The Story of the Assarams

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“Want to come for a swim?” Sara asked.
It was January 2024. Snow was falling, the temperature below zero, and the wind was fierce. Linda had never considered swimming outdoors in the middle of winter—especially not without a sauna in sight.
“I’ll come along,” she replied, “but I’m not sure I’ll actually go in.”

They did swim.
And surprisingly, the water wasn’t as cold as Linda had imagined. In fact, it was refreshing, challenging, and deeply invigorating.
The real challenge, they discovered, was everything before and after—the biting wind while undressing, the numb fingers fumbling with clothes, and trying to keep things from blowing into the sea.
Still, they kept cold swimming all the way into spring. The water remained a thrill, but the constant battle with the cold and inconvenient changing situation didn’t get any easier.

As autumn approached, they decided to better prepare. They searched for a robe suitable for winter swims, but nothing they found met their standards.

That’s when Linda remembered the stories of music festivals where tents and sleeping bags were left behind, most of which were never reused. Knowing how difficult it is to recycle mixed textiles—especially materials like tents and sleeping bags, which are often incinerated—they had an idea.

“What if we made our own swim robes,” Linda suggested one evening in October, “from recycled materials that are otherwise hard to repurpose?”

The very properties that make tents, sleeping bags, and foam mats hard to recycle—durability, insulation, water resistance—also make them ideal for cold swim robes.

So through the winter of 2024 and into 2025, they continued swimming along the coast of Gotland, sketching, testing, and refining what would become the ultimate winter swim robe.

Thanks to support from Leader Gute, the idea became reality. With discarded sleeping bags, tents, and foam pads donated by individuals and organizations like Fritidsbanken, they sourced their materials. Collaborating with fashion designer Minna Palmqvist, they developed a pattern that transformed two sleeping bags and some tent fabric into a functional and stylish swim robe—the Assaram.

Together with Gotland-based designer Sara Högblom, founder of Ester & Inez, they turned the concept into finished garments.

In addition to the robe, they also created a “swim tote” made from tents and foam pads—tailored to the specific needs of cold water swimmers.

And as it turned out, the Assaram wasn’t just perfect for cold dips. It quickly became a favorite for chilly barbecue nights in the garden and long hikes through changing weather.

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Assaram – Adventure-tested. Nature-approved.