Have you ever been to a Japanese supermarket? I love seeing all these products that are new to me. Every aisle. It’s like walking in another country.
The midwest’s best Japanese supermarket is in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights. I hadn’t visited the store in 20 years. I was dropping off my taxes 15 minutes away from the store, I figured I’d swing by and check it out.
While walking the aisles of cute products like learning chopsticks for kids, I came across this glue stick product. The packaging was very generic and bland, but what stuck out was these three stacked horizontal rectangles. The top blue, middle black, bottom white. The exact same combination of colors in the Estonian flag.
Now, I’m half Estonian. My dad came over to America when he was 4 years old. My last name, Maldre, is a unique Estonian name. We have family pride when it comes to being Estonian. It’s a tiny country most people haven’t heard of. In fact, some people think it’s a fictional country where Encino Man comes from.
Here’s the Estonian flag flying from my house.
When an Estonian flag appears out of the blue, my brain is trained to identify it right away. When we first moved to Glen Ellyn in the late 2010s, a few blocks down, I noticed a neighbor who had an Estonian decal on his car’s back windshield.
When the flag appears, it sticks out to me.
But to see it at a Japanese supermarket? That’s NOT the place I’d expect it to be. So that makes it stick out all the more.
I had to rub my eyes and retrain my brain. The Estonian flag is white on the bottom, right? Yes. Blue on the top, right? And black in the middle. All three are correct.
An Estonian flag on a product that is exclusively an Asian product. Huh.
What’s up with Tombow using the Estonian flag in their MONO line? Tombow’s about page says, “Tombow was established in Japan in 1913 as a wood-case pencil provider for Japanese students.”
Is there any Estonian connection? Nope.
American connections
American Tombow, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tombow Pencil Co., Ltd. that has distributed Tombow branded art and office products in North America since 1983. Tombow was first established in the United States in California, and later moved its North American headquarters to Georgia in 1993. Our offices and warehouse facilities were relocated in 2003 to a larger facility in Suwanee, GA with state-of-the-art technology.
Thailand and Vietnam connections
In the early 1990s, Tombow established its first overseas factory in Thailand to produce products under strict quality control by our production engineers. Until that point in time, all production and manufacturing had been conducted in Japan. Since 2003, Tombow has established three factories in Vietnam.
Germany connection
Additional Tombow subsidiaries are located in Germany and China. Tombow Pen & Pencil GmBH was established in Germany in 1980 and sells Tombow products throughout Europe.
Remember how I said I’m half Estonian? My other half is German. Tombow having a connection with Germany is amusing for me.
China connection
In 2011 Tombow Pencil (Dalian) Co., Ltd. was established as the first sales base in Asia, selling Tombow products to the Chinese market.
Indonesia connection
A representative office was established in Jakarta, Indonesia in August 2019 for market research and sales promotion support in Southeast Asia.
No mention of Estonia on Tombow’s about page. However, they do have a Facebook Page.
Tombow Estonia on Facebook
There is a Facebook Page for Tombow Estonia. Could this be it? Not really. Tombow is an international company so they have Facebook Pages in many other countries, in addition to Estonia.
I sent a message to the Tombow Estonia Facebook Page, asking:
I’m amazed to see Tombow’s line of “MONO” products use an icon of blue, black, and white. The exact same colors are in the Estonian flag. Is there a connection between this blue, black, and white icon in MONO products and Estonia?
I rather doubt they’ll respond, because their most recent post is from March 2023. Over two years ago.
Most likely, Tombow just picked those three colors, because they are awesome colors.
Other Tombow MONO products that use blue, black, and white
I also picked up a mechanical pencil with the colors. Although this time, the colors are in a different order. So that tells us that the company probably just likes the combination of blue, black, and white.
The plastic eraser uses the colors, but also in a different order than the flag.
Looking closer at the glue stick itself, the colors are out of order here too. (the colors on the display case had it in the correct order)
