You have probably already asked yourself what the concept of up-cycling is all about.
You may already have an idea after browsing our website and discovering that most of our creations are from parts that originally had a completely different function and purpose.
Let us take you closer to the term based on our origins:
We came across the topic of up-cycling more or less by accident years ago, when no one considered up-cycling as a sustainable design trend and no do-it-yourself hypes had emerged.
Originally, we were so-called "customizers". In principle, we personalized everything with wheels - mainly cars and motorcycles. A customer wanted to upgrade their vehicle optically or in terms of performance? We did it!
Many factory-assembled parts were exchanged for individual tuning parts in order to create something new, very special and individual from the vehicle. Through these personalization measures, we accumulated a large inventory of spare parts and, in the first step, sold the parts or disposed of them in kilos or tons at current scrap metal prices.
One evening in our parts warehouse, the idea was born not to simply dispose of the parts, but to create something out of them: turning old into new. We took the most diverse parts in hand, went to work and started to create new and unique objects from the parts. This resulted in our first series of lamps and clocks, which are still very popular.
Over time, our portfolio grew and we ventured into other domains, such as furniture and home furnishings. So it developed over the years, that we got more pleasure from up-cycling parts of all kinds than personalizing vehicles. Above all, we like the idea that we will create something very sustainable and thus preserve the emissions and energies that were required for the original production of the part and make a small contribution to environmental protection. It has always bothered us why high-quality parts should suddenly be worthless simply because they were replaced.
Commissioned work was also a great way to get creative. People came up to us and had e.g. damaged or crashed vehicles that they did not want to dispose of because of their personal value, but instead wanted them to continue to exist in a different form. Among other things, this led to one of our coolest projects - the crashed Aston Martin of a customer, from which vehicle remains created cool and functional objects for his man cave. The vehicle yielded seating furniture, a cool office desk, several tables and sideboards, lamps and much more. So his treasure lives on and he can continue to enjoy it every day.
We think that these examples will give you an idea of what up-cycling is all about. In summary, it can be said that products that are no longer required or apparently useless substances and materials are converted into new products during up-cycling.
There is a material upgrading of a part or even an accumulation of parts. The reuse of existing material reduces the use of raw materials and contributes to the conservation or conservation of scarce resources and sustainability. Up-cycling can be implemented with a wide variety of materials - whether it is vehicle parts, aircraft parts, textiles, euro pallets, household items or installation materials, it makes absolutely no difference.
There are only limits to the imagination - not the parts.
And that is also the essential if you are interested in up-cycling. You need to have a good dose of imagination and imagination to create a safe, functional or decorative object from an initial vision. Certainly also manual skills are part of it, but it is up to you how far you can discover and implement the topic for yourself.
The Cruisin' Design® crew wishes you lot of fun on your up-cycling discovery journey and if you find something on our site that you like, we look forward to hear from you and if you wish, make your purchase.
Even if you have materials and don't know what to do with them, just talk to us and we'll see together what can be done creatively with it!
Your Cruisin' crew