This month marks 9 years of business for Haand! A lot has changed since we first started, but much has stayed the same, too. Haand started as a partnership between Chris and I- it grew out of a friendship that started 20 years ago when I was in high school and happened to be placed in the homeroom of 2 of his best friends when I got kicked out of my original homeroom for being too “disruptive”. Matt, who quickly became one of my best friends and happened to be in that homeroom, is the person who connected Chris and I. He started working with us in 2015. Running and pivoting a business in a pandemic is hard (it’s hard even without a pandemic), but working with people you have known and trusted since 2001 makes it a little easier to take some leaps of faith…
When Chris and I started talking about starting a company, almost a decade ago now, we had a loose idea about what we wanted to make. For as ambiguous as what our products might be, we had a strong lodestar for how we wanted to make it and where we wanted our products to be: in people’s homes. Both of us were lucky to have fondness for the homes we grew up in, and knew the importance of being surrounded by objects with stories. We wanted to make things that live in your house and make your life richer- objects that have soul and a heartbeat. Objects that touch back when you pick them up- the maker’s hand, care, and presence apparent in every curve and surface.
2020 caused an enormous shift for us at Haand, as I am sure it did any person reading this. I am thankful that when faced with such a canyon, Chris and I looked inward and we could trust that the same intuition and gut feeling that caused us to start this business were still true. We can, and should, make beautiful, meaningful objects that people wanted in their homes. Staying true to that very simple mission is in our DNA, and it is what has kept us coming in every day no matter how hard the circumstances.
Where are we going now, though? Our mission remains the same, and if anything, our path is even clearer. We have freedom now to explore and be even more creative. We can talk directly to our customers, and find out what they are interested in. We have some very very exciting things planned this year that we can only tease now- new tableware designs, expanding some existing lines, and some completely new categories. We are always researching, refining, and learning, and hope to share products that are not even made out of clay but still have the soul and Haand feel to them that guides all of our decisions. Over the next few years we want to be in even more homes and have our products be a part of more people’s lives. It is a simple mission, and continues to be a good reason to dedicate our lives to this crazy project every day.
-Mark Warren, Co- Founder and Creative Director
February 2021
