Reviving Traditional Sadu @ Gifts and Premium Dubai

Everyone in the corporate gifts industry has arguably played and sold some type of sadu product since the dawn of the textile. Sadu is that traditional arabesque bedouin fabric that lines tent walls and covers tent furniture. It's a desert print that everyone and their grandmother likes to take credit for hustling at least once. We are not the first. This is true. But we are the first to carry the textile through three Dubai Gift and Premium exhibitions and each year transforming our products into more meaningful and intriguing gift solutions. I won't call it our signature quite yet. But this is the first year I saw heads turn. I've believed this since my years at university — nostalgia will always be in style.

As a case study, let's break down our Nomadi tech stationery products. There is a major principle of design I believe we deploy successfully: contrast.

Our original Nomadi design consists of smooth PU leather that contrasts the rough texture of sadu. Again, we contrast themes, pairing textiles alongside electronic products. And not only is the sadu traditional, but we're adding it to a product that already represents an arguably archaic business tool — paper stationery. Pen, paper with a powerbank that charges your phone? We've taken the concept of constant connectivity and told people to connect with their past. 

Developing a niche is the future of the gift business and if you're too busy running around trading anything and everything, you're going to struggle — we have for nearly half a decade, competing against traders chasing the same products and stockists who have crumbled the market by offering rock-bottom prices just to stay afloat. For competitors studying this blog for an edge, I say minimize you're overheads but invest in a sophisticated designer. Minimize you're product offerings and focus on crafting solutions with opposing values, or capitalizing on themes that would by nature conflict each other.