This morning, while preparing our last newsletter of the year, I glanced at the date.
The 12th. Hmm… December 12?
And then it hit me: Krama Krama was also officially launched on December 12.

More precisely: 12/12/12 at 12:12 p.m.

Yes, it’s very serious. We love numbers, signs, and pretty alignments. And on that day, with my friends Claire, Adrien, and Cédric (the co-founders of the French company ‘Oh My Krama’), we pressed “Publish” to put the very first version of our Cambodian scarf shop online.

On Instagram, I could have made it seem like it all started in a hammock, cocktail in hand, under the sun in Sihanoukville, Cambodia’s most popular seaside resort.

Obviously, that’s not true.

I was in Sihanoukville… but locked in my hotel room, trying to fix a flood of bugs on the website while the server decided whether or not it wanted to cooperate. Tropical atmosphere, cold sweats, not an Instagram-worthy moment at all. But that’s the truth about the early days: you tinker, you learn, and you hope no one sees the smoke coming out of the engine.

Our first mistakes on Krama Krama (or how to learn very quickly)

Like many entrepreneurs, we made a nice collection of mistakes at launch. We could write a book about it, but here’s a small selection:

The nylon/cotton blend of our first kramas.
Not the best idea ever. We even got our first slightly harsh comment on Facebook as soon as we opened. Dear Clélia, we still hope you’ll order from Krama Krama one day :)) When we started working with the weaving workshop, using a nylon and cotton blend was the norm. That said, we quickly switched to a 100% cotton blend.

An e-commerce platform (Prestashop for purists) that was completely unsuitable. Slow, cumbersome, complicated to customize… exactly what you want to avoid when you’re just starting out.

A business plan worthy of a science fiction novel.
We spent hours on Excel spreadsheets, forecasts, and curves that rose magically (like the price of Bitcoin). And then reality catches up with you. It’s a social business; the goal is not to get into the Nasdaq.

But these mistakes forced us to do better, to clarify our choices, to get back to basics: beautiful, sustainable, meaningful, hand-woven scarves. A far cry from brands that sold scarves woven in minutes by automated machines, with no artisanal dimension (but at a very high price).

13 years later: the same workshop, the same passion for krama

Today, 13 years later, what makes us most proud is this:
We still work with the same weaving workshop in Cambodia and we still support the same NGO, Agir Pour le Cambodge / Sala Baï school.

We have grown together.
The weavers have perfected their techniques, developed new patterns for our scarves, and trained new generations. For our part, we have improved our collections, strengthened our social commitment, and professionalized our processes without ever losing the spirit of our beginnings.

And above all: we have never cheated.

Those who have been following us for a long time know this:

• no disguised industrial production
• no fake storytelling
• no “made in Cambodia” marketing when everything comes from elsewhere.

No. With us, every scarf really comes from a loom in the Cambodian countryside (10 km from Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor). Each piece has a story. Every order supports a workshop, women, families, and students at Sala Baï.

What’s next?

If we are celebrating our 13th anniversary with such emotion, it is thanks to you, who wear our kramas, who give them as gifts, who share our values, who send us your photos from all over the world. It is thanks to our French, American, Canadian, English, German, Japanese, Indonesian, Taiwanese, and other customers that Krama Krama is celebrating its 13th anniversary.

So thank you. Sincerely.
You are the reason why this adventure continues to weave its way forward.

(I admit, the pun was easy)

And now… see you for the 14th anniversary!