Have you seen Finnish students walking around the city in their overalls, filled with patches and colors? What's going on?! What are these weird party pants?!

Wearing overalls (haalarit) is a very big tradition among students in Finland. One could say that the official party outfit to Finnish students is the overall. They represent you and your fellow students as a collective, especially since every study field has its own overall color and/or design. Overalls come in all colours: blue, black, white, yellow, green, red, pink... etc. You can tell who belongs to your group just by checking out their overall colour!

If you have an overall, you are most likely to have patches (haalarimerkki) on it too. Plain overalls just happens to looks weird, and besides that, patches have meanings as well. They tell where you have been, who your friends are, what you like, which team you support... etc. Also, other party gear —like handcuffs, whistles and bottle openers— can be attached to your overall. You can't find two of a kind - they are all unique! You can get patches in parties, trips, events and by buying them in our office.


It is also quite common thing to exchange parts of your overall (usually a sleeve) with other students. That is to show love, friendship, side subjects or even having two main subjects. You can see people wearing them in every major student happening, like parties, meetings, excursions to other cities, and of course, Vappu!

Finland is not the only country in the world having such a strange party wear. The overalls tradition is around 30 years old. And just like so many other student traditions of ours, our Swedish student cousins are behind this tradition as well. To read more about the overalls check this Wikipedia article.

Get your overall

it's possible for you to get ESN Finland overalls which will identify you and hundreds of other exchange students in Finland! Purchase your own "student uniform" for €30! If you do not have an ESNcard, the price is €40. ESN Overalls will be sold on a "first come, first served" basis, so hurry up to to make sure you won't be left out! (Also the amount of certain sizes is limited!)

You can buy your overall in our office during office hours.