Watch out for the Smörmels!

Well, at least there’s no lack of creative new blood in the Ruhr after all. An increasing number of young artists and creative workers dare to start their own business, flying solo to establish their own independent existences and perspectives. These days, a textile designer has set up her shop in Essen who has generated a whole line of products based on one self-created creature. Her plan: to „Smörmelise“ the Ruhr, no, the world.

The clou: Katrin Fechter is no designer at all – neither trained nor adapted. To be more precise, the dyed-in-the-wool Ruhr girl from Essen was on her way to become a make-up artist when a severe traffic accident knocked her off track in 2004. Only in the years after, during rehab, she discovered her love for painting and illustrating. Soon, the 30-year old autodidact found her own style to which she adheres, developing its nuances further an further. And a very popular style indeed: by and by, she got more and more orders, and a short while ago, she had to illustrate a complete children’s book.

"How about sewing a bag or something..."

And then, one year ago, she was bitten by the Smörmel bug. It all started with a friend who wanted her to make a “bag or something” from old clothes of her toddler. After some hours at the sewing machine it became obvious that there wouldn’t be enough fabric for a bag, but at least it would be enough for a funny soft animal from terry cloth.

But how did the name Smörmel come up? „Oh, that evolved after a while“, Katrin Fechter explains. „Schmermel is an old Ruhr dialect expression for an urchin. Since my friend’s little son could say „ö“ rather than „e“, he said „Smörmels“ instead of „Schmermelz“.“

After a while, the green original Smörmel got some friends with various characters and colours as well as Smörmel sleeping masks, and hot-water bottle covers.

A calculated start-up

In the meantime, Katrin Fechter has given the project a solid basis. „I wanted to do it properly or not at all“, she points out. „After I had made the decision to create a whole Smörmel product line, I called several institutions, organisations, and professionals for support because I didn’t have the know-how then.“ She took lessons in business studies, material science, product rights, and numerous other areas so far totally unbeknownst to her. That all sounds very down-to-earth and rational – and it is:

„Being self-employed has some risks, and I want to keep those as small and calculable as possible“. Fechter invests a part of her income directly in coaching lessons for people who want to set up their own business, parallel to that, she extends her product line, marketing, and websites. And why not – some more Smörmels in this world wouldn’t do any harm, would they?!