Stopped by the Makr Carry Goods studio over in Winter Park last week.
Matt and I had like half a day free when we were in Orlando so we decided to go check this place out. Makr is basically a high end, hand crafted specialty product design company started by this guy Jason Gregory a few years back.
To be honest with you, I really hardly knew anything about Makr before we went down there. I'd seen a few of their products online and in magazines before but I'd never spent much time on their site or purchased anything. But, I went on The New York Times Travel section to find some cool stuff in the Orlando area and Makr's studio popped up there.
I had no plans or contacts at Makr, just thought we'd pop into their showroom / workshop and look around a bit.
So we walked in and met Shane, who basically runs the place, and he gave us a tour of the studio and sort of just explained how it all goes down. Almost everything is made onsite, by hand, and they're really stringent about quality and overseeing their supply chain. Anyway, Shane was cool - he introduced us to the rest of the guys working there and we actually ended up all grabbing lunch together.
Shane's just out of business school and handles that side of things for Makr. It was really interesting to sit down with him and talk about the phenomenon which is Makr in terms of the the numbers and how the financials effect the business decisions.
Makr is an incredible story and it's completely emblematic of the time we're living in right now. This guy Jason quit his job, bought a used laser cutting machine and started designing handmade leather wallets in his apartment. A few years later, they've blown up largely thanks to the power of the internet. And now they're making dozens of products, have expanded into furniture, and despite being carried at a select group of boutiques all over the world, they're still moving a ton of product direct to consumers from their website. This guy took a laser cutting machine and pieces of leather and created a million dollar global brand that sets all it's own terms, has a cult online following and does not advertise at all.
Anyway, really cool company with an amazing story - very inspiring and insightful visit. Glad we decided to take the time and go pop our heads in over there. The alternative was killing time at Epcot center but that'll have to wait until our next trip.
