Operations from the jungle to the city
Wanderer Bracelets currently has 240 SKUs. The company’s lead carver, Made, is based about an hour away from Ubud, and coordinates 15 artisans who carve pendants, weave bands and hand-stitch bags and create boxes for packaging and stands for displays. It takes about three hours to make each piece, depending on level of detail and complexity, in a process spread out over a 10 day period. These workers are getting a full living wage and the company is in the process of getting fair trade certified. The ultimate goal is an equal, living wage for all fulltime, local employees.
Wanderer Bracelets got its first infusion of cash on Kickstarter and has been growing since. They focus on a predominantly US market, but also ship and sell internationally. Ben estimates that currently 80% of his customer base is in the US. However, with enthusiastic plans to expand into the international market, his goal is to divide the customer base equally between the States and overseas.
Within the US, customers are split evenly between men and women, which is good to see since they have an equal number of designs for both. Above that, demographics of customers range across the board.
Making it as a Digital Nomad
Ben operates Wanderer Bracelets mostly out of Hubud Bali (Hub in Ubud), a digital co-working space. The shared environment brings together entrepreneurs, business owners and other location-independent creatives, looking for a collaborative space. Working at Hubud, Ben is able to stay close to the production, but because of TradeGecko, can come and go as he needs to.
TradeGecko for the win!