Our Values
Community, craftsmanship, family & motherhood, these combined and intertwined are values Kristin (and the Snekkerbuks team) takes to heart for herself, and therefore for her brand.
The meaning of connection with our consumer.
The meaning of connection with our consumers is all about community building. I want to be able to connect to my consumers, I want to know who buys my products and what they do with it and whether they enjoy the product.
I do not wish my consumers to unwrap a package that has no meaning to it and that they as my consumers have no idea where their package came from, who made their purchased product and how it was made. I seek for transparency with my consumers, but also a genuine relationship of friendship between two beings, allowing my consumers to really feel a part of a community.
I believe that when the consumer receives a feeling for what it means to craft and make a product – such as the time, effort, and skills needed – they also develop a different connection to their purchase. I believe that then they’ll cherish their purchases more and in return also take better care of it, and wouldn’t want to throw It away. I like the idea that my products become a part of the consumer, such as their favourite daily go-to bag, or trousers.
Ideally, I would love meeting my consumers in person and hearing their stories and experiences with my products, and why it is they purchased something from me! The feedback and stories along with the personal meeting often give me the necessary meaning and appreciation as a designer and maker: happy to make another happy.
I know why I do things in a certain way and for whom I do it; I do not want to be an autonomous artist who designs and sells for themselves, I am primarily a lot more interested in the wishes of my consumers and making a design for them. Therefore, in the best case scenario, I picture and imagine an old-fashioned atelier, where my consumers come in and order something, custom made or in a particular colour: products that are ‘made to order’.
The meaning of craftsmanship.
The making process goes hand in hand with the sense of community and connection to our consumers. I want to present Snekkerbuks with a different kind of thinking about clothes and accessories: giving more meaning to the making process. I want to give the products that my consumers purchase a meaning.
Therefore, I prefer to have all Snekkerbuks products hand crafted in my sewing studio and atelier located in Amsterdam. I like that my team and I are present throughout the whole manufacturing processes from cutting and sewing to boxing and shipping. While textile productions are mostly relocated to cheap-wage countries, I deliberately choose to sustainably manufacture in Amsterdam in order to monitor and guarantee the high quality of sewing.
The designer, the maker (seamstress), the one who cuts the patterns, the one who does the marketing and branding; all departments within Snekkerbuks for the craftsmanship as a whole are equally involved within the production process and therefore also equally important. This is also because we all value true craftsmanship. Craft is hereby one of the most important values of Snekkerbuks and I wish to reflect this value onto every design and product we make. I want to bring craft back into the foreground, to have my consumers and my Snekkerbuks community truly appreciating the meaning of craft.
After years of designing and sewing in the attic of my own home, I now wish to make this visible in my very own atelier on the ground floor, in order to show my consumers the craftsmanship and hard work that happens behind every making of every Snekkerbuks product.
The meaning of always trying to create innovative solutions.
The meaning of always trying to create innovative solutions not only follows after our value for craftsmanship, but also means to value sustainability throughout.
I wish for Snekkerbuks to be part of creating a more circular economy, not only by producing long-lasting durable products, but also by offering a free repair service, having our very own pre-owned collection to enforce and normalising pre-loved products, and also by always aiming to be timeless. The latter consists of using timeless textile (leather) with timeless designs, as this means it can be loved for much longer, making it more sustainable as a product.
The meaning of family & motherhood.
My family takes part in my company in every possible way: my children have watched this brand grow from the very beginning, as they are also the very reason to why it started! My children have always been around in my atelier, whether playing or curiously watching my work with all kinds of materials. As they grew older my children also helped along with easy tasks as their curiosity grew bigger too. Showing and sharing these types of production processes to my children – whether it be cooking, making furniture, building, designing or experimenting – satisfies this natural curiosity that children have and helps them learn to understand the world a bit better. I believe that if they understand the production processes, they can also learn to value things more.
This is also why I decided to integrate my atelier in my very own home here in Amsterdam. A lot of product designs and ideas I have designed for Snekkerbuks products reflect back to the needs my family had in certain situations: leather dungarees for when my children were young and needed a garment that could withstand any weather condition; and leather punching bags suitable for the living room for my eldest daughter to remain active during the pandemic quarantine lockdown.
I like the idea of integrating my work into the family structures, as I also find this a natural way of being a parent and organising family life. Being away from my children most of the day would feel unnatural to me!
Overall, I try to live through these values and I’d like to show this to my consumers through my lifestyle. I don’t aspire to become a big brand, nor do I need to become rich. I’d much rather continue working small scale and corresponding to my own values and keeping myself, my team, my consumers and my community happy.
The only thing I’d wish for is to continue trying to become even more sustainable and to create more connections with my consumer community.