Uhuru Begins New Year with Acquisition of Custom Design Firm, Renegade Customs
Addition of Design-as-a-Service brand continues Uhuru’s evolution and position in B2B market
Uhuru Design, the Brooklyn-based heirloom quality furniture designer and manufacturer, and pioneer of the New American Design movement, today announced it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of Renegade Customs, a custom furniture design firm serving retail, hospitality and high-end residential customers. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Renegade Customs is a full-service design and mill shop, providing design at scale and building furniture and statement pieces tailored to the power culture for premier end users. The company provides branded environments and custom-work spaces for forward-thinking clients.
“Renegade Customs is a natural progression of Uhuru’s expanding House of Brands strategy,” said Leo Lucisano, CEO of Uhuru Design. “This acquisition further strengthens our position and offerings in the B2B space, and it serves as the next step in our evolution to become the leading design house and furniture choice for all customers, no matter where they work, learn or live.”
Renegade Customs’ service capabilities include an in-house wood shop, master carpentry, CNC machining, finishing, and metal capabilities and a dedicated installation team. The custom work delivers across full custom office and commercial spaces, hotels, restaurants, public spaces, distilleries, and government and includes product proficiencies from reception and welcome stations, brand signage and displays, creative acoustic solutions, outside-the-box hospitality elements, architectural elements, space division, millwork and casework to name a few.
“Bringing Renegade Customs into the fold allows us to provide bespoke quality furniture at commercial scale, effectively filling a gap in the market for customers seeking to design remarkable spaces that increase in value as they age,” said Jason Horvath, co-founder, chief creative officer and president of Uhuru Design. “The notion of collector furniture isn’t a new concept for residential, but it’s rather disruptive when considering the traditional lifespan and approach to commercial design and manufacturing.”
The Renegade Customs’ process begins with a Q&A, site visit and follow-up meeting, then evolves into conceptual design, construction and installation. The process elevates customer experience, emphasizes company culture and is unique to each customer outside of existing industry standards. The Renegade Customs’ team and Uhuru organization can provide a suite of integrated services at the front of the sales process in support of specifiers, dealers, and architects and designers. This enables incredibly deliberate and nimble design process and quick turn production in support of the process.
Uhuru and its expanding House of Brands offer clients and architect and designer partners access to a global audience seeking a deeper connection with the products they use and the spaces they inhabit. As the trailblazer for New American Design—a bespoke maker movement originated in New York, the company has gained attention for its sustainable approach, utilizing reclaimed and found materials through a narrative design process. By merging bespoke design with streamlined production methods, Uhuru creates and delivers unique interior solutions that live at the apex of work and life.
Today, Uhuru has design pieces in the Smithsonian American Art Museum and in the Brooklyn Museum’s permanent collection and has won numerous awards for its functional high design products. To learn more about Uhuru Design, please visit www.uhurudesign.com. Visit www.builtbyrenegade.com for more information on Renegade.
About Uhuru Design
Uhuru Design is a furniture design firm based in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Established in 2004 by graduates from the Rhode Island School of Design, Uhuru focuses on designing and building custom high-end furniture with reclaimed materials that placed Uhuru at the forefront of New American Design. With over a decade and a half of experience, Uhuru has grown to include a contract division that specializes in commercial furniture and building brand-specific products and a direct-to-consumer line under the Propr™ brand. Uhuru is fiercely committed to sustainability and thoughtful sourcing as an integral part of its design and manufacturing and is proud of its work on a vast range of projects, furniture installations and interior environment alongside leading designers and global brands. For more information visit:Â https://www.uhurudesign.com/.
About New American Design
Born in the early 2000s, in maker design centers from Brooklyn to California, New American Design was a minimalist reaction against mass-market furniture and design culture. New American Design is now taking shape as the next great design movement of the 21st century post mid-century modern. New American Design is storytelling through design, adapting the modern aesthetic and minimalist materials through craft and innovation to deliver an emotional connection to the objects we live on and work from. New American Design is built on the tenets of narrative design, sustainability, and materiality. New American Design references traditional design processes and leverages the imperfectness and personality of materials and objects to create character and nostalgia. Timeless in form. Function. History. Value. Emotion. Design. For the future. Beyond the landfill.
