Haptic Lab

Artisans

Artisan Partners

We actively work to build business relationships from a place of mutual respect and equity. Our heirloom products are created in partnership with a close-knit network of artisan partners, all of whom we have been working with for over a decade.

Rooted in reciprocity, building sustainable, long-term relationships is core to how we operate. All of Haptic Lab’s textile designs (quilts and softgoods) are produced in partnership with the same group of textile artisans in Noida, India. This collaboration has been facilitated by the same wife and husband sourcing team since the beginning, when we created our first collection of readymade Map Quilts in 2010. The rich history of local textile production, the innovative approach to our designs, and the novel sewing techniques we’ve developed together over 13 years are inimitable. Years of collaboration and reiterations to our techniques means no one else can sew a Haptic Lab quilt!

Our process, from design to production to your hands, is built to be collaborative. We work closely with our artisan partners to troubleshoot new concepts through a multi-step sampling process; everything is designed to the scale of the human hand. 

Each of our products is made with intention – slowly, thoughtfully, and with respect for the labor that goes into this process. We believe paying fair wages should be the norm. The artisans we work with set their own prices for Haptic Lab products, and work in a GOTS certified environment to ensure our shared commitment to ethical and environmental standards.

Our Sailing Ship Kites are also the fruit of a decade-long manufacturing partnership in Bali. With a long cultural history in kite making and flying, the Sailing Ship Kite was conceptualized by Balinese kite artisans. We have been collaborating with the same two groups of handicraft artisans in a small community – one of these groups  is a guaranteed member of the World Fair Trade Organization since 1993, and the other is an organized network of independent artisans. Both groups are owned and operated by native Balinese. We support their efforts to stop rampant hotel development on the island, as well as a novel debt relief program that keeps individual artisans on their own properties. 

With all of our artisan partnerships, we prioritize consistent ordering cycles and unlike conventional manufacturing, we make payment deposits upfront, regardless of the production deadline. Prioritizing long-term relationships is important to us, we strive to be consistent and dependable, nurturing relationships rooted in reciprocity.

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