Photos courtesy of The Sacred Crafts
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Photos courtesy of The Sacred Crafts
The Sacred Crafts (Carlsbad, Calif.) harvests wood from decommissioned boats in Thailand to create its new Kudmai Engineered Wood Flooring. Kudmai—which means “reborn” in Thai—is a key part of the company’s mission to find sustainable sources for its products, according to founder Matthew Harkins.
“The mission is to challenge manufacturing, design and bad habits we have taken on in industrialized society by offering alternative solutions to how things are made,” Harkins said in an email to WFB.
Harkins, who inherited his father’s passion for woodworking at an early age, founded the watch brand Original Grain before starting The Sacred Crafts. It was then that he developed an interest in reclaimed wood. He was visiting a fashion industry friend in Bangkok when the idea for using decommissioned boats was floated.
“I told him what I wanted to do over cold beers and spicy salad,” Harkins recalled. “Before we finished the first one, he looked at me and said, ‘We can do this here…’ And just like that, it was on.”
Harkins originally set out to create fashion products like watches or sunglasses from the reclaimed boat wood, but that changed when he realized the huge yield the company was getting from the old boats.
“Wood flooring seemed like a perfect fit,” Harkins said. “I was surprised at how beautiful the product turned out.” It is his first foray into the hardwood flooring industry. “The entire build of this is sustainable, handmade and totally unique floor to floor,” he said.
The company, which consists of a team of four in the U.S., went into a soft-launch phase earlier this year and is aiming to be more full-scale by the end of the summer. It is currently manufacturing the tongue-and-groove flooring in Thailand, but plans to bring production it to the U.S. in the future. It also plans to expand to creating furniture and décor using other portions of the boats that don’t work for wood flooring.
One of the biggest challenges in starting the company was having some people doubt the concept, Harkins said. Persistence has been key.
“This brand is a wrap up of 25 years of making things and following my dreams,” Harkins said. “All our products are hard to make, and that means I will have a lot of partners looking at me like I’m crazy until they realize crazy is exactly what we need right now.”
The Sacred Crafts is selling its Kudmai Engineered Wood Flooring direct on its website and can ship direct from Thailand to any country, Harkins said.
Harkins can be reached via email here.
