History of Esvo

ESVO. From sailmaker to the Netherlands' largest tent workshop and fabric supplier. Our proud history. Since 1922. A story worth telling.
ESVO Tenten is the largest (remaining) tent factory in the Netherlands by name + market leader in waterproof cloth + Supplier by Royal Order.

Since 1922, they have grown from sailmaker to leading producer of various types of tents in Europe and also market leader in waterproof fabrics. From 1955, as a tent factory, ESVO Tents specialised in the production of camping tents, windscreens, canopies, groundsheets through to tent poles. The decline of the Dutch textile industry was later followed by the demise of manufacturing companies. Our pride lies in the fact that, as a tent factory, we still work with true Dutch virtues: innovation, flexibility and craftsmanship. As a tent factory, we manufacture series of tents, which are manufactured under private label, for dealers and for our own sales. Thanks to these economies of scale and modern production methods, the products of our tent factory are affordable while the quality is of a very high level. And that is our raison d'être.

History of ESVO Tents as a tent factory

In 1922, the founder, Evert Schokker, started a sail-making business. The Volendam of those days was poor and lived off fishing on the Zuiderzee. Besides being a master sailmaker and rope maker, Evert was also a true entrepreneur. He was also a broker (including mortgages and insurance), had a photo shop, and was not afraid to pull other boats loose with a tugboat or even to go fishing for smelt. This was also necessary to support the whopping 10 children.
With the money he earned, he invested in many residential houses, which he then rented out. As a small independent property developer, he had 10 new residential houses built, which he then resold. He also started a taxi company and owned the first 6-seater taxi in the entire region.
In the 1930s, Evert Schokker expanded the business by trading in industrial clothing, shipping supplies and oils, among other things. Later, he even bought a tanker boat to supply the Volendam botters with gas oil for fishing.
The war years were hard. Still, Evert helped the local resistance against the German occupiers by providing shelter for their (resistance) supplies.
After the German capitulation, the Canadians, as the Allies' logistics party, did not want to take the thousands of tarpaulins back to the homeland. This triggered a lively trade in tarpaulins and tarpaulins. These tarpaulins were used to cover cargoes on both ships and wagons. Preparing and tailoring these tarpaulins was an additional activity for the versatile sailmakers from Volendam. When the Zuiderzee fishing boomed, the trade in tarpaulins went down at the same time. The reason for this was the advent of dense containers in port cities like Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Therefore, in 1955, the company started as a tent making company, using its craftsmanship to manufacture camping tents. After 1960, they also supplied under their own brand. The trade name changed to Evert Schokker Volendam Naamloze Vennootschap, which was later renamed ESVO Campingshop BV.
Over a period of many decades, Evert's children gradually sold their shares in the family business to the then managing director and son Wil Schokker. The latter was confronted with tents from the Far East at the beginning of this century, causing Esvo to lose almost all dealers and the business to collapse almost completely. The decision to start selling directly and to improve the quality of the tents even further, resulted in Esvo being one of the few Dutch tent manufacturers left and therefore even having the largest workshop. In 2024, we took over the AtomaTent tent workshop.
So now the company has grown into a tent factory, which still makes the tents and other textile products itself - all in Volendam, and so do the tent poles, tent groundsheets and windbreaks. ESVO Tents also supplies campers in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and Scandinavia.
Due to shifts in both the production and sales markets, the manufacturer and supplier of premium trailer tents, Aart Kok from Heemstede, also chose Esvo as the production workshop for its trailer tents back in 2001. This choice was prompted at the time by the critical attitude of Aart Kok Vouwwagens with regard to their quality requirements and what was produced in low-wage countries. And also the materials used in terms of TenCate tent cloth, the zips, groundsheets, et cetera. And last but certainly not least: Esvo's craftsmanship in both production and creativity in thinking along with us.

European market leader in tent cloth and waterproof fabrics

In 2004, they started their own website and, in 2007, a webshop in loose tent cloth. That turned out to be a gap in the market, as this site has grown into a major European player in the field of waterproof fabrics and even the market leader in tent cloth. The reason lies in large-scale purchasing: buying by the mile and passing on those benefits to the end customers. This results in significantly lower prices than those of (international) competitors.

The future and royal predicate for Esvo

They are trying to grow the online success at Esvo with more and more people, and they are succeeding.
Furthermore, they are still investing in new machines to make the various textile products more efficient, so that the workshop on Volendam's Marconistraat can keep running at full capacity for at least the next 25 years. ‘Maybe then the tents will be made by robots, but they'll see,’ says current director(3rd generation) Richard Schokker.
In April 2023, Esvo received the highly official designation HOFLEVERANCIER from the King's Commissioner. Richard: ‘Esvo in fact passed a very strict selection procedure based on impeccable track record, financial management, general management & policy, safety and substantiated history. This is the same procedure as that for the ‘Royal’ stamp - but we don't have 100 employees, so that predicate was dropped. But the fact that we are proud of the Hofleverancierschap, that's for sure’.

Other information

Customer information: see the A reliable tent‘ for more explanation of our vision and working methods as the Netherlands’ largest tent making company.
Because we are so proud of our company, we also have a 1-minute company video on YouTube. Click here.