Our Story
The story of Ben's Originals starts in a small market stall in Nairobi, Kenya, where I (Ben) came across a bucket hat that had been made from a traditional African material, known in Kenya as Kitenge. Kitenge materials are usually used for making bright colourful clothes and head garments. The colours and symbols used in each design can often have a subtle symbolic meaning, symbolising a tribe, marriage, and social status of the wearer.
I went on to buy two of these Kitenge bucket hats and brought them to the UK as presents for my 2 university house mates.
A few months later I returned home to Kenya, having seen the reaction and impression that the bucket hats had made on people and decided to return to the small stall to see if they would be willing to partner up to produce and sell bucket hats with the traditional Kitenge patterns in the UK. All bucket hats shown on this site are now produced by this small shop in Nairobi, where they have employed a team of tailors.
Fast forward from there, things have got a lot bigger around here, and we have joined forces with more workshop teams in Kenya to help us release new products including our shorts and fleeces! We are now shipping internationally from our website, and feature in various shops around Kenya.
I also made the decision to change the business name to Ben’s Originals. It quickly became clear that I wanted to create more than just bucket hats, and the name Ben’s Buckets was proving misleading to customers, and restrictive to new creations. I settled on Ben’s Originals as I wanted the name to reflect the hard work I put in to create our beautiful products, with the continuous support of our workshop teams. Although some of our products may look similar to those you find across Kenya, the quality of a Ben’s Originals product, and the time and effort contributed by all of our team members is hard to match!
Sustainability has become a real calling for me, and so everything we do is now focused on providing the best outcomes for people and planet.