About KOK Norge AS

The KOK experience should be an experience for everyone and our most important task is to make people happy. We hope to achieve this through a sensory experience where water, cold, heat and pure joy merge.

KOK will create urban life, great outdoor experiences all year round, and make it possible to swim regardless of the season. Our ambition is to become a nationwide network of independent owners who operate the KOK concept and bring an already popular activity to their hometown.

The story of KOK

KOK Norge AS was founded by Kristin Lorange in 2017 and her team included Paal Mangerud. With Kristin's background as a commercial pilot and Paal's many years of experience in politics, culture and nightlife, there was a good basis for creating an exciting company with a solid rig.

Kristin was inspired by a team-building trip to the Stockholm archipelago with her job at the time and a group of pilots who loved swimming. It was the first time she had experienced the concept of a "floating sauna", and although she didn't like either sauna or cold water, the combination was hugely exhilarating. Kristin decided that she wanted more people to experience this intoxicating pleasure.

Piloting was Kristin's childhood dream, but after 13 years as a commercial pilot, she wanted to start her own business and build an organization based on values that there could clearly be more of in society. Sustainability, community, diversity and closeness to nature, to name a few. After her trip to Stockholm, a new dream was born; to bring the sauna concept to Oslo so that the capital's residents could experience the same intoxicating joy she had experienced in Sweden.

Founder of KOK, Kristin Lorange in white shirt, smiles at the camera

The first sauna boat was launched at Langkaia in February 2018. At the time, Kristin was pregnant with her son Nordahl and worked full-time as a pilot until she was five months pregnant, while building the small business that has now become KOK Oslo. "It was tough at first, and people were skeptical of both the concept and the area. At the time, Bjørvika was a shadowy part of the city that few people visited, even less to throw themselves into the black, dark harbor basin in the middle of winter.

In 2019, Kristin decided to go all in on KOK. Going from a secure position as a pilot with a good salary to an uncertain entrepreneurial life felt like a big risk. Fortunately, she has never regretted it. There are few female pilots in Norway, but also too few female entrepreneurs! By following her new dream, Kristin will continue to make a difference and inspire others to believe in themselves.

In the transition to 2020, KOK separated the operations of KOK Oslo from concept owner and franchisor KOK Norge AS. The company now has 9 saunas in Oslo, and the KOK concept is now planning expansion to the country's largest cities.

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