Striking out for upcycling
- Karen uses leftover production materials from different industries to make bags
- She founded her first upcycling bag brand when she was in her teens
- She built her company with the help of the Bauhaus University start-up hub
In her bag making studio, industrierelikt, Karen Häcker produces functional, high-quality bags made from industry leftover productions. As a child, Karen was taken to construction sites by her mother who was an architect, and there she encountered her first recyclable materials. She started her first bag label as a teenager by repurposing textiles from scrapyard car seats. In no time, Karen was finding customers and even shops in Hamburg and Darmstadt willing to sell her creations. In the years following her high school graduation, she lived in Namibia and worked on upcycling projects before enrolling at Bauhaus University for product design studies. Karen founded her business together with her husband after graduating from university with the support of Bauhaus University and a scholarship from the Jülich Foundation. Karen is committed to ensuring that the quality and production of her bags will maintain the high standards she set for them.
Interview
- What is your Bauhaus University's start-up workshop and the Jülich Foundation?
- My sincere thanks go out to both organisations for their cooperation. They provided me with the financial resources and expertise to start my own business after university. Having so much support from the start also made me feel more confident that I would succeed.
- Is there a particular craft skill you specialise in?
- Currently, I process wood out of veneers to make the handles and shaped wood bottoms of my bags, metal to make the eyelets and fasteners, and textiles to combine all of these components. I make all the prototypes myself.
- What role does your husband play in industrierelikt?
- From the very beginning, my husband supported me as a business partner. He is an environmental scientist and has a comprehensive understanding of all the topics that are important to me in the production and distribution of my bags.
- What do most people not know about your work?
- It took me a long time to find high-quality production leftovers. Many times I was unable to obtain the materials that I needed due to security concerns and even espionage fears.
Karen Häcker is an expert artisan: she began her career in 2005
Works
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Karen Häcker
