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Started as a project to preserve artisanal manufacturing in 2013. Due to the increased closures of local Italian production sites, along with the labor and manufacturing activities moving abroad, Flavio Girolami, the founder of the project, noticed that reliable expertise was being ignored in favor of quick and cheap solutions. Production was losing its artisanal soul – things made with love and passion that resulted in quality.
The project yearned to connect creative minds with small producers, to become a hub of research and development that enhances artisanal manufacturing. Today, SSAM exists as an experimental platform of product development and production that creates and produces limited edition objects in various spheres, that aims to preserve and connect local artisans with global design thinkers.
SSAM is about sustainability, but not in a recycling kind of way. It is about buying less, but better things. It is also about allowing a sustainable way of life for everyone involved in making the products. Craftspeople deserve to thrive in life and not just “get by”. It is about respecting materials and ingredients, as well as people and processes. Even how the goods are sold and distributed has to be done with integrity and without reducing anyone’s quality of life along the way. Anyone involved in the making of a SSAM product should be able to live a good life off of their craft.