NIKIN 2020

The year 2020 - a look back at our highlights

As the turbulent yet eventful year 2020 draws to a close, now is the perfect time to sit back and look back on an eventful year.

As the turbulent yet eventful year 2020 draws to a close, now is the perfect time to sit back and look back on an eventful year.

2020 will go down in history as Corona's extraordinary year, and yet it actually started out quite ordinary. In February, the world still seemed to be intact, the virus still far away from us, and so we set off with the entire team to Engelberg for the NIKIN Ski Day to put our skills to the test on the slopes as well. We enjoyed a fantastic day on the mountain and strengthened our team spirit for the numerous upcoming projects in 2020. 

In March we say goodbye to the home office

And then what we all feared happened: Corona reached Switzerland and the federal government declared a nationwide lockdown in March. Like all companies, we were faced with the question, how should we go about next ? Within a very short period of time, we completely switched our entire operation to a home office, with the exception of logistics, which took some getting used to at first, but fortunately did not pose any major problems because most of our processes can also be handled online. 

Home Office

And yet it had to go on, because we had a lot planned for this year. During the course of the year, we were delighted to welcome numerous new motivated employees to the NIKIN Family, who can take us a level further with their know-how in various areas such as marketing, product, logistics, events or customer service. Many of them started their work directly in the home office, which could be challenging with the limited interpersonal contact, but could be managed with regular online meetings with the whole NIKIN team. In the meantime, our team has grown to nearly 50 employees, who are fully committed to moving NIKIN and our vision next forward on a daily basis. This growth also enabled us to found NIKIN AG in the summer. These developments make us mighty proud! 

Events - a no-go in times of Corona?

There were actually quite a few events on the programme for 2020, both external and internal. Most of them had to be postponed or unfortunately cancelled. Among the victims were various TreePlanting Days, where we wanted to lend a hand together with our community and help to reforest our local forests. When the festival season was officially buried, our event team had to make other arrangements. But there was no lack of alternatives, and with strict protection concepts, various events could still be held. For example, in September, on the occasion of the international Clean-Up Day, we were able to free our home town of kilos of rubbish with the help of many committed volunteers from our community - it was frightening to see how much rubbish recklessly ends up where it definitely doesn't belong. 

Our "Alaska" room, which we lovingly turned into our first in-house store for direct sales in the spring, unfortunately had to wait for its first customers because of Corona. Instead, we organized the first online outlet sale, which went through the roof so much that at times even our website succumbed to the rush and collapsed. With the measures relaxed, we were then finally able to put our in-house store into operation in the summer and open our doors regularly for direct sales - of course, always with the necessary safeguards in place. On release days, the brand new products can be purchased directly from us on site. Since the number of visitors on these days is particularly high, we had to expect some longer waiting times, which we bridged with free beer and Indian delicacies from the food truck for those waiting. 

Alaska Room

This year, we were also able to expand our shop network, in which selected NIKIN products are represented, to over one hundred partner shops across Europe. So you're sure to find us somewhere near you. In addition, we successfully opened a temporary pop-up store for the second time during the summer months, this time in Basel. 


We have (almost) everything you need - sustainably

For more than four years, NIKIN has been pursuing the philosophy of cool, stylish and sustainable products at fair prices - with this, we want to make sustainable fashion accessible to everyone and inspire a conscious and sustainable lifestyle. After all, if everyone would just think a little more sustainably, the world would already be helped a lot. 

Zeitgeist, innovativeness and creativity, these are the qualities that our product team always displays. As a result, we regularly present new products that are not only aesthetically pleasing and comfortable, but also made from sustainable materials and largely manufactured in Europe. We are especially proud of our SwimWear Collection made of Econyl®/Seaqual® - recycled plastic from the oceans - or our new Treeanies made of Polylana®, a more sustainable alternative to traditional acrylic. For the latter material, by the way, we are the first brand to manufacture and offer products made of this material in Europe. 

 

Throughout the year, we released new products at regular intervals, for which our marketing and content team launched wide-ranging and creative advertising campaigns and produced a lot of great content - you've probably come across one of our ads at some point.

