About: Brand Origin Story

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BUILT FOR PURPOSE.

A Brand Origin Story that Starts in the Middle of Nowhere.

MADE FOR THE PLACES THAT MAKE YOU.

Places have been transformative forces in my life. I've experienced them at their at their best as a traveler and outdoors enthusiast. I’ve also seen many on their worst days through my work in disaster relief. I believe in the power of places, and also in the power of service. That’s why Lōcī is the only watch company donating 10% of every sale to protect the special places that inspire our watch designs.

Together we can protect the places we love for our kids and for generations to come.

— Trip Henderson, Founder

HOW IT ALL STARTED:

SEEING STARS.

I was out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean aboard the Navy frigate USS Moinester (FF-1097) the first time I remember experiencing the Spirit of Place. It was the first night of my first-ever deployment at sea and we were a few hundred miles off the coast of Maine, steaming south to patrol in the Caribbean.

I came off watch in the engine room at midnight and made my way up to the ship’s flight deck to grab some fresh air. There were a couple other sailors there doing the same. They greeted me with silent head nods, but no one spoke.

I found a spot where I could lean on the lifelines and relax a bit. Then I looked up. As a kid from suburban Philadelphia, I’d never seen the night sky completely unspoiled by light pollution. Out at sea hundreds of miles from so much as the nearest candle, the clear sky was filled with millions of stars for the naked eye to see. Even the spiral arms of the Milky Way were visible as broad fog-like brush strokes across the darker patches of emptier space. Every pinpoint of light was a star orbited by its own set of distant worlds. How many stars? How many planets? It took some time to really register the perspective of what I was seeing. But I knew right away why no one was talking.

Maybe I should have felt alone out there at sea staring up at the galactic vastness of that view. But instead I felt completely connected to the sailors on deck with me, the ones who’d been here over the centuries before us, and those who’d follow someday in the future. This place left its mark on us all.

The Spirit of Place there, even though “there” was an ever-changing patch of ocean, transcended time and all the differences between us. It offered me an experience and a realization about connectedness that changed my life for the better.

That unexpected moment was the start of a lifelong fascination with the power of places, how they affect us, and how we affect them. So far I’ve made it to four oceans and seas, five continents, and 49 US states (...North Dakota!) to learn what the Spirit of Place would say to me and who it would connect me with. But a more recent chapter of my professional career brought new and again life-changing encounters with the Spirit of Place.

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A NEW MISSION:

CONNECTING PLACE & PURPOSE

Natural disasters happen all the time. Most of them receive no attention at all beyond the local level. In today's media environment human interest stories don't drive ratings or clicks, so even catastrophic events struggle to stay in the headlines for long. One example: In 2017 Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico as a Category 5 storm, killing 3,000 people and causing over $90 billion in damage. The story was effectively gone from the national news cycle in 72 hours.

From 2016 to 2020 I served as chief marketing officer at Team Rubicon, a nonprofit disaster response organization founded and led by military veterans to serve communities before, during, and after natural disasters and humanitarian crises.

During my tour at Team Rubicon we launched more than 400 global operations in response to hurricanes, floods, wildfires, earthquakes, refugee situations, and other crises. I got out from behind my desk for numerous deployments to disaster areas, not as an executive but to work alongside Team Rubicon volunteers.

We “mucked out” mud-filled homes flooded by hurricane storm surge and cleared away the debris fields that are all a tornado leaves behind when it levels a string of homes or a school. We slept on the floor in high school gyms, showered at YMCAs, ate dinner in church dining halls, and set up our operating bases in shopping center parking lots.

Working in disaster-affected communities and getting to know the people there gave me a ground-level view of the human cost of natural disasters, which data and research show are accelerating in both frequency and intensity.

Through this new humanitarian lens I came to see how absolutely central places are to peoples' lives and livelihoods. And I learned that too many places are highly fragile and persistently at risk. They have so much to offer us — but they also need our help to survive and thrive.

That’s why I’m building Lōcī from the ground up as an impact business. When you wear a Lōcī watch, you're taking action to protect the places we love.

THE CONCEPT AT THE HEART OF THE BRAND:

THE SPIRIT OF PLACE

Lōcī is built on a passion for watches. More importantly, on a belief in the power of places. And most importantly, on the drive to create positive impact in the world. In short, we believe it’s up to us to protect the places we love.

But if you want the whole story behind why I built the whole brand around the Spirit of Place concept, read on.

About The Spirit of Place