Instead of joining the Black Friday hysteria and going crazy while hunting some shopping deals, you should just treat yourself to a relaxing run through the city and its green surroundings. Regular running prevents many diseases. People who run regularly not only improve their fitness and endurance, but also train the cardiovascular system. Running is suitable for almost everyone. However, you should make sure that you are healthy all around. When you're up for it and ready to power out, all you need is warm running clothes and the right running shoes and you're ready to go.
We have picked our four favorite running routes around our home Berlin which should motivate you to explore your city’s green areas:
The founder duo Kai and Flo do not have the standard fashion career and both come from different working fields. However, with their unique approach to things and the “outsiders-angle” they can look at fashion, UMTC Studios garments have conquered the hearts of streetwear enthusiasts from Germany to Japan. We at the ARYS Store are impressed by Kai’s and Flo’s passion for what they do, their never-ending will to swim against the tide of the outdated fashion circus.
We sat down with them to discuss the story of UMTC and their new collection, which is now also available at the ARYS Store.
Your background is not the classic story of a fashion designer who goes to Berlin and starts his own label. You can rather be called a lateral entrant and your place of work is Ludwigsburg. What were your beginnings like and how did you manage to make a name for yourselves in the streetwear scene from Germany to Japan?
We are career changers and we don't try to hide that at all. Rather, we are of the opinion that we have more freedom in the head to approach things often unconventionally. This allows us to have our very own view of things. Sometimes an advantage. Sometimes not. Many things we definitely had to learn the hard way and that cost us a lot of time, especially in the first years. Through coincidences at Paris Fashion Week 2016, we got connected with a store called CANNABIS in Tokyo. A love that never ended and is ongoing until today. We have been doing various pop-ups and implementing stuff with the crew and haze of the store there for 3 years. We are already very motivated, as soon as entering Japan is possible again, to pick up where we left off at the end of 2019 with our now good friends!
"Silent but radical design" is one of the ways you guys interpret your work. What makes UMTC's clothing stand out? What is your signature design?
Yes! It’s our guideline nowadays. And especially with the current stuff, we believe quite noticeable. Kind of basic. But somehow not. The things are clean and wearable, but still meaningful and strong enough to have a central place in any styling.
We are paying more and more attention to what we buy. For example, fair working conditions in production are now a decisive criterion for a purchase decision. With your "Made in Germany" shirts, you are making an extremely strong statement. Can you give us a little insight into your value chain?
Made in Germany has always been important to us and is a matter close to our hearts. We try to do everything as local as possible. Design, cutting, and production take place 100% on our premises, which allows us to flexibly adapt and change things at any time. Real studio work. Above all, it decelerates us extremely. Especially in this stormy and fast digital age, this is good for us. We try to pass this on to our customers as best we can, for example with our life-long repair service. Every customer of a Made in Germany shirt has the possibility to send in his shirt at any time at our expense and we will take care of the repair.
What we love about UMTC is your independent and casual translation of classic fashion and workwear. The designs are on point and not over the top, making your styles suitable for many people out there. Anyone who wants to stroll the streets in style without looking " overdressed" just has to have a piece from you in their closet. Which of your items have you particularly taken to heart?
Wow!!! Thanks for the compliment. Flo and I are especially proud of the leather jacket. For us, a piece that can not be so easily designed for everyone wearable. But somehow that has succeeded in our opinion quite well. Really many people say first: I do not really wear leather jackets. After trying it on, we get most of them to change their mind about leather jackets. And that was exactly our goal. Flo and I didn't have a leather jacket in our closet before.
What are the further plans for UMTC? What can we expect in the next months?
Quality instead of quantity. That's 100% for sure. Less is more, as is often the case. But we can already announce the next release: our first own jeans. Made in Portugal and an absolute everyday companion. 3 colors. More we don’t want to reveal yet.
Thank you so much for the interview.
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Drawing inspiration from the toughest conditions in Canada and born out of a desire to develop a shoe that is lighter, stronger, and faster than everything else on the market, the team behind norda™ set out to make a trail running shoe using the most innovative materials from around the world.
]]>We are very happy that norda has joined the ARYS family! You guys really made a statement with the shoes. We are big fans of the comfort, the unique design and especially the effortless composition of different technologies.
Brooks, ASICS, HOKA, New Balance, Nike: the list of renowned running shoe brands seems to be endless. What does norda™ offer to the competition of making the best running shoe on the market?
Nick Martire: We were not satisfied with the products available today for trail running and we knew that if we used the best components available, we could build a product that we would want and be proud of. Commiting to the highest performance and doing it with the lightest footprint on the environment is our mission. Through the first ever use in a trail running shoe of bio-based Dyneema, the world's strongest and lightest fibre, we are breaking the historical boundaries of high performance and sustainability.
What makes a great brand are the people behind it. You are pushing the boundaries in the market with norda™ and we are interested in how you came up with this idea. You lived in Europe for a long time and are now back in Canada. What inspirations and personal experiences from your past flow into the final product?
From a performance perspective but also from the sustainability perspective, a lot of the shoes that we were running in, [we felt] the whole trail or "offroad" aspect was always an afterthought for most brands. A lot of brands would just throw a shoe in the line at the end, throw some grip on it, make it dark grey and call it a trail shoe.
Willa Martire: Also, a lot of the trail shoes you see, they perform certain purposes but they’re not very pleasing to the eye, so we wanted to find a way to make a performance shoe that was also aesthetically pleasing.
