René van Geer

The Dutch wallet brand Secrid is expanding its collection of luxury wallets with the launch of three new versions: Pebble, Vintage Traceable Leather and Glitter.

Innovative designers show how we can evolve industries to make better products at Dutch Design Week ‘24

For 15 years, our teams in sheltered workshops have been central to Secrid’s wallet-assembly operations. But where society tends to fixate on their disabilities, we see their capabilities.

Secrid collaborates with Dutch artist Maayke Schuitema on five Limited Edition Miniwallets

An ancient Chinese coin and Secrid - what's the connection?

How Secrid helps Sheltersuit Foundation spread the story of homelessness.

Luc van Hoeckel designs solutions for the 90% of the world's population without access to decent basic facilities.

Celium™ is a customizable bio-textile that might well become the new gold standard for fashion, footwear, sportswear, and automotive applications. Polybion is a new company that found a way to produce this versatile and natural material made of cellulose, cultivated with bacteria that eat agricultural waste.

Secrid built a profitable business that tries to play the role it should in society: creating jobs, valuing people and the planet, and manufacturing quality products for everyday use.

Electric Skin is a speculative idea that can change how we relate to daily electronic objects, such as our phones. A team of female biodesigners use bacteria that naturally produce electrical proteins for use in electronics. It could be possible to make compostable electronics by integrating these proteins into algae-based biomaterials.

ForestGuard is an advanced wildfire prevention system. This device detects forest fires within the first 15 minutes and helps communities worldwide to protect their valuable forests and natural resources. An integrated monitoring system can help to manage a fire before it starts or turns into a full-blown fire.

Sunflowers can help to reduce our dependence and the environmental damage of cotton in the fashion industry.

Entrepreneur Frans van Rooijen and scientist Dr. Michael Sailer are launching a varnish made from natural raw materials.

Solarix designs and produces aesthetic solar panels as façade cladding.

Aectual offers a fully circular interior design solution, from furniture to wall panels and ceilings. Their 3D printed products are made from recycled waste streams and plant-based materials, with no waste produced during the manufacturing process.

Huub Looze and Margreet van Uffelen create items such as embankment tiles and birdhouses that help restore soil and biodiversity after use.

Designer Doreen Westphal and entrepreneur Ruud Zanders are turning vegetable waste from Dutch farmers into pure and healthy food. Operating under the name Resty, they process rejected mushroom stalks and misshapen tomatoes into delicious plant-based burgers and sausages.

Milou Voorwinden is innovating the existing fashion and textile industry by developing 3D weaving techniques.

Pauline van Dongen has developed a lightweight, solar-powered textile called SUNTEX.

Boey (Bo) Wang is dedicated to creating fully inclusive products for performing everyday tasks.

Lotte Douwes transforms ceramic waste into new high-quality tableware and interior products. Her mission is to make the entire production process of porcelain and pottery circular. Because while the plate in your cupboard and that cup on your desk may seem ordinary, they are made from precious pieces of earth.

Luisa Kahlfeldt markets a high-performance diaper that reduces a baby's diaper use from about 5,000 to 25 diapers.

Zeefier creates high-quality textile paint from seaweed for applications including coloring clothes, carpets, bedding, and curtains.

Don Yaw Kwaning wants to bring back deeper awareness, organic aesthetics, and tranquility to society

Ward Massa leads FRONT, which he wants to grow into the top platform for sustainable and aesthetic building materials in Europe

Simon Dogger is one of the few blind designers in the world. He advises companies and other designers on sharpening concepts from a non-visual perspective and creating multi-sensory experiences.

Mapu Speakers are handcrafted loudspeakers, shaped by artisans with local materials and sound systems developed by world-class technicians.

Alissa and Nienke design innovative materials for interiors that contribute to people’s well-being.

Collaborating to find the best materials

Vifour is a textile made from recycled fabrics that can be recycled indefinitely. This circular material is used for interior products, such as acoustic wall panels, carpets, and furniture coverings

To combat food waste, Kimia Amir-Moazmi is working on a product that allows consumers to see for themselves whether food is still safe to eat.

A modular way to carry coins and other small essentials within Secrid wallets.

Secrid is a family business and 100% owned by the Van Geer family. The company was founded by René van Geer and Marianne van Sasse van Ysselt.

Emy Bensdorp is developing a technique to transform clay soil contaminated by PFAS into 100% clean bricks.

Secrid makes Cardwallets, but Secrid is much more than that. We also have a message to share. We want to make people aware of the power of good design for a sustainable future.

How can we make sure that the materials of today do not become the waste of tomorrow? This is the idea behind mujō, a Berlin-based start-up that develops biodegradable packaging from seaweed.

By 2009, the leather industry had practically abandoned the Netherlands in favour of low-income countries. Secrid brought this industry back to our home country.

Textile recycling made easy. This is the promise that makes Resortecs one of the most exciting start-ups in the fashion industry today.

Balena is a material science company that is working to change the footwear industry.

Instead of ‘cheaper and worse’, new products must be developed which are intrinsically ‘better, more sustainable and more valuable’ than products that came before.

During Dutch Design Week we presented the Secrid Talent Podium. An exhibition with designs from 11 promising talents in the field of evolutionary product design.