Hello beautiful Eva people!
It’s Amanda here, your friendly neighbourhood co-founder. It’s been almost 5 years since Ken (the other half of our founder-dom) and I have visited our manufacturing partners in China. Ever since COVID-19, we hadn’t been able to cross borders so we thought it was high time to see our long-term partners in person again.
Just a warning — I’m about to take you through a jam-packed, sleep deprived recount of our trip down HOPAM (aka How Our Pieces Are Made). Yes, that acronym is a thing. And yes, I just made it up. So let’s get cosy.
HOPAM - Day One
Landing at 9am after a red eye, our sofa manufacturer took us straight to the factory — luggage in tow. It was time for work - what is rest?!
We spent most of the morning talking about fabrics and foam. You see — comfort is a very subjective thing not just individually, but culturally too. Soft in China is a lot firmer than the kind of soft we know in Australia.
Did you know that our Everyday Sofas have always been assembled by hand? From the way the frame is constructed, to how the webbing in our seat is woven, the adherence of the foams and the sewing and folding of our fabric covers.
Then came time for refuelling (aka lunch) and horizontal-ness (aka power nap) before our last pit stop for the day - visiting our Eva Timber Bed Frame manufacturers!
We have been working with our bed frame manufacturers since we launched the product. As they specialise in timber, we knew that they could maintain the level of quality we needed and this is why we’ve had such a wonderful partnership with the same team for the last 5 years.
For those curious, factory workers typically have an 8am-6pm work day with a 2 hour break for lunch (12-2pm). So when we arrived, the team were at the tail end of their working day. But we were able to watch them use CNC to cut our bed frame pieces, as well as sand and oil the slats of our bed frame. Yep, that beautifully smooth surface you see and feel in your bed frame is because of this lady here who no doubt sanded it herself!
HOPAM - Day Two
We went back to our sofa manufacturers for some final meetings and to discuss our next top secret project (currently hush hush 🤫)! Taking it a bit slower today, we took on a tour of their factory and showroom where we spotted our stunning Everyday Sofa perched beautifully in a corner.
Pictured: Factory, our sofa team and our Everyday Sofa. Not pictured: Ken horizontal on said Everyday Sofa.
HOPAM — Day Three
Mattress day! Similar to our bed frame partners, we’ve also been working with our mattress manufacturers since we first started in 2017.
Before COVID-19, we used to visit them once to twice a year and what a reunion it was seeing our team in-person again. They have over 30 years experience in mattress manufacturing and have built a name for themselves, even making mattresses to luxury hotels around the world. Today, we were able to get horizontal on our Premium Adapt Mattress, try new firmness layers and discuss some ideas to continue improving our product further and further!
HOPAM — Last Day
I wasn’t kidding that this was going to be jam-packed trip. After the last few days, we decided to take a day off to see the city before we boarded the flight back home to Melbourne the next day. If you’ve managed to read all the way through, well bloody done. Here’s a photo of us in the factory - sleep deprived but happy! Till next time!
Cosiest,
Amanda from Eva
