We like to call FAIRLING an online dating site for brands: the goal is to get a perfect and long-lasting match between brands and stores.  And we can tell you this much: there is already quite an amount of great FAIRLING-Love Stories to tell. One of them is the story of BRACENET.

BRACENET works with us on FAIRLING since April, 2022. Their concept, to save the oceans and create unique jewelry upcycled from old fishing ghost-nets from the oceans, is growing every year. So far, they have already received seven requests from interested retailers. The love story between BRACENET and unique retailers was a full success. Through FAIRLING, BRACENET has been able to find long-lasting partnerships.

The German brand BRACENET was founded by Benjamin and Madeleine with the intention of achieving something good for oneself and our planet, and especially our oceans, through their work.

We want the oceans to be what they once were – free of plastic! That’s why we salvage the ghost nets and upcycle them into new products with which you can make your own contribution to protecting our oceans. We rely on local, fair handwork in our own workshop in Hamburg. We regularly donate to Healthy Seas to fund salvage missions and preventative measures and support many other projects to protect the oceans and marine life.


How did it all start? What is the idea behind BRACENET?

The idea of BRACENET is quite simple: we salvage ghost nets from the oceans and upcycle them into new products like bracelets (our “bracenets”), key chains and anklets. In this way, net by net, we protect the oceans and marine life from one of their greatest threats.

But what are ghost nets actually? They are former fishing nets that drift through the oceans in incredible quantities without purpose. Every year, up to 1 million more tons of these nets end up in the world’s oceans, killing countless marine animals until they decompose into dangerous microplastics after 400-600 years. We think: Time to stop that!

Although ghost nets have long been a huge problem, we ourselves only first heard about them in 2015. At that time, Madeleine and Benjamin, our founding team, traveled with their backpacks on their annual vacation to Tanzania and Zanzibar. While diving, they soon discovered pieces of old fishing nets everywhere and thus got to know the problem with ghost nets for the first time. The two could not stand by idly and began to collect the nets. Out of curiousity, they finally put a piece of it around their wrist – and saw a bracelet in front of them. Thus the idea of BRACENET was born!

Today, BRACENET brings together a vast network of marine conservationists. Together with Healthy Seas, Ghost Diving and their more than 250 volunteer divers, we salvage the ghost nets or catch discarded nets directly from fisheries, then give them a new life in our factory in Hamburg with our team of 35 employees. With our proceeds, we regularly donate to marine conservation and many other important projects – over €200,000 to date. With BRACENET, everyone can make their own contribution to the protection of the oceans: SAVE THE SEAS, WEAR A NET!

WHO ARE THE PEOPLE BEHIND BRACENET? TELL US SOMETHING ABOUT YOURSELF.

We already told you about Benjamin and Madeleine – they had the idea for BRACENET in 2015, and in 2018 they founded our small company. Since then, we have grown into a great, strong team and are committed to clean oceans every day. In our beautiful office in the back building at Hamburg’s Jungfernstieg, we work closely together and help each other where we can. Because we do almost everything ourselves, in real manual labor – from manufacturing to shipping our products! If you want to see the faces behind BRACENET, take a look here.

What was your favorite highlight or happy moment in the last months?

A special highlight recently was certainly the 2022 UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon, which we were one of only two German companies to attend! It was a great opportunity to make even more contacts for ocean protection and it was incredibly inspiring to see how much we can achieve together with all these great organizations. We even got to submit a statement with our participation, which you can read here. Together with our partner organizations, we are working towards declaring an official “World Ghost Gear Day” with the UN to further promote international cooperation in the fight against ghost nets.

In marketing and sales, you rely on strong, long-term relationships with your retailers AND CUSTOMERS. Why do they choose you?

We find cooperation with others incredibly important – because together we can achieve so much more. That’s why we rely so much on cooperation. This starts with Healthy Seas and Ghost Diving for the recovery of ghost nets, continues with fisheries that send us their discarded nets, and extends to companies with whom we jointly develop new products. Retailers also play a central and important role in communicating the message behind our products to local customers.

In all of these relationships, one thing is especially important: That we fit together and that we are both serious about our mission. The retailers who carry our products, value the history of our products and the authenticity of our team. We founded BRACENET to fight a problem – and that always remains at the core of our mission. That’s exactly how we value the retailers who are happy to spread our message and provide a space for many other great sustainable products.

You have received 7 requests so far ON FAIRLING. Can you TELL us a little MORE ABOUT THeSe LOVE STORies WITH YOUR NEW RETAIL PARTNERs?

We are very happy about the 7 requests we have received so far! The interaction with each other is always so appreciative and friendly on FAIRLING that it motivates us totally to invest even more power & time in our mission. Two of the retailers have already placed an order with us – we are very much looking forward to freeing the oceans from the ghost nets together!

This is the love story we are looking for at FAIRLING. Bringing unique brands and wonderful retailers together so they can form a long-lasting partnership that they found through FAIRLING.

Where should the journey go? What is the vision of BRACENET?

Our success and the development of the last years show how much we can achieve through cooperation – whether with retailers, NGOs, fisheries and other companies or politics. In the next five years, we will do everything in our power to jointly implement preventive measures globally, process more than 50 tons of net and generate over €1,000,000 in donations. And, of course, we continue to work towards “World Ghost Gear Day” to ban ghost nets from our oceans once and for all!

Is there anything you would definitely advise other young, emerging brands to do?

There are of course many different tips we could give, but in the end every project is different. We hope these two pieces of advice will help anyway!

  1. Be open and consistent! Put the good purpose of your project clearly in the foreground, how you approach the respective problem, so that your customers recognize that you are serious about it.
  2. Question everything! For example: Can a supplier really not deliver without plastic packaging? Can the packaging be made as sustainable as the product?

Thank you, Vera, for the lovely interview! We wish you all the best for you, your team and BRACENET! Hopefully, there will be many more Love Stories for you to experience!


Company: BRACENET
Founder: Benjamin & Madeleine
Country: Germany
Active FAIRLING member since: April, 2022 to this day
First request: June 24th, 2022
Locations of interested stores through FAIRLING
so far:
7 cities, 3 countries
Performance so far: 135 interested shops,
7 requests so far
 

Do you want to be part of FAIRLING, too?

Great, there’s a whole world of local stores waiting for your products! Just book a free demo call with one of our brand scouts – they will be very happy to talk about your possibilities on FAIRLING and answer all your questions.

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