• May the Sisu Be With You t-shirt in burnt orange, worn by Elina in a Helsinki park in autumn, Very Finnish Problems
  • May the Sisu Be With You t-shirt in navy, worn by Venla beside a rowing boat on a granite lake shore in Finland, Very Finnish Problems
  • May the Sisu Be With You t-shirt in black, worn by Eetu on the bench in a Finnish ice hall changing room after a game, Very Finnish Problems
  • May the Sisu Be With You t-shirt in burnt orange, worn by Elina with a coffee in a Helsinki park, Very Finnish Problems
  • May the Sisu Be With You t-shirt in white, worn by Raija picking blueberries at the mökki, Very Finnish Problems
  • May the Sisu Be With You t-shirt in army green, worn by Joonas stacking firewood at the mökki, Very Finnish Problems
  • Close-up of the yellow May the Sisu Be With You screen print on a black t-shirt, Very Finnish Problems
  • Size guide for this t-shirt: your chest measured all the way round, then the t-shirt laid flat, in centimetres and inches, sizes S to 3XL, Very Finnish Problems
  • Woman on a Helsinki street wearing the burnt orange May the Sisu Be With You t-shirt, Very Finnish Problems
1 9

May the sisu... Finnish Culture T-Shirt

May the sisu... Finnish Culture T-Shirt

€27,95 EUR
€27,95 EUR
Sale Sold out

Free shipping worldwide, no minimum

Taxes included.
Colour: Burnt Orange
SizeSize guide
In stock, created to order
Expected delivery
  • EU (Finland)13 to 16 November
  • UK13 to 16 November
  • North America13 to 16 November
Any 3 tees for €69 Mix any three t-shirts and get The Real Deal Guide to Finnish Happiness free, worth €14.95. The price drops in your cart.
  • Free worldwide shipping, no minimum
  • 30 day returns
  • Created to order, never mass produced
  • Machine wash cold, inside out

Designed in Finland. Crafted to order in the EU, UK, US or Australia, depending on where it's going.

This is soft, combed ring-spun cotton. Combing pulls out the short fuzzy fibres, then ring spinning twists what is left into a finer, tighter yarn. The result feels softer, wears better wash after wash and gives the print a smooth surface to sit on. Think of it as the shirt equivalent of a Finn after their first coffee, smoother and noticeably less prickly. It is 100% cotton at 142 g/m², light enough to wear most of the year.

More Finnish problems

What people buy alongside this one.

Sisu is the Finnish word for a quality that doesn't translate cleanly into anything else. It sits somewhere between grit and determination, but without the performative edge those words sometimes carry. May the sisu be with you shirt borrows from cultural vocabulary most people already know, but means it without irony. In Finland, sisu is the thing that gets you through the winter, the setback and the situation that was worse than expected. It is not loudly celebrated. It is just what you call on when you need it.

A fitting gift for anyone facing something difficult, or anyone Finnish.

The front print plays on a line everyone already knows and quietly means it.

Size guide

Shipping and returns

Shipping is free to almost everywhere, with no minimum spend and nothing added at checkout.

Your order is made for you, then posted from the print site nearest to you. Most arrive in 7 to 10 days, and you get a tracking link as soon as yours is on its way.

You have 30 days to return it. If the fit is wrong, email joel@veryfinnishproblems.com and we will sort it out. It needs to come back unworn and the return postage is yours. The refund policy has the full details.

Care and materials

Machine wash it cold and inside out, then tumble dry low or hang it up. The print will thank you for it.

The design is printed straight into the fabric (direct to garment, or DTG) rather than pressed on top, so it stays soft and will not crack or peel the way a transfer can. Every item is made to order, so nothing is mass produced and nothing sits in a warehouse waiting for someone to love it.

About Very Finnish Problems

VFP was started by British author Joel Willans, who met his Finnish wife in London and moved with her to Helsinki in 2002. Over the next two decades his observations of Finnish life grew into a community of 1.3 million people worldwide. Every design is inspired by real Finnish life and created by Joel and his team in Helsinki. Joel is also the author of the Very Finnish Problems books, written after many years of living in Finland and still not fully understanding it.

View full details

More Finnish problems

What people buy alongside this one.
  • 5 stars: 7 (78%)
  • 4 stars: 2 (22%)
  • 3 stars: 0 (0%)
  • 2 stars: 0 (0%)
  • 1 star: 0 (0%)
S
Steve

love these shirts. excellent quality material, tge screen print is bright, bold and feels great. I expect them to last longer than most printed shirts. could not be happier with my purchase.

A
Anonymous

The shirt is great though color is more orange than in the picture so that was a bit of a bummer.

S
Simon

High quality shirt, great text 👍

T
Torstein Seim

Fantastic

K
Kim S

What a brilliant insight and so true. All Finns fall in love with this sentence :)

S
ST

Ok this is probably the most Finnish thing I own now

C
Chris N

Got this for my Finnish brother inlaw. He laughed then put it on so yeah good choice

A
Aino

My son stole it after one day. I guess that is a review.

L
Laura K

Nice one. Print is good, maybe bit more fitted than I expected

Joel Willans, founder of Very Finnish Problems

Designed in Helsinki by someone who actually lives here

Very Finnish Problems is run by Joel Willans, a British writer who moved to Finland over twenty years ago and never quite got around to leaving. Every design comes out of real Finnish life he's had with his Finnish wife, Anna and their kids, and a community of more than 1.3 million people who know exactly what no niin means.

Read Joel's story