About

How KOMONI came to be.

Inspired by my time traveling through Latin America and in particular, Mexico, I founded Komoni Amsterdam with the express desire to offer a unique, affordable and stylish product that doesn’t affect the environment.

Having worked for a corporate company I became tired of the 9 to 5 and decided to make a change. First I wanted to see more of the world and after many months of travelling and I found handmade products and designs that inspired me in Mexico. I decided to begin importing these products into the Netherlands.

In July 2015 my friend Joost and I founded Komoni Amsterdam and introduced sneakers made with handwoven fabrics from the rich cultural communities from Chiapas and Oaxaca.

It was a steep learning curve for us and we learned a lot, but alas our product didn’t take off as we would have liked. I had to re think. Joost left for Stockholm and my girlfriend and I set about finding another product. We landed upon these lovely notebooks made from recycled materials and the Komoni rescue attempt was underway.

We flew in a box of notebooks from Mexico and tested them out in a store in Amsterdam. They were immediately popular and from that moment on we have been growing steadily. In December 2017 we added more designs to our portfolio and discontinued our sneaker line.

Our patience and persistence has finally paid off and in June 2019 I quit to my freelance job to focus all my time on Komoni Amsterdam.

2020 promises to be a great year and we are happy to have you along for the ride. We are growing the number of outlets we sell in and introducing new Dutch and Mexican designs to our portfolio.

Our new website and online store is our latest venture. We hope you like it. I’m super excited!

Justin van Veen ~ Founder