Wedgie is wholeheartedly a friend and family affair. With two of our three directors, Hayley and Daisy growing up in the rolling countryside’s of Watford, London - best friends from the moment they met on the school yard whilst doing laps of the netball court and gossiping about boys.
Quite a few years later, but a few miles away in Sri Lanka, Mark sashayed on the scene and caught Hayley’s eye. The two inhabited Sri Lanka for a few years, and wed in 2014, where not long after the idea of a door wedge ‘empire’ soon blossomed.
After making contact with local Sri Lankan handicraft suppliers, Hayley & Mark set about designing the first collection of characters, and Wedgie was officially born at the start of 2015. The advantage of being in close proximity to where the products were made enabled regular visits to meet the workers and see the hand-carving and hand-painting work in progress.
Wedgie’s chosen supplier has a fine history of working on handicrafts with almost 20 years in the business and is still, to this day, heavily focused on empowering rural communities. They work with an incredible incentive scheme, where they deliver unpainted doorstops directly to employees’ houses, along with paints, brushes and tools. Once painted and completed, the Wedgies are paid for on collection, allowing people in rural communities the convenience of earning an income whilst going about their daily routines.
After seeing the fun-nature and possible potential of Wedgie outside of Sri Lanka, Daisy joined Hayley and Mark in 2016 and with help from some amazing friends, started selling Wedgie’s on market stalls across London. As Wedgie’s flew off the market stall stands, it wasn’t long until they began to appear in shops around London, then across England, and now are stocked in over 60 stores worldwide.
In the space of 2-3 years, Wedgie has enjoyed an organic but fast growth. Still maintaining a small team, and still staunchly independent. At the start of 2018 Wedgie opened up a new dispatch centre in Manchester, where the latest employees to the team are Sue & Mike; otherwise known as Mark’s Mum & Dad. Sue and Mike are the heartbeat of Wedgie, dealing with all online orders & customer queries, and a better customer service you will fail to receive.
Wedgie are proud to be a part of the creative ethical shopping movement, a passionate team, all enjoying being a part of this door-stop adventure.