At Thermory, we’re fortunate to work with partners who don’t just sell sauna—they truly live it!
Sauna Marketplace / Sauna Share, Inc. is one of those partners. Founded by co-founders Ben Burger and Ben Frizzell, Sauna Marketplace has built an online retailing business around helping people create better sauna experiences, from the materials and products they choose to the spaces they design.
Recently, the Sauna Marketplace team joined us in Estonia for our first Thermory Partner Alliance Summit, alongside sauna and industry partners from 23 countries. They toured behind the scenes of our manufacturing facilities, exploring the future of sauna and wellness.
But their connection to Thermory goes well beyond a trip to Estonia.
A Partnership Built Around Sauna
Sauna Marketplace has become an online destination for sauna enthusiasts, builders, and homeowners looking for thoughtfully designed sauna products and materials. Their approach is rooted in making sauna more accessible while helping people create spaces that are built to be enjoyed for years.
That includes Thermory.
Ben Frizzell owns the first Thermory Sauna Square sent to North America, which now sits at his home in Bend, Oregon. The team has also incorporated Thermory into their own homes and projects. Ben Burger chose our Kodiak Spruce Cladding for his home in the country.
For us, those personal connections mean a lot. There’s something different about recommending a material when you’ve chosen to build with it yourself.
Seeing Thermory Up Close
During their time in Estonia, the Sauna Marketplace team got an inside look at how Thermory wood makes its way from responsibly sourced lumber to finished products.
At Reola, our sauna and interior plant, they saw the level of technology and quality control that goes into our sauna materials. Every board is inspected using X-ray and 3D scanning technology before it is profiled, helping ensure the consistency and precision that sauna builders and homeowners expect.
Burger shares:
“What we keep talking about is Reola. It turns out about 2.6 million linear feet of profiled boards a month, roughly 3,000 saunas’ worth. Every board goes through an X-ray and 3D scanner that checks moisture and curvature before it gets profiled. Not a sample, but every board. That’s a big part of why the tongue and groove on a good kit closes tight on day one and stays tight years later.”
They also toured our Loo factory, where Thermory exterior cladding and decking are produced, and saw our weathering displays that show how different products naturally change over time.
Here they got to see firsthand how we transform real wood using heat and steam only—without chemicals, plastics, or preservatives.
Their takeaway? There’s a lot more behind a Thermory board than meets the eye.
Making Sauna Design More Accessible
Sauna Marketplace is also looking beyond the products themselves.
The company created SaunaDesignPro, a free 3D sauna design tool that allows users to visualize and design their own sauna using Thermory wood. It’s another example of their focus on making the sauna experience easier to navigate, whether someone is building their first backyard sauna or designing a more customized space.
And their team is paying attention to where sauna is headed.
Burger notes:
“Wellness is moving out of the spa and into the house. In a health-first home, the new standard is lighting that follows your body clock — warm and dim when you’re winding down. Nowhere does that matter more than the sauna.”
He also highlights larger, more social sauna spaces:
“The next big thing in sauna is more people in the room. Inga Raukas, the Tallinn architect behind Kalev Spa, walked us through group rituals, a sauna master cranking the heat, and event saunas built for up to 300 bathers. The backyard version could be: build the bench for four, even if it’s usually for two.”
Sauna continues to evolve, but the fundamentals remain the same: quality materials, thoughtful design, and a space that invites people to slow down and connect.
Sauna Marketplace Knows that Thermory is More Than a Material
What we appreciate most about Sauna Marketplace is that their enthusiasm for sauna is genuine. They’re building their own saunas, experimenting with design, creating tools to help others build, and sharing what they learn with a growing community of sauna enthusiasts.
From selling saunas all over the USA, to traveling to Estonia with us– we’re excited to see where this partnership goes next!
Learn more about Sauna Marketplace and explore their sauna products and resources at SaunaMarketplace.com.
Read more about sauna culture at SaunaNews, a Sauna Marketplace company. SaunaNews reports the business and culture of sauna: what launched, what opened, who bought whom, what a standard changed, and what the research found.
