Greig had a dream of creating a product that was the best of its kind, a product that has genuine purpose, with genuine heart.
At BLUNT, we believe the river before feeds the present and the future. We look to the past to understand and define our future.
We come from a long line of entrepreneurial Kiwis shaped by our unique place. An edge that can only come from the edge of the world. Where distance and separation push self-sufficiency and a new way of thinking.
When we lean into this unique heritage of innovation, we see what could be, with a different view on the everyday. It’s a DNA that pushes us to brave new ways.
Restless and adventurous, unbound by convention, ready to tackle problems with a mindset that’s free to think beyond what has already been done.
Greig Brebner, our founder, a curious character, grew up with his dad’s workshop as his playground and always loved the process of thinking through an idea to then make it in real life. With a father who was an engineer and from an entrepreneurial family, Greig grew up in the country where he loved to make stuff. The process of creating was his ‘happy juice’ – enjoying the challenge of going deep.
Innovation is an outcome of freedom and vulnerability.
From very early on, Greig had a dream of creating a product that was the best of its kind, a product that has genuine purpose, with genuine heart – something people would love, something that was hard to do but worth doing.
After a number of false starts the ‘idea’ came to him on the other side of the world. Ultimately leading him on a journey to redesign an everyday object of frustration and turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.
As Greig discovered, the process was humbling.
Innovation is an outcome of freedom and vulnerability. When we’re vulnerable, we’re brave enough to make mistakes, we’re free enough to challenge and we’re bold enough to grow. The best of us happens just outside our comfort zone, which is where Greig found himself.
However, there is no innovation and creativity without failure. And fail he did. Over and over again, but each time holding on to something that drove incremental shifts forward, slowly but surely, closing in on a better way.
When we put passion into what we do, people will feel it, use it, love it. And through the blood, sweat and tears, preconceptions were changed, experiences switched from negative to positive, joy started over-indexing for a product that is traditionally seen as functional.
From jagged edges and broken corners came beauty, simplicity and unity.
The BLUNT umbrella set a new benchmark, transforming vulnerable moments into confident experiences unlike any other, allowing people to move through life with ease.
We see the need for products that connect for years, not days. Products made for life, that are valued and put to task daily. At BLUNT, we understand we’re only here for a moment, but we can make that moment endure.
We’re also building a connection of people across the globe. Our tribe of the bold and empowered, who see it different, and make it different.
A group of people who have their time in the sun to write the next great chapter in our story, with a united sense of identity that is fed by belonging and our environment; a group of people who have a higher purpose; have shared beliefs; who are connected.
And connected we are. Connected to our customers, our consumers to each other and to ourselves. When we are connected and have shared values, we feel brave and strong and can take on whatever life throws at us, together.
Looking to the horizon, we have a bold future planned. Wind and rain comes and goes. What matters is the strategy to combat it, the will to take it on with confidence and the strength to ensure it – and together with the 6 BLUNT corners of our world, we will.
