The question I'm asked most often is 'why are you making a belt?'
YOKU exists to espouse the idea that for you to be truly sustainable you need less.
Serendipitous beginnings
Originally the idea to create a men’s belt came about when a friend of mine travelled to Hong Kong in the early 2000s and on a whim I said ‘bring me back something nice’. So she bought me a belt (pictured)
It had a simple design that worked well, but, as things tend to do, degraded over time. So a few years ago I tried to find a replacement but after months of searching I gave up. Everything was either poorly made, super expensive or covered in branding.
A belt felt like a thing that could be beautiful, timeless and built to last a lifetime, so I decided to make that
Getting started
I started by taking some lessons in 3D design, realising very quickly that this needs skills way beyond my tinkering so I started to look for someone and in early 2019 I was introduced to Mark, an industrial designer and maker with a passion for beautiful design and challenging problems. We shared a viewpoint that good design takes time and space
Over 18 months later, with countless iterations, over late night/morning remote conference calls splitting our timezones and one in person catch up at a Berlin bar YOKU was finally born.
Functionally it meets a design brief of beautifully designed, well made, no visible branding. An interchangeable belt with no moving parts, the last belt you’ll ever own.
More importantly it is the embodiment of our core ideal, one less thing.
We hope that by designing & creating this product, that you should only buy once, that we all take this idea into the world more broadly.