 

The absolute high flyer of the year: the TreeMask

The best-selling product in 2020 was by far the TreeMask, but there is a need for explanation on this. At the beginning of the crisis, we actively decided against selling protective masks because we don't think it's right to make a profit from a crisis. And yet we were asked almost daily when NIKIN protective masks would finally be available. We publicly asked our community several times whether there was a need for a NIKIN mask. The result was clear, so we initially had 2,000 masks produced (we didn't know how long the epidemic would last), and they were all sold out within 40 minutes. The sustainable and comfortable mask is a big hit and this is also reflected in the public, in hardly any train someone is not sitting with a TreeMask on his face. 

TreeMask

However, we still stick to our attitude and sell the masks for no profit of our own. We offer the protective mask at cost price, 1 planted tree included. In addition, we also offer the mask with a surcharge, which is donated directly to the Corona Aid of Caritas Switzerland. We have masks again - so protect yourself and your fellow human beings with a TreeMask now. 

NIKIN without its community? - unimaginable!

As a brand, we thrive on our community, which supports and inspires us on a daily basis and thus helps us to constantly move forward. It's impossible to imagine NIKIN without our great community, which also helps shape the brand. Again and again, we offer the possibility to have an influence and to make requests with surveys via social media. Due to the many event cancellations, we unfortunately had to massively cut back on personal contact with our community - but we were all the more connected online for it! Our social media team keeps you informed and entertained, so that you are always up to date and don't miss anything from us. You can now find us on virtually all social media platforms under @nikinclothing. With the total number of followers across all our platforms, we could fill stadiums (the leader is Instagram with around 115k followers)! 

The fact that our community can really have an influence was demonstrated by the "Crowd Design" competition in the spring, where anyone and everyone could send in design drafts for a TreeShirt. The crowd then voted online to decide on the winning design, which was then realized and finally offered on all our sales channels. In total, we received over 1,200 designs, of which the design "TreeCompass" by Dominique prevailed. Only a few hours after the release in August, it was already sold out. 

 

In April, half a million trees were planted - in December, the full million!

"The one with the trees": NIKIN would not be NIKIN without the trees. At the beginning of April, the tree counter on our website passed the 500,000 mark! Half a million trees, that's a descriptive number. Symbolically, we planted the 500,000th tree for this milestone in our home town of Lenzburg, where it can be admired today on Markus-Roth-Platz. Under the Norway maple (Acer Platanoides), a sign commemorates this special milestone in NIKIN history. 

As in previous years, we celebrated "Green Friday" instead of Black Friday at the end of November. We deliberately decided not to take part in this unrestrained price battle on Black Friday. That's why we deliberately didn't offer any discounts during the entire Green Friday weekend, but instead planted 2 trees for every product sold. And that added up to a considerable sum: a total of around 42,000 additional trees will be planted on the occasion of Green Friday. 

 

During the Christmas season, our tree counter raced upwards faster and faster, gradually approaching the full million trees planted - and on the morning of December 19, the time had come: the million mark had been reached! 1'000'000 trees planted! We are once again completely overwhelmed by this gigantic milestone in NIKIN history and can hardly put our joy and pride into words.  

We will of course also celebrate this milestone in a fitting manner and symbolically immortalize it in our history. In the new year, NIKIN will take over a tree sponsorship of a tree in our home town of Lenzburg, which will continue to grow like us and will be a reminder of this great milestone for a long time to come.

That's it - and now with fresh impetus into 2021!

For NIKIN, the Christmas season begins in spring. A well-functioning organization in advance is essential in order to be ideally prepared for our main season at the end of autumn. The (pre-) Christmas period is very intense, sometimes nerve-wracking, but nevertheless the most beautiful time of the year. All our teams work tirelessly during these weeks to make sure that you, too, have a wonderful holiday season. After all, our logistics, together with our customer service, make sure that all the presents are under the Christmas tree on time. Over the past four years, NIKIN has grown from a small seed into a strong tree that will continue to grow in all directions in the new year. 

 

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