How it all got started...
SENZ was started out of pure frustration with traditional umbrellas. You probably know what we mean: Traditional umbrellas tend to break quickly, they go inside-out, poke you in the eye, give you bad vision, etc... They're just very uncomfortable. The movie on the right shows you what started our quest for the ultimate umbrella.
Our first small steps
Gerwin basically started the design process by himself. After experiencing 1 week with 3 broken umbrellas, he decided it was enough! As an Industrial Design student he came up with the weirdest ideas: helicopter constructions above the head, magnetic force fields, it absolutely couldn't be crazy enough! We feel it's absolutely necessary to think outside the box in order to innovate.
After making the first drawings of the SENZ Umbrella, Gerwin approached Gerard and Philip to brainstorm about bringing the ultimate umbrella to the market. After spending so many evenings on making our plan, and eating lots of snacks (hereby our sincere thanks to the local supermarket!), we made the decision to really start SENZ on September 1st, 2005.
Our first office
We rented a tiny 25m2 office space to start our company. We were extremely happy that we got some good looking inventory from the Delft University of Technology for free, which they weren't going to use anyway. Nice catch! All of a sudden our brand new office really started to look like something...
Development
The first year we spent on bringing Gerwin's first ideas of the SENZ Original to a real product. Simultaneously, we were also developing the SENZ Mini umbrella, which was a lot harder than we initially thought! Gerwin spent weeks on his grandmother's old sewing machine making the first product samples (see photo above).
To the bank
For a young company it's always difficult to get credit from the bank. We were lucky to work with Great Enterprises who took care of our initial financial needs. They´re two enthusiastic partners, one is specialized in production in China, and the other in global marketing. They're in it for the fun, which is great, cause so are we!! With them on board, the Dutch Rabobank was happy to help us out, from that moment on we really got started!
Production
After we finished our first samples we needed to take care of the production of our umbrellas. We decided to go to China, because that's where around 95% of the world production of umbrellas takes place. We wanted our umbrellas to be made by experts, which proved to be very useful, as they helped us optimize our inventions. Gerard and Gerwin were the first to go there, which was quite an experience for them. Gerwin lived in China for 4 straight months during this period, but in the end it was definitely worth it!
The first batch
After taking care of production, our first batch finally arrived in October 2006. The coolest thing for us were the carton boxes with our own SENZ company logo on them. YEAH!!
Media frenzy
That exact same day the media heard about us, and they completely flooded us, because no one had ever heard of a stormproof umbrella like this before! When Gerard and Gerwin were busy inspecting the first umbrellas, Philip was answering media calls like a madman! That was the moment when it really took off! Check out some of our media coverage of that week:
At first we started out making 10.000 umbrellas. Obviously we had no clue how many we should produce and how many people would be interested in our umbrellas. However, we were completely sold out in only 9 days! It was great, but horrible at the same time, cause we couldn't handle the enormous demand!
Gerwin at his Chinese hotel room
That same week Gerwin flew to China to order new umbrellas. After receiving our first batch, we immediately developed new great ideas to further improve and innovate our products. When Gerwin arrived in China, he all of a sudden had an amazing idea for an improved construction of the SENZ Original umbrella. He called Gerard & Philip, but they didn't understand him. Gerwin was so frustrated that he could not share his invention with us, so he made a short video at his Chinese hotel room. Check out the second video from the top!
We went nuts when we saw this footage! Gerwin made a brilliant invention, which is still visible today in the construction of the SENZ Original umbrella.
Three months after introduction we were proud to have a new batch of completely new and optimized umbrellas. In the mean time we worked hard to build our company.
There's much more coming your way!
Since our market introduction, Gerwin has been developing more brilliant umbrella innovations, Philip has been expanding the SENZ distribution network, and Gerard has basically been running the company by himself! Fortunately Annet, Marcia, Martin, Niels, Peter, Robert, Thiemen and Yoben have joined us in our quest to build a global brand. It feels very special to have them on board!
Later this year our SENZ umbrellas will be available in stores all over Western Europe and North America... wow! Keep an eye on us over here, cause there's much more coming your way!
