The Story of Roos Troll: From Frustration to Bestseller – A 10-Year Journey
The year was 2014, and Nordisk Ukulele had just seen the light of day. The entire idea behind the store stemmed from a shared frustration my then-colleague and I had: it was challenging to find truly good ukuleles in Nordic music stores. If we were to run our own store and stand out, we had to choose different products and manufacturers than our competitors. This indirectly meant we had to sell many brands that most ukulele players had never heard of – and that's no easy task.
Part of the solution was to bet on our own brand.
The Name and the Idea: Our Own Brand Roos and the Troll Model
The question of the name arose. Both my colleague and several in our network suggested that our new brand should be called "Roos". It took me a little while to be convinced, but in the end, I agreed.
The next step was to produce a first ukulele under the Roos brand. I certainly didn't build it myself, but it was challenging enough to find a factory that could build exactly according to my specific instructions. The idea was to produce a ukulele – a model that was as good as possible while costing as little as possible. I was curious how these criteria would meet. This ukulele was primarily intended for schools and beginners.
We settled on a zebrawood ukulele model. At the time, this was not a common choice; it was simply a bit exotic. And what should the model be called? It could, of course, be something long and convoluted, like Kala ukuleles, like chemical formulas. No, we needed something short and simple. Finally, the choice fell on "Troll". A Nordic name, easy to pronounce and easy to remember.
The Nervous Wait and the Unexpected Success
After long email dialogues, the factory began building the ukuleles – a soprano and a concert version. Soon they would be shipped to Norway, from China. Up until then, I had only sent relatively small orders, but now a significantly larger quantity was to be shipped. For someone with little routine in such matters, it was complicated.
It became even more complicated when it turned out that the factory had confused my company number with my phone number. It became a challenge to track down the ukuleles to ensure they were delivered to the correct address, and not sent back to China. I made countless calls to customs, shipping companies, and various others to resolve that tangle.
When they were finally delivered, and the ukulele boxes stacked up and filled large parts of the warehouse, I was nervous until the very end. I had previously received sample copies of totally unplayable ukuleles from other factories. How had this factory performed? Thank goodness – these ukuleles were exactly as I had imagined. Simple, but stable and well-sounding.
Many schools and kindergartens bought them. But surprisingly, this ukulele also sold very well to regular ukulele players – both those buying their first and those who had been playing for a while.
Troll Today: 10 Years as a Bestseller and Continuous Development
10 years later, in 2024, I can state that Troll has been the best-selling ukulele at Nordisk Ukulele every year.
Today, Troll is produced by a different factory than the one that mixed up phone numbers and company numbers. And Troll also looks quite different today than it did in the beginning. The first batch had white plastic bindings and inlays. A couple of years later, Troll was completely without decorations and bindings. Now, for the past couple of years, Troll has beautiful mother-of-pearl ornamentation around the edges of the top and as a rosette, which gives it a more refined and inviting appearance.
Troll's Siblings: A Future Family Reunion?
For a short period, Troll also had siblings representing different steps on the quality ladder: Huldra, Vittra, and Näcken. Each of them carried a unique vision of what a ukulele could be.
Huldra was Troll's older sibling, a more elaborate model in both material choice and design, built for those who wanted a step up in sound and expression. Vittra took it another step further with exquisite materials and refined design, and Näcken was the ultimate sibling – the largest, finest, and most expensive, an instrument that truly challenged what a ukulele could be.
Unfortunately, we encountered challenges in finding factories that could produce these special models with the accuracy and quality we demanded. Therefore, this project had to be put on hold for the time being.
But the story of Troll's siblings is far from over! We still daydream about the day we can reunite the family. The plan is definitely to resume production of Huldra, Vittra, and Näcken – perhaps with new, exciting materials or improved designs – so that they too can find their way to enthusiasts and collectors. Stay tuned; there could be an exciting future for the Roos family!
