Last week I was invited to a Party at Unika Vaev’s newly refreshed showroom that adjoins its distribution warehouse in Dallas. It was a lovely and well-attended party. The showroom is very well appointed and manages to display, in situ, an amazing array of Unika Vaev’s huge product portfolio. I showed up early to get some photos of the showroom and products before the real guests arrived.
Aside from being one of our loyal advertisers, I find Unika Vaev to be a fascinating company.
You probably don’t know where Unika Vaev’s rather unusual name comes from or what it means – so I’ll tell you. It’s a Danish phrase that means “unique weave.” Danish and English have a common ancestor, so many words are very similar and in this case even more so when you pronounce vaev the way Danes pronounce it with the “e” dominating rather than the “a” in our pronunciation.
The Danish company, Unika Vaev, was a supplier to ICF, the parent company of today’s American Unika Vaev and when ICF decided to begin designing and developing its own textile line, with permission from the Danish company (we can assume some money changed hands), it trademarked the name for its stand-alone textile brand.
From its outset many decades ago, ICF was a company that licensed European products for the North American market. Over time its relationships with international manufacturers expanded from Europe to include several other parts of the world. Because of those deep roots and relationships, Unika Vaev has “inherited” access to a global range of manufacturing partners and through them, access to some of the best product designers in the world.
With the party going on around us, I sat down in a very quiet conference room for a short interview with Wick Wolfe, President and COO of Unika Vaev.
Bob Beck (BB):
You were an early entrant in offering acoustic solutions. Tell us what prompted that early move.
Wick Wolfe(WW):
“In the early 2000s when workplace designers and their clients began moving away from panel systems to benching and other forms of open office planning, we recognized a need for acoustic treatments. We had some true felt products from our Swedish partner, Abstract, that had some acoustic properties so at first we started showing those to our clients and asking about their acoustic needs.
Frankly, we were blown away by what we found. Designers were saying, ‘We need this!’ or ‘Oh, this is great! Can you help us solve this problem?’ It was a lot of fun, because the response was so positive and the acoustics market at the time was dominated by Armstrong whose only solutions were acoustic tiles in dropped ceilings.
In 2008 we started a relationship with an Australian textile company, INSTYLE, distributing some of their textiles. In the course of our normal business interactions, we discussed our perception that the world of acoustics was about to get a lot bigger. So at NeoCon one year Michael Fitzsimons, their managing director, came in with some ideas for acoustic products and said they too were thinking about getting into the acoustics market.
We ended up working together with INSTYLE’s team of product designers to jointly develop their first line of acoustic products, which we then brought to North America. And we continue to do joint development with them to this day.
BB:
How did those experiences shape your strategy?
“So we saw a big opportunity, but we quickly realized that acoustics is a very technical issue – similar in some ways to lighting – your solution has to work as installed and the physics of sound bouncing around an office and how to mitigate it is very technical and difficult.”
We went through a laser learning curve to get up to speed so that the products we developed would be effective and really make a difference when installed. We worked with acoustic engineers to educate us on what would work and what wouldn’t, what tests could provide realistic and relevant data and so on. We sent people to conferences for acoustic engineers and consultants. Effectively, we went to school on the technical aspects of sound mitigation.
We knew we had to offer all the technical support required to make sure the designs of our A&D clients when spec’ing our products, actually performed for their clients in the built-out space. So we set about acquiring the engineering expertise to be able to provide acoustic analysis, shop drawings – whatever is needed for a project, right up to product design.
One of our biggest advantages is that we can work with our clients to modify our existing products to meet their vision for a project or we can develop an entirely new product that does so. It’s really all about inspiration backed up by the technical knowledge to ensure that it will work in the real world.”
BB:
Are you exiting the textile market that is your heritage?
WW:
“Of course not. Fabrics are and will always be an important part of our business. We continue to have important long-term international partnerships with textile companies. And we continue to invest in new fabrics. Our fabric business isn’t growing as fast as the acoustic side, but it is still very important to us.”
BB:
Speaking of those international partnerships, who are some of them and where are they located?
WW:
“I previously told you a bit about INSTYLE, our partner from Australia. Our relationship with them is unique in that even though we’re ‘just’ a distributor for them, we have complete access to their design team and their product development resources. Michael and I talk every week – sometimes multiple times.
Abstracta is a Swedish firm that has made significant contributions to our acoustic products. They are leading the way in our acoustic lighting portfolio – both the Lily and Holly pendants in use in the showroom are from Abstracta.
Our Kula products are the work – and the passion of Bryndís Bolladottír, perhaps the best-known designer in Iceland.
Fraster is located in Denmark and they focus on designing products using wool felt. We import their Fraster area rugs and room separation products as well as several other wool felt products.”
BB:
Wick, thanks for inviting me to this lovely party and for the interview. Compliments on the showroom, you’ve created a space that does a great job of demonstrating both the breadth and the effectiveness of your products. We’ll be watching for continuing innovation in both textiles and acoustic products.
