Have you seen students walking around the city in their overalls, filled with patches and colours? What's going on?! - you may ask. What are these weird party pants?! - you may wonder.

Wearing overalls (haalarit) is a very big tradition among students in Finland. One could say that the official party outfit for students in Finland. They represent you as an individual and your fellow students as a collective, studying the same subject. Every study field has its own overall colour and/or design. Overalls come in all colours: blue, black, white, yellow, green, red, pink... etc. Additionally, in some cities, overall are worn all the oway over, and in some (Turku) they are tied around the waist.

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, what events you participated in, 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 (minor studies) or even having two majors. You can see people wearing them in all 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. Read more about overalls on this Wikipedia page.

Get your overall

It is possible for you to get ESN overalls which will identify you and hundreds of other exchange students in whole 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.