LOOP Tackle is brought to New Zealand and Australia by The Safari Supply Company based in Taupo, New Zealand. Safari Supply is owned and operated by Grant & Vicki - keen outdoors people with a wide range of interests including fly fishing and hunting. In all our activities we have respect for the environment and practice ethical behaviour in the taking of game.
LOOP was founded in 1979 in Sweden by Christer Sjöberg and Tony Karpestam – two young enthusiastic fly fishers with one goal in mind; to make a living doing what they loved. They wanted to be involved in the developing world of fly fishing and to explore and fly fish in areas previously impossible to reach. From the very beginning they understood that fly fishing was a way of life, and dreams about big money were abandoned and replaced with the passion of pursuing their destiny. LOOP was born!
Enthusiastically they started up a mail order business and small retail store. Local courses were held by them to help spread the knowledge about fly fishing. It was all very small scale and kept close to their home. A few years later they partnered with American fly rod manufacturer Sage, and luckily fly fishing was starting to take hold in Sweden.
Casting guru Göran Andersson joined LOOP and designed Sage’s two-handed rods and revolutionary new fly lines (LOOP Custom that were cut and adjusted to preferred length and weight) that were adapted for Görans new casting-technique; the “Underhand Cast.” Not long after Kurt Danielsson contacted LOOP and noted that the current reels were of poor quality and soon the new team had developed the first large arbor reel. The year was 1984. When the first LOOP large arbor reel hit the market most anglers found it totally bizarre and we had little success getting the tradition-bound fly fishers of the time to buy such a weird fly reel. It took a few years for the reel to make its impression, but today over 20 years later nearly all fly reels are built according to the LOOP standard.
Today LOOP designs, develops and manages every manufacturing process of their gear themselves. All our products were designed and built to last and function in the world’s toughest conditions and to last for season after season. Experience, enthusiasm and an unbreakable will has led us to only put the LOOP brand on the best products. LOOP started out as a dream and for over twenty years LOOP has been a leader in the fly fishing industry. Today that dream is evolved into an internationally company focused on delivery dreams to our customers.