draw inspiration from around the world, but at the same time still work hard to remain distinctive and preserve our Norwegian heritage.”
In 2019, J.J made an even bolder decision: to enter the travel industry. Norrøna acquired Hvitserk, a Norwegian premium travel company with nearly 40 years of history, and launched Norrøna Adventure. It later acquired Canvas Hotel, a luxury mountain bike hotel in Norway.
At the time, there was no shortage of opposition inside the company, but he was thinking in broader and longer-term terms: not simply about retail, nor about treating travel as a side business, but about fully integrating it into the brand’s core development philosophy, building a complete platform and creating an all-round lifestyle experience.
Benefiting from the existing customer base and established travel routes that came with the acquisitions, Norrøna Adventure has progressed smoothly. It has now opened up boutique travel routes across dozens of countries. Travellers can stay in yurt-style tents at Canvas Hotel in the highlands of Telemark, Norway; hike in the Lofoten Islands and experience the extraordinary beauty of the Norwegian fjords; or set sail aboard the Norrøna Varg for an ocean voyage. In 2026, the Norrøna Varg S/Y was also named one of TIME’s “World’s Greatest Places”.
Jørgen Jørgensen told Luxe.CO that making the best products is not enough; “we also have to offer adventures to our consumers.” Our vision is “welcome to nature”.
| Image Credit: Norrøna
| Editor: Xiaoyue
