11 July 2019

The Jacket Required SS20 Line Up: Secrid

 

With Jacket Required SS20 just around the corner, we caught up with Thijs Schreuders to find out more about Dutch company Secrid... 

 

Tell us the story behind Secrid – how did the brand start?

In the 1990s the founders of Secrid – René and Marianne van Geer – were running a design agency called Spirid. During these years they noticed a shift in the inside of our wallets; cash money started to make way for cards and the first wireless payment systems were introduced. Secrid was founded in 1997, and after multiple moderately successful designs for a cardholder Secrid introduced the Cardprotector in 2009.

The success that followed allowed us to build on and introduce our Miniwallet a year later. Since then Secrid grown from 3 employees to roughly a 100, and from home country The Netherlands to over 70 countries worldwide.  

 

You have an incredible following and are stocked in over 5,000 stores worldwide – do you have any favourite stockists?

All our stockists are dear to us. We understand our brand is built throughout the viarity of stockists we have; from the little gift shop on the corner to the big fashion store on the high street. One of my personal favourites is Aria One Six Eight in North London.

 

How important is it for you to support craftsmanship within the Netherlands?

We take great pride in the craft of our products. Supporting local crafters means a great deal to them and to us. Before Secrid was founded almost all of the leather industry in The Netherlands had moved to the far East. Currently a lot of the work has returned to our country, partly because of Secrid’s choice to produce locally.

 

Tell us more about how you strive to keep your production process clean and eco-friendly

René and Marianne founded Secrid, wishing to inspire people to do good. Our number one pillar is corporate social responsibility. It is literally in the roots of the company. We believe that social well-being only can be achieved when you live in a healthy environment. Therefore we investigated our impact on the environment, so we as designers can make new decisions to lower our impact. Our production is mainly based in The Netherlands, so we can closely work together with our suppliers. We try to minimize the waste in production and we are looking into other materials with a lower impact on the earth.
 
We compensate all our CO2 emissions. So not only the CO2 due to production, but also all the CO2 created by the rest of the company.

By creating new forests in Peru we reduce our carbon emission. But also the roots hold the water so it slowly finds its way to the lower areas which improves the local coffee-bean crops and the local economy grows which improves social well-being. 
 
And maybe most of all, the wallets that we design and make are intended to stay functional and good looking for as long as possible. And if a customer brings a product back with a failure, we always try to repair it to enlengthen the products lifetime. We become very happy from other companies that do so as well.

Why are you exhibiting at Jacket Required this season?

We’ve been going to Jacket Required for multiple years now and have always enjoyed the vibe very much. The brands and audience speak to us and we expect to continue building good relationships at Jacket Required.

What will you be bringing to the SS20 edition?

Secrid is always innovating. We take inspiration from the latest trends and mix it up with our own identity. SS20 will have some nice surprises!

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