Yrjö Kero founded Kero in 1929 in the small village of Sattajärvi, in Swedish Lapland.  Yrjö started the business with a tannery and expanded it with a shoemaking department in the 1950s. Today the company is still owned by the Kero family. 

Kero's specialty is the naturally tanned hide which means that the skin is tanned with only natural substances. This traditional method goes back centuries and is by far the most eco-friendly. Tanning agents from bark are added to the process, and the leather also takes on the moisture-absorbent properties of the bark.

The leather is from free range reindeer in Swedish Lapland, where only the indigenous Scandinavian Sami people are allowed to herd reindeer.