An enterprise that exalts Mexican artisanal jewelry

Two young individuals from northern Guerrero connect emerging designers with jewelry artisans to create unique pieces that they sell via the internet and direct catalog sales.

Aldo and Víctor Uribe are young brothers from northern Guerrero who, upon witnessing the decline of traditional artisanal jewelry in their region, decided to take action. They conceived the idea of combining design competitions to develop seasonal products with a catalog e-commerce sales model, thus creating the company Tumbiko. They realized that the sector was facing an unfavorable situation, and after thorough research into the issue, they understood that the problem lay in the changing market dynamics. Despite this, producers continued to sell in a traditional manner, maintaining the same designs for extended periods. They participated in the 2015 edition of the POSiBLE program, making it into the group of 100 winners (out of 14,000 projects) and have garnered attention with their model from the Inter-American Development Bank.

In this way, they have established an enterprise that celebrates Mexican cultural heritage by linking emerging designers with a network of artisans to create unique pieces that are marketed through what they call brand "ambassadors". The selection of piece designs operates through contests in universities, where design students or graduates participate. In the first contest, over 80 designers from 23 universities in Mexico and the general public participated, each contributing a design. The 5 winning designs receive royalties from the sales of the designs in the collection, retaining intellectual property rights over the created pieces, while Tumbiko has permission for the commercial exploitation of these designs. Regarding artisans, the process is helping to reactivate family workshops in northern Guerrero, with a dual objective:

• Recovering ancestral practices of piece production that would otherwise be lost.
• Assisting artisans in an area of Mexico that has been heavily affected by drug trafficking and violence in recent years.

Currently, Tumbiko works with 30 artisans and hopes to expand to other regions of the country soon. Concerning marketing, jewelry pieces are sold on their website platform and through direct sales with their catalog. Currently, Tumbiko is supported by 100 ambassadors. "We have a goal we want to reach, but the journey has been zigzagging, not as straight as planned. However, this is not a reason to be discouraged; on the contrary, we must understand that no journey is free of stumbles and difficulties. Our main motive is to directly support these artisans because we know the talent that exists and we want to revive the jewelry sector in Mexico," comments Aldo, CEO. "I believe part of our success lies in the philosophy where everyone can win, including designers, artisans, ambassadors, and investors, and Mexico also wins because it ennobles and preserves techniques from long ago," says Víctor, COO.

In Tumbiko's future plans is the intention to conduct trials for international sales through the platform or foreign partners. They also plan to launch a new virtual platform, a new distribution center, and a showroom, for which they have launched a second investment campaign on Playbusiness. Mexico boasts a cultural richness admired worldwide, and undoubtedly, innovative models are what will allow us to preserve our culture by taking it to the national and international markets, becoming a source of income for many Mexican families.