Eyewear made from recovered fishing nets, and a certified B Corp
When KARÜN began expanding in the United States, they needed more than a shop that could produce signs and displays. They needed a partner that understood the brand and could build physical solutions for very different retail environments, then help them scale.
For nearly two years that is what the relationship was: event graphics, custom product displays, a national retail rollout and an international point-of-sale system, all worked out together.
Start with the challenge. Develop the solution together. Then make it scalable.
The challenge
KARÜN makes optical frames and sunglasses from recycled and responsibly sourced materials, including discarded fishing nets collected in Patagonia. Every new market brought a different brief: sometimes six pairs on a counter, sometimes hundreds of locations and a display that had never existed before.
Nothing came out of a catalogue. Each situation got its own solution, developed together.
Scaling a concept to 1,400 Walmart stores
The largest project came when KARÜN entered approximately 1,400 Walmart locations. The display had to tell the origin story of the product and hold up inside a major retail environment, so the acrylic piece was built with real fishing-net material inside the structure.
Before producing 1,400 units, the concept was tested: prototypes, refined materials and construction, and visits to Walmart stores to see how it would actually sit on the floor. Only then did it go into production, get prepared for deployment and ship to every location.
Concept. Prototype. Test. Produce. Distribute.
Designing displays around the product
Six products, twelve, a whole collection, an optical store, a major event: each brief became a countertop display, a floor display or a merchandising system in cardboard, wood or acrylic. Because KARÜN is a certified B Corp, many of them used structural cardboard rather than plastics, balancing looks, strength, transport and presentation each time.
When the display becomes part of the supply chain
For warehouse-style retailers in Central America, KARÜN needed a display that showed twelve pairs and carried stock for hundreds more. The answer was a branded half-pallet: sample eyewear on retractable cables above, approximately 300 boxed units stored below.
It left production fully assembled, travelled by ship as one protected unit and went straight onto the sales floor. Once the packaging came off, the shipping unit was the retail display.
- No secondary installation process
- No separate fixture
- No rebuilding the display at the destination
Display + Branding + Inventory + Logistics.
The same way of working, every time
Retail, events, product launches, custom merchandising: the products changed and the process stayed the same. KARÜN brought the challenge, both teams worked out the objective together, the solution was developed and tested, then produced and deployed.
An idea that had to exist in 1,400 places, and did.