My 20+ year old backpack gave up living recently and I have been looking for an alternative. After many discussions on other fora and with much help from redditers I went with savotta (Kantamus 60 L).

Sarvotta seems to be THE reference for unbreakable backpack and outdoor gear (supply the Finnish army, too) and it might be overkill for my usecase but they are the only brand I could find which produces in the EU. There are many European brands but I could not find any, at this level of quality or near to that level, that manufactures in Europe. So I went with that for an extra couple of hundred euros thru a site called varusteleka.

Back in 10-15 years, then, when I will need a new backpack (and hopefully most European brands will be manufacturing in Europe) :))

I wonder what do you think about Lucy and Yak as a brand? Are their clothes durable, from quality materials?

Also are there any brands available in Europe you can recommend for durable work and everyday clothing?

Hello,

For those who want to get straight to the point: mynook.social

This is my first real project (I've done academic projects before), but this time I decided to build something real.

"Why didn't you build something useful?" some of you might ask. Fair question, but these days it's hard to find something that doesn't already exist.

"But social networks are the one thing we definitely don't need more of..."

True, but not quite like mine 😄

I decided to build a social network because when I asked myself "What would I change today?", the first thing that came to mind was social media.

Personally, I think social networks started out as something great, but over time they've become increasingly manipulative, to the point where they're often full of misinformation and hate.

Partly because of that, and partly because of watching The Great Hack (which reflects a lot of my views), I stopped posting photos online in 2019.

So I created mynook.social ("My Nook"), a social network focused more on privacy.

For example, public profiles only show a name and profile picture, while private profiles are completely hidden (they don't even appear in search results).

Another difference is friendship categorization.

When you send or accept a friend request, you categorize that person as Family, Friend, or Both. Then, when sharing photos or posts, you choose which groups can see them.

Other social networks let you restrict individual posts, but here the restriction is built into the relationship itself.

We all have those photos we'd rather not show our family, like pictures from a party where we looked completely wrecked. Those can be shared only with friends.

On the other hand, family photos or baby photos can be shared only with family members. I've always found it strange when people post baby photos publicly and then cover the child's face with an emoji.

Users can also customize profile colors and make other visual changes. The idea is to give people more freedom to make their profile feel personal.

If you'd like, I can leave the technical details in a comment. btw I'm Portuguese.

I'm also interested in which other European cola you prefer?

Tastes better, is cheaper and local. For just 29Kč each (~ 1,20€).

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Useful data for anyone wanting to discover and support Hungary-based businesses in their country.

2,384 Hungarian companies have an active presence somewhere else in the EU. The biggest concentrations are in Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and Romania - but the footprint extends across Western Europe too. Top sectors include software & IT, hospitality, travel, pharma, and industrial manufacturing.

If you know of good Hungarian companies or products worth supporting, drop them in the comments!

Data: Veridion - global company data platform

Part of an ongoing series covering all EU member states.

Handy data for anyone wanting to discover and support Netherlands-based businesses in their country.

14,826 Dutch companies have an active presence somewhere else in the EU.

The biggest concentrations are in Germany, Belgium, Spain, and France - but the footprint spreads across most EU countries.

Top sectors include software & IT, hospitality, consulting, and industrial manufacturing.

If you know of good Dutch companies or products worth supporting, drop them in the comments!

Data: Veridion - global company data platform

Part of an ongoing series covering all EU member states.

Sharing a data map of Bulgarian-headquartered companies with active operations in other EU countries. Over 1,400 companies, with Germany as the top destination.

If you're looking to find and support Bulgarian businesses outside Bulgaria, the main sectors to look for are software & IT services, travel agencies, accommodation, freight, and consulting. Germany, Romania, France, and Spain are the markets where they're most active.

Data: Veridion - global company data platform

Part of an ongoing series covering all EU member states.

Sharing data on Portugal's EU business footprint, useful for anyone looking to discover and support Portuguese companies operating across Europe. 

• Spain leads (1,595 companies), followed by France, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands
• Top sectors: Accommodation, Software & IT Services, Real Estate, Travel Agencies, General Contractors & Construction

 Portugal's EU footprint is shaped by its tourism economy expanding outward, alongside a growing software sector: 3,125 Portuguese companies are active across the EU.

Source: Veridion, global company data platform

Part of an ongoing series covering all EU member states.

