About Us

The story of Billebeino

I was playing hockey for living in Buffalo Sabres. I was injured a lot and games didn’t go well. Lot of dissapointments and pressure. I wanted to find ways to get my mind out of hockey and all the stress.

I was reading a lot of books and trying new things. During one of my injury rehab processes I tried painting. I really enjoyid it. It was a great therapy for me, a way for me to get out of daily distress.

I started using this one image I found from old chinise book as a signature. When my friend Juhani Putkonen (later co-founder) came to visit me in Buffalo he was mezmerized by this image that appeared in every painting I had made. He asked me what is that sign in every painting. I told him it’s just this image I found in one of the books I was reading. Next day when I got back from morning rehab he had made a file about the image. We both really loved it and thought we should make something of it. After we tossed ideas around for a while we desided to start a clothing line called Billebeino and use my signature as a logo. We called it BRICK logo.

There’s really no name Ville in North America. So everytime I’d introduce myself and say my name. People would confuse my name and say Hi Bille nice to meet you. Needless to say that’s how we came up with the name BILLEBEINO

– Ville Leino