How Secrid became a Hague success story

The is lunchtime when our conversation with Marianne van Sasse van Ysselt begins. The product designer and co-founder of Secrid leads us to the company restaurant in the equally beautiful and homely headquarters in the Binckhorst. "This is where our 100 employees can eat every day. And it is entirely vegetarian," she explains.

Marianne van Sasse van Ysselt at Secrid's beautiful headquarters in the Binckhorst.

After scooping up something tasty from the extensive buffet, we take a seat on a picnic bench by the water, in the sun. This is where everyone wants to work, right? "In everything we do, we look at the role of people and how we can facilitate them in the best possible way," Van Sasse van Ysselt explains. "If you try to do it a little better each day than the last, the result really does get better."

Secrid

It is one of the secrets of Secrid, made big with the Cardprotector and accompanying wallet for cards, two million of which are now sold annually in eight thousand locations in eighty countries. But as it goes with success stories, trial and error preceded it.

Van Sasse van Ysselt: "My husband René van Geer and I ran an agency in product design for 20 years, with clients such as Maxi-Cosi, Sitecom and Quooker. At the same time, we had the dream of one day setting up our own brand. In the mid-1990s, we were working on a phone device for KPN and the Postbank wanted a balance checker for the debit card; debit cards were advancing, but wallet designers were doing nothing. That's how the idea for a cardholder came to René."

Huge mountain of waste

The Bodycard, the oldest precursor to today's Cardprotector, was born. "People were quite sceptical about it - they had cash, didn't they?!" the product designer recalls. "So we made a revision in 2003, with a drawer for coins. A total flop." Nevertheless, when one client after another fell away during the credit crunch - 'innovation dies first' - the duo decided to take the plunge and dive fully into cardholders. "We had a few simple principles: it has to be new, have a high game content and be of such high quality that repair or recycling is easy, because we don't want to contribute to the huge mountain of waste," she lists. "Well, that worked out."

Anyone who has a copy knows how indestructible it is. However, Van Sasse van Ysselt is not afraid of saturation. "The market is so big that we can never serve it on our own anyway. And if you already have one yourself, you probably also give one as a gift from time to time." She also sees no threat in the many, often bad, copies, at least for herself. "I would much rather our thinking be copied than a trinket harming the environment. If the counterfeit is intercepted, we will take care of the disposal ourselves. We want to show that you can simply make money with respect for people and the earth. Our motto is therefore: 'inspire the industrial evolution'."

Pocketwear

Seen this way, Secrid is more of a mindset than a maker of physical products. "You can apply that thinking in many ways, the Cardprotector is just the carrier of our philosophy," Van Sasse van Ysselt says. "And the beauty of it is: the wallet is in turn a carrier of your identity. If you know what we stand for, you think more often at checkout. You ask yourself questions like: do I really need this? How was this made? Can I make a more conscious choice? With that, you can inspire others in turn. This is what makes the world of pocketwear, as we describe the products we focus on, so interesting. You're always wearing it close by and you're constantly interacting with it."

Red Dot Design Award

Thanks to this approach, Secrid has been showered with awards over the years, from The Hague Pearl for distinctive entrepreneurship to the prestigious, international Red Dot Design Award for its design. But for the founders, this recognition is not enough. After intense preparation, the company was recently allowed to call itself Benefit Corporation, or 'B Corp' for short. "In an age of greenwashing, it is difficult to determine when you are doing it right," explains Van Sasse van Ysselt. "That's why I was happy when we happened to come across a shop full of products with the B Corp label in America. I immediately found it interesting, but we didn't get around to it at the time, because during the rapid growth our company had experienced, things kept lying around."

'In everything we do, we look at the role of people and how we can facilitate them in the best possible way'

From the harmfulness of the cleaning stuff to the gender-friendliness of the toilets and the level of energy consumption, everything was scrutinised again via extensive checklists. "The certification is very strict, but the process helped us enormously to look even more closely at people and production. More importantly, the protocols and innovation programmes ensure that everyone in our company has tools to reach the same level and be ambassadors of our message. Even our suppliers, such as the sheltered workshops we work with, have reviewed their practices. That's how you make an impact together."

Good phone case

Meanwhile, the seasoned designers are not sitting still when it comes to inventing new products. "I feel like we have only just started!", says Van Sasse van Ysselt enthusiastically. "We are developing a new concept for the keychain, and many people remarkably ask for a pillbox. We are also thinking about a good phone case, although this is difficult with the dependence on different sizes. We even go a step further and focus on the question: what will you soon have in your pocket if you only have your smartphone with you? As long as we are in your personal domain, we will help you make the world a little better every day." Suddenly she asks, "How do you like the veg croquette?" Yes, it is delicious. Then with a wink: "See, that's industrial evolution."

www.secrid.com