Welcome to our Leather Recycling Center!
This week we opened Zerolab, the first leather recycling center and design incubator in Italy! This space has been a dream of mine since moving to Italy and the fact that it is now a reality is equal parts terrifying and exciting!
Our vision at Zerolab is a big part of growing Sieme, so I wanted to take this moment and give you a virtual tour. I hope that the next time you are in Florence, you will come and check us out in person! This is a creative space for ALL, so that all of us have the opportunity to express ourselves and find creative solutions to reducing material waste.
We work with local factories and brands in the area to take in their excess leather. Normally factories need to pay for special disposal which can equal more than 2,000 euros per month of extra cost for most factories, not to mention all that beautiful material going to waste! (literally)
We sell the leather to local artisans, brands, emerging designers and students! Even the smallest pieces that we can’t sell we give away for free! It is all better than going to landfills.
We also have a gorgeous design studio and machine laboratory. When I wanted to start Sieme, I was told the best option for designers like me was to rent an office or warehouse, purchase about 10-15K worth of machines and get to it. This baffled me, not to mention that working in isolation doesn’t exactly spark creativity. That is why we decided to build a space that creative people of all levels could come and enjoy. Whether you are building a brand, an individual artisan or just starting on your creative journey and looking for a place to explore and make things, Zerolab is for you!
With that in mind, it was important for us to have ALL of the amenities a brand or artisan may need; storage space, a photo studio, ecommerce fulfillment, connections with local factories, access to materials and a network of partners such as photographers, and stylists.
Through Zerolab we hope to reduce the more than 400,000 lbs of leather excess that are destroyed each year in Tuscany, while growing Sieme and supporting our local community of creatives. As I sit here in our newly opened office, the “newness” is deafening. I must admit I am terrified. How am I going to grow THIS and Sieme at the same time? How will we attract enough clients to cover our expenses, to grow and truly make a difference? But there is a small voice deep in my gut, beyond the fear and the self doubt (which can be deafening at times). That voice has always told me that Zerolab and Sieme go hand-in-hand.
I get a lot of comments about how amazing my life looks in Italy. And I will admit, it IS incredible a lot of the time. But with those extreme highs, come some really scary moments as well. Building a life far from the one you’ve grown up in requires an incredible amount of faith in yourself, faith in the universe, and a willingness to jump into a very dark abyss. Not to mention trying to build a brand from scratch. You need a little naivety and insanity mixed with a lot of passion. Sometimes, the unknowns can seem like a black hole capable of swallowing your entire being. And then every once in a while those unknowns open up to brilliant rays of opportunity you could only imagine in your wildest dreams. That for me, is Zerolab… a dream come true.
With Love from Florence,
Cassandra
