wearetreed: We want a world without unnecessary waste

 


What we want?: Our main goal is to provide you with an alternative to conventional plastic chargers, cables and other accessories for work and leisure in today's technology-filled life.



How do we do it?:  All of our products are designed and manufactured in the Czech Republic according to the principles of the circular economy - with maximum use of renewable, compostable or recycled materials. To achieve our full sustainability potential, we use local resources, put people in the region to work, and are happy to collaborate with other environmentally conscious companies in doing so.


Why?: Because we don't just want to swear over a beer. But to try to do something about keeping our kids from drowning in electrical waste. We're not about politics at all. We're all about logic. And the math is relentless on this one - more disposables = more waste. Nobody wants to drown in garbage, right?



wearetreed story: From the barn in Bludov through Japan and Las Vegas to your home

Chapter I: Let's move on and see

There was a pandemic, we were cooped up at home like everyone else. One autumn day in 2020, Roman called his friend Tomas. On a video call from his Berlin apartment, he showed him his metal project. A simple wooden plate that charges your phone.A relatively ordinary everyday product, however, has sparked a debate among us about why so little is actually made by hand in Europe, how much we depend on goods from Asia, which are cheap, but people literally suffer in their production, and when the supply chain fails, it cripples half the world.

So we thought that in the somewhat depressing and helpless situation around us, we would try to create something that would make us, our parents and our friends happy. And maybe it'll catch on. For fun, we thought we'd take the plunge and start a campaign on Kickstarter - an American site where you can raise money for projects from people. In our country, there's HitHit or Starter.

We gave ourselves some crazy conditions:

• The campaign has to cost less than 100 euros to produce, so a little over 2,500 CZK.
• Everything we do has to be the least annoying.
• We put the product into crowdfunding as we are able to produce it and we don't make up fairy tales that we will never deliver to our customers. (You'd be surprised, but this is a very common mischief on Kickstarter.)

And so we got to it. We called our graphic designer friend Lucia, put her in charge, made a logo, made a website in English, took photos, shot a video, created graphics, and in short, talked anyone we could to help us for something good and a bottle of vodka. We set the launch date for April 26, 2021. The weeks leading up to the launch were like a montage from a movie about successful startups and we were hooked. Endless hours at the computer, phone calls, designing, clicking, redoing, editing, lamenting and stressing. On the other hand, an incredible burst of energy that propelled us forward. It was great to do something purely of our own making, something we could be proud of and most importantly something that made a hell of a lot of sense. Even if it doesn't work out, it's still an experiment for 100 euros.

Well, take a look for yourself below, where you can see the video that we put all this energy into, and that we used to entice people to the campaign - yes, you guessed right almost all the budget went to the great voice of the gentleman from Ireland who narrated the video. Click on the cogwheel and select English for English subtitles.

Let's go! Selected? What next...

On launch day, we watched with baited breath as the campaign went public. We sent it out to everyone we knew, put it on our own social networks and waited to see what would happen. To our amazement, people really liked it and the first positive comments and even contributors started to appear. In 24 hours we raised 50% of our goal. With 29 days left in the campaign, we were really relieved. It looked like it was going to work. Even with no marketing budget, no ads, and in the competition of attractive jingles and blinks that simply attract attention a little more than ''boring'' sustainability. Just with one functional product, enthusiasm and an idea that makes sense to people. A mission we can't run away from. In the process, we also published an article about the campaign on CzechCrunch: https://cc.cz/nabit-telefon-a-pomoci-prirode-cesi-vyrazili-na-kickstarter-s-drevenou-nabijeckou-diky-niz-si-vypestujete-i-bonsaj/

The campaign turned out well, and we managed to exceed our target by almost half. All in all, we sent the first versions of the charger to x countries, including Japan (we'll get to that). So, apart from South America, Africa and Antarctica, in our first imaginings we have conquered almost the whole world. It was definitely a success for us, but also a pretty solid chaotic period in which we hardly stopped. To make matters worse, thanks to the campaign, we started to hear from companies that wanted to work with us. We produced like wild and cut our first conference commission for a big company, Mastercard. The aforementioned Japanese loved our bonsai chargers so much that they launched another round of crowdfunding campaign with us. Everything was drenched in sunshine.

Chapter II: We are world champions, let's do it again!

You know the thing about resting on your laurels. That's kind of what happened to us. The positive feedback and early results made us feel like we were Kickstarter champions. So a year later, we thought we'd make the first charger completely 3D printed on a 3D printer out of recycled material that was also compostable. It'll be colourful, you'll be able to style it however you want and assemble it into variations exactly to your taste. To be precise, in total, it can be put together in 1,296 colour combinations.

We liked the product, it made sense to us, and it was just a sure thing for us. In short, we figured we knew the logistics, we knew the campaign, and it was going to be a cakewalk. This time we put more resources into it, took a number of professional photos, made a proper video and paid an American agency specialising in Kickstarter. It looks cool, it works cool, it's cool. It's got to work, right? In the end it sort of worked, but the results were worse than the first campaign and we were pretty sad about it.


We had our first identity crisis and we had to ask ourselves hard strategic questions:

• Is anyone really going to be ripped off by another wireless charger?
• Can we make this a normal business or are we just riding the metal wave?
• Do we have the right branding in relation to what customers want?

 

CES 2023 in Las Vegas, a new brand and a reboot

But in the sadness, there was one big opportunity. One of our partners selected us to attend the world's largest technology conference in Las Vegas - CES. They gave us the opportunity to have our own exhibit. So we didn't dawdle, bought our tickets and set off on a five-day American adventure to a hall that reported 200,000 visitors!

It has cost us a lot of effort and money, but the comparison on a global level has given us a new perspective.

Here's what we took away from it:

• Our vision is not stupid and we attracted people from huge companies to the conference and had a lot of conversations that pushed our thinking a huge amount.
• We have to produce large numbers of pieces very quickly to be world class and stick to sustainable principles while doing it.
• The US market is not that interested in sustainability yet, we are much further along in this in Europe.
• One product is just not enough.
• We need to focus on our home country and build a good base.

And so we got to work. We completely redesigned the brand, created new products, packaged the website, and after two years of existence, we started preparing to enter the Czech Republic. A bit paradoxical for a Czech brand, but you learn by making mistakes.

Chapter III: Hello Czech, own e-shop and new products

It is March 2024 and we are writing this article right now. We had to leave out a lot of things when summarizing everything that went right and wrong. But we realized how much we enjoy it. So we decided to start a bit from scratch and drop the Czech e-shop you're on right now. Because it just makes sense. So welcome to our most polished version of wearetreed yet. We are constantly learning, developing and pushing ourselves. We're small, so not everything will be perfect, but we promise to give it our best shot.

So far this year we have:

A polished version of the treed charger
Minimalist and sustainable treed laptop stand
Wooden luxury treed laptop diary
The most fragrant car perfume made of mushroom material in collaboration with the Kyiv-based startup Myco

In conclusion, we ask you for the following:

• Email us with ideas for improvement or compliments at podpora@wearetreed.cz
• Follow us on instagram @wearetreed.cz
• If you know of an eco material or something we need to try, let us know right away.
• Also, if you have a crazy idea to improve your surroundings, get on it!

Thanks a lot!

The whole wearetreed team and its supporters.