I’ve recently had the pleasure of chatting it up with Remy Nagelmaeker (awesome surname!), one of the founders and designers of mobile accessories label MUJJO. Affectionately referred to as the “Dutchies,” Remy and his partners have been crafting some of the most beautiful cases and sleeves for iPhones and iPads. Hit the jump for the interview and leave a comment to win an iPad sleeve or a MacBook Pro 15″ retina sleeve! CONGRATS TO MATTHIJS! Thanks everybody.
Designer: MUJJO – Facebook, Twitter
When did Mujjo start, who are the founders?
Mujjo is a Dutch brand for mobile accessories. Founded by the Dutchies; Tom, Robin and me (Remy) in 2010. We started out making stitched winter gloves that work on touchscreens. Our gloves turned out to be a success and have been featured internationally in major publications. In the spring of 2012 we began making sleeves for Apple devices, featuring a unique combination of wool felt and high quality leather.
We’re not chasing trends, but instead, every Mujjo design is a reflection of our personal taste. Our designs may not be for everyone, but that is just the way we want it to be. We believe the mobile accessory market lacks on sustainable and characteristic fashion labels, unlike the traditional fashion industry. We believe there is a great space in this industry for Mujjo to create new, outstanding but above all contemporary designed accessories.
Why did you decide to make sleeves for Apple devices?
We’re iPhone/Mac users ourselves, this was the easy choice. However, our focus is not limited to Apple product only, e.g. we’ve developed sleeves for the Samsung Galaxy S3, which I think is a great device.
Why is the line of sleeves called “the Originals Collection?” What’s the story behind that?
This is our first collection of sleeves, also the clean, minimal and elegant design of the collection makes this it time-less in a certain way, that’s why, the Originals (also because we like the sound of it). We don’t think too much about names, we came across Mujjo.com by coincidence on a domain name auction. Short .com’s are hard to find, this one came by for just $18, that’s how Mujjo became the brandname.
What’s the reception for the new collection been like?
We got awesome feedback. It all started with a post by Mattew for The Next Web “As much of a case fanatic as I am, it takes a lot to catch my eye these days. That wasn’t a problem for Mujjo’s new lineup of ‘Originals’ cases for Apple devices like iPhones, MacBooks and iPads. These things look gorgeous.”. After that, lots of positive feedback followed. We appreciate all the love we get for the new collection. I personally really like the appreciation we get for our products on thefancy.com, an awesome website to browse, recommend and find great stuff. I’m a frequent user of the Fancy, and from time to time I run into one of your own products, this feels great!
Is all design done in-house?
It is, but we have teamed up with fashion designers for their expertise. The process of creating the collection is all about trying, making sample after sample. Trying different materials, different techniques until finally the product is up to our standards. We’re always trying to create a product that makes we love use ourselves. Basically, we design according to our personal taste but we don’t neglect the opinion of others, we’re not afraid to show our product to others while still developing, their feedback is worth a lot!
Where is it manufactured?
Our production facility is based in the area of Shanghai. We use material from all over the world e.g. leather from Italy. We worked with fashion designers for their expertise while developing the collection, one of them recommend the current production facility.
There’s one item for a Samsung smartphone. Are there other plans to make sleeves for other non-Apple products?
At this moment, no plans, but requests are always welcome. For example: We weren’t planning to design a sleeve for the 15.4″ Pro Retina in the first place. But after we received lot’s of requests from people who claimed they couldn’t find any decent sleeve out there for the 15.4″ Retina we decided to go for it, we decided to run a limited production to help these people out. This makes this Mujjo sleeve pretty unique.
Can you give us any hints on what other products Mujjo might be working on? Bags perhaps?
We’re going to launch a new touchscreen gloves collection that builds on the success of the touchscreen gloves that we launched previous winter. We also working on a new collection of sleeves, this is still in an early stage though. Last but not least, we’ve got something really cool coming up this fall, think touchscreen gloves and leather… Expect to see a lot more coming from Mujjo, we’re working hard on improving every aspect of the brand.