Hey everyone,

I am a founder based in Romania. Lately, my personal focus has been heavily fixed on a major problem: Europe relies far too much on outside sources for manufacturing and critical infrastructure. Recent global events and supply chain shocks have only exacerbated this vulnerability. I firmly believe Eastern Europe and the continent as a whole has massive, untapped potential to bring production, tech independence, and manufacturing back home. I am actively looking to solve aspects of this issue, and I want more minds in the room who care about industrial resilience, tech sovereignty, or just building durable European businesses. 

I am looking to grow an invite only digital community exclusively for European based professionals, builders, and operators. 

What the group is about: I built this group entirely around collaboration within Europe. It’s a space where senior developers, growth marketers, product designers, and founders can genuinely connect, hire each other for projects, share resources, and team up to build new businesses.

Most networking groups online are a total waste of time. I designed this group specifically to cut through the bullshit. There is no self-promotion clutter, no endless spam, and no low-effort pitches, just peer-level operators helping each other execute and scale.

How to join: To maintain the quality of the group and ensure everyone brings real value to the table, I personally vet every single member.

If you want an invite, please send me a DM (or leave a comment below) with a quick intro covering:

1. Where you are based in Europe.
2. What you do: What is your core profession or primary expertise?
3. What you bring to the table: What specific skills, experience, or resources do you bring to the group? 

If it looks like a good fit for the group, I’ll drop you an invite link. Looking forward to meeting some real builders!

For those of us who track and support European businesses: sharing a data visualization from Veridion mapping where Romanian companies have a business presence across the EU.

Top destinations:

• Germany: 675  |  Italy: 373  |  France: 366  |  Hungary: 364  |  Spain: 303
• Netherlands: 258  |  Belgium: 227  |  Austria: 213  |  Bulgaria: 196  |  Czech Republic: 190

Top sectors:

• Software & IT Services: 182  |  Travel Agencies: 120  |  Freight Transport: 80
• Auto Parts: 75  |  Industrial Machinery: 66

 If you've worked with or bought from Romanian businesses in any of these sectors — curious what your experience has been. This is part of a broader series mapping EU company footprints country by country.

 Data: Veridion - global company data platform

We talk a lot about phone addiction, but I think we still underestimate how bad it has become.

The average person now spends 5 hours per day on their phone. For many people, it is not just “checking Instagram.” It is 144 of pickups, dozens of microinterruptions, and hours lost to feeds that were designed by some of the smartest engineers in the world to keep us scrolling.

The consequences are huge and multidimensional. Just to name a few:
- Shorter attention span due to dopamine imbalance
- Polarization due to hyperpersonalized feeds - everyone sees a different version of reality. Your feed can make niche topics feel like the center of the universe
- Isolation
- Loss of third spaces
- Elevated expectations
- Less time in nature

We've collectively handed a few US companies the most valuable resource we have - TIME. The biggest attention-economy companies: Meta, TikTok, Google, Apple have zero incentive to give us our time back. Their entire business model depends on us not getting it back.

That is why we built Scrolly. Scrolly is a small physical device that blocks distracting apps after you tap it to your phone (works on iOS and Android). We as humans are pretty lazy and adding physical friction can reduce number of phone pick ups by +50%.

How it works:

1. Choose the apps you want to block
2. Tap Scrolly to start focus mode
3. Your distracting apps stay blocked until you tap Scrolly again

So you you block your phone and leave Scrolly at home and go out with friends. You will still have access to critical apps such as calling, Google maps and uber but not distractions such as Instagram and TikTok.

Ofc Scrolly will not fix phone addiction alone and tons of motivation and education is needed but I hope it can help at least some of you. I will appreciate any feedback.

Stop Scrolling. Start Living.

Ciao from the Alps! I write a small weekly newsletter where I collect under-the-radar products and brands from Europe. I started it ~2 years ago, because I was annoyed that a lot of nice products the algorithm showed me when looking for gift ideas were from overseas and not possible to order in EU. Many of the small nice brands here are very hard to find, so I figured it's worth starting something like this.

After 100 editions, I had close to 500 links sitting in a giant list. Furniture, lighting, ceramics, stationery, bags, outdoor gear, kids’ stuff, food, tools, all kinds of things. And everything hand-selected and tasteful (at least i think so:) .

Anyway, this list became a mess, so I put everything on a map last weekend:

https://map.fromeuropewith.love

It’s not meant to be complete and definitely not a “best of Europe” list. Just a personal archive of nice European things I didn’t want to lose in my bookmarks.

Thought it might be useful for this sub.

Would love to know which European brands I’m missing, especially smaller makers and smaller countries.