Hip, hip, hooray! De Makers van GUP is born! 🎉

Hip, hip, hooray! De Makers van GUP is born! And we are sooo proud of this new baby.

We are proud because this is not just another company. No, De Makers van GUP is meant to be a life-changing endeavor. It is a company we have designed to help us live the best life we can imagine. That would be a life where we actively contribute to making the world a better place for everyone— with a positive footprint on people, planet, and profit — while staying completely in flow with ourselves.

A BUSINESS MODEL BASED ON UBUNTU 

Surprisingly, it didn’t take long to figure out how to materialize our dreams. Being in flow definitely meant we had to do something creative and out of the box. It also meant we had to focus on people and how we could help them to create a better life for themselves. The idea to adopt the Ubuntu philosophy as our core principle was born and we decided to make creative designs centered around people and humanity. Each design tells a unique story, reflecting on your quality of life and / or how you engage with others. They inspire you and your surroundings to shape the most beautiful life you can think of.

It took us a moment to realise that if we were to sell such designs, we would actually be selling "little pieces of Ubuntu" to all of you. It connected all the dots we were looking for; "selling Ubuntu" would become our business model.

PERSONALIZED CLOTHING MADE EASY

For a moment our imagination ran wild, envisioning our designs on clothing, on wallpapers, on pillows, on accessories, on whatever. But as you cannot do it all at once, we decided to start with clothing.

Clothing is a unique form of self-expression, and more and more people want to personalize their wardrobe. Some companies offer complete freedom to do so, but designing from scratch can be challenging. Others provide fixed designs but limit product types and colors, leaving little room for personalization.

We think that the 'sweet spot' is right in the middle. Consequently, our offer is different:

• we offer a fixed (and growing) number of designs,

• which you can print on "whatever you like" (i.e. all products in our webshop) and

• which you can personalize very easily via our webshop configurator (i.e. product color, design, and design position).

As our configurator is very easy to use, we hope it will inspire you to try out new combinations that you had not thought of before; creativity made easy!

With this, we offer all the benefits of our competitors but without the disadvantages.

OUR PLANET AND DYNOSAURUS

Still, we faced one more crucial issue: our planet. The clothing industry is a major polluter, so how could our small company make a difference?

To tackle this, we delved into the supply and value chains of the traditional clothing industry. We found that most current chains originated in times when sustainability wasn't a priority. Consider the following example.

In the traditional clothing industry, products are first manufactured and sold afterwards. The supply chain is therefore centered around stocks and warehouses. However, not all products are sold. On average the overproduction amounts to 10-30% every year.

But time and technology have progressed and nowadays it can be done differently.

When manufacturing on-demand, products are first sold and manufactured afterwards. The supply chain is centered around fast manufacturing and logistics. All end products that are being made have been sold already. So, apart from human errors, the overproduction amounts 0%.

Although on-demand manufacturing represents a huge opportunity, the adoption of on-demand technology in the clothing industry is less than a few %. So what should you conclude from this?

In essence, the traditional clothing industry resembles a dinosaur and is resistant to change. They have heavily invested in traditional manufacturing and supply chains. Add to that the need for a different mindset for on-demand manufacturing and any meaningful transformation is unlikely to happen. And without they are stuck optimizing an inherently unsustainable model that needs waste to work properly.

Geeee, suddenly we were relieved that our business hadn't earned a single euro yet. This lack of legacy granted us complete freedom to craft our own value chain, integrating the latest technological advancements. We decided to limit ourselves to manufacturing personalized products on-demand only:

• personalised to give our customers the highest added value possible and

• on-demand to eliminate all end-product waste, outperforming all old-school companies that first manufacture and sell afterwards.

GUP PROJECTS AND INSPIRATION

Finally, we decided to incorporate another facet into our company: allocating a fixed percentage of our revenue to social projects, known as GUP Projects. These initiatives aim to assist individuals facing difficulties to participate in society and could need some help.

For us, these projects are a great source of inspiration; they provide us with beautiful firsthand stories that we feel we should shared with you. Consequently, we use these narratives as the foundation for our designs, imbuing them with a personal touch.

At De Makers van GUP, our reliance on GUP Projects for the development of new designs is significant. It is not merely an adjunct to our company; rather, it is integral to our future. Our dedication to these social projects is therefore high.

GO GUPPY GO

Now that we are ready to go live, a new chapter starts for us. We hope you will feel connected to our business model of selling Ubuntu, that you will love our personalised product offer and that you will appreciate our approach of sustainability. But it up to you to value this.

And so let's introduce our new and still little Guppy to all of you. She is ready to face the world and we hope she will make lots and lots of friends. So Go Guppy Go!