The ARYS Store is anything but a typical running shop and people in our community have different lifestyles and passions. The technology inside the shoe is sure to thrill any running shoe expert, but why is norda™ also a brand for people who are not specifically into trail running?
Hello Siri, can you please tell us more about your work and life?
I recently moved back to Stockholm. Currently my life revolves around renovation projects. I am renovating a flat, an old wooden boat I inherited from my father and my new studio. So I don't get to ceramics as much as I would like at the moment. Moving a ceramics studio involves a lot of work and effort, and it's impossible to work without a proper studio.
Last summer I set up my grandmother's old loom in my summer cottage. In the fall I will bring out a capsule of wall hangings.
photography by Fanny Lundgren @fslundgren
When and why did you get into the art of pottery?
I am an industrial designer and have mainly worked with furniture design. A few years ago I started to question a lot of things in my life. After the closure of my design studio, I became very depressed and lost all motivation to work with design. As an attempt to find the joy of designing again, I started a ceramics course and was immediately hooked. It's kind of a new relationship, but I hope and believe that we will stay together forever, me and clay. Working with clay is fantastic and serves as a kind of therapy for me. It allows me to switch off my brain and let my hands do the work.
photography by Fanny Lundgren @fslundgren
Did something specific inspire your art/pottery style?
I grew tired of designing “perfect” and polished objects. That became the aesthetic starting point. The expression is also highly influenced by the production process.
photography by Fanny Lundgren @fslundgren
How is it working by yourself? Can you imagine having a team behind you?
Honestly, I LOVE working alone. Ceramics is a kind of therapy for me and I love being able to go completely inside myself when I work. I also love the freedom of not having to adapt to other people. I can choose when I want to work and when I don't.
But right now it's hard to find time to say yes to projects, so I've hired an assistant to work with me in the studio a few days a week. It's the perfect combination - Amanda brings a lot of new energy to my work, but I still have time to work myself.
photography by Fanny Lundgren @fslundgren
Can you tell us more about how to be sustainable as a brand?
Sustainability is an expression I have complicated feelings about. In a way the whole concept of DUM KERAMIK builds on a sort of sustainable thinking - both from an ethical and economical perspective but it's not something I use as a reason to purchase my work. I think the term sustainability (especially environmentally) is a capitalistic trap. It's not sustainable to produce more stuff- regardless of if it's produced at a large scale in a factory on the other side of the globe or in small scale in my own studio. The problem is not what we are consuming but how we consume - and maybe even THAT we consume. I think this is a highly political question that needs to be adressed on a higher level and not put on the shoulders of the individuals.
What I find most interesting to discuss in terms of a sustainable brand when working as a craftsman is the economical sustainability. It's hard to find customers if the prizes are too high but at the same time I never sell anything that I can't make a good profit on. This is my job and I think it's important to take responsibility to charge for your work. Both for my own sake but also for the sake of other makers. It's hard to get consumers to understand the amount of work and time put on each object.
When I design my work, I always calculate the costs carefully, and if it becomes too expensive or I feel that the final price is too high due to cumbersome production methods, I start from scratch and rethink everything.
photography by Fanny Lundgren @fslundgren
You used to be based in Malmö, a small seaside city. Did the city play a part in your creative work and expressing your creativity? How is the creative scene in Malmö like?
Malmö is a great city to be in as a creative person! And I would not have had the chance to really focus on developing my ceramics if it wasn’t for the reasonable costs to live and sustain there. Both housing, studio spaces and living is relatively affordable which makes it a city where people can take a chance to really focus on what they dream of doing. The creative community in Malmö is also fantastic. People are super nice and helpful - something that I think is quite unique in the creative world. Stockholm for an example is a much more competitive place to work as a creative.
What advice would you give young creatives on their way of pursuing their art?
My number one advice would be to really giving it a chance. If you don’t try it fully you will never know if it will fly. Save up money and cut off all your unnecessary expenses. Then stop everything else that you are doing and focus fully on your creative practice. Decide for a time frame - like a year or so - and after that evaluate if you think you can really make it sustainable - both from an economical perspective and an emotional. It can be really hard and frustrating to do what you love - especially if people question it. Believe in yourself but don’t be too hard on yourself either if you find that in the end it's not what you want to do with your life.
photography by Fanny Lundgren @fslundgren
Do you have exciting projects in the future that you would like to share with us?
My main focus is to set up the studio and start producing again. But in a next step, I aspire to make larger and more space-specific objects. A dream would be to work on a public art project.
Thank you very much for your time.
Click here to find our selection of Dum Keramik homeware and decorations.
]]>Founded by Carolin Kunert, who came up with the idea of a sustainable and portable stainless steel grill after struggling with the problems of a disposable one.
After a few years of development, she came up with the ultimate grill that will make any BBQ nerd's head spin.
What makes this brand so special is the transparent communication from the manufacturing process to the distribution of the product to the customer. Every part of the grill is made locally in Germany or sourced in Europe - saving a ton of CO2.
From distribution to production, everything is 98% plastic-free. The grill is made to last a lifetime. Every part is recyclable and everything is replaceable if something breaks or gets lost. Flimsy, disposable grills are a thing of the past.
Check out the selection of Knister grills in our web store. The Premium version is currently sold out, but we still have the compact "Small" version and of course the "Original" in black fireproof coating.
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The ARYS Store is dedicated to these people who, with their progressive instincts, highest standards and boundless creativity, are making this often crippled planet a better place.
Our store is a place without hype and snooty attitude. We bring together what belongs together. We showcase brands that add value. We equip a life that has the highest standards of design and usability.