Last week, I had the chance to have a nice, long talk with industry veteran Neil Koppel, who is currently president and CEO of JewelNet.com Corp. and lab-grown diamond company Renaissance Diamonds.
With the state of publishing what it is today--a gaping online maw for information provided by smaller and smaller editorial staffs--it’s not often that I really get to sit down with somebody and hear, in detail, about a project for which they feel genuine passion.
But I had that chance last week with Koppel, and I’m glad I took advantage.
Koppel is a man who certainly has logged his share of years in the jewelry industry. He also is a man with a plane and a pilot’s license who found himself with some time on his hands in January 2010, the same time a massive, magnitude-7.0 earthquake shook Haiti.
Three days after the quake, Koppel loaded up his plane and flew south, making his first trip from his home in Boca Raton, Fla. to the island nation.
Not too long after landing, he saw something that would change the course of his life: men stacking up the bodies of earthquake victims alongside an airstrip simply because they didn’t have anywhere else to put them.
“In life, if there is something called a defining moment then that’s (my) defining moment,” Koppel said.
Over the next 18 months, that initial flight morphed into a string of back-and-forth missions, 58 in total.
Koppel scrolls through countless pictures from his trips stored on his iPad to recount this period of his life and remains emotional in the retelling to this day. Looking at the photos, it’s easy to understand why. They are difficult to see, showing the stark reality of what happens when an already extremely poor country is hit with a major natural disaster.
During his time flying relief missions, Koppel rescued the critically injured, reunited families and helped to erect housing. He also happened to make the acquaintance of actor Sean Penn, who has been leading relief efforts there through his J/P Haitian Relief Organization (J/P HRO).
While it may be cliché to say the two “hit it off,” that’s exactly what happened--Penn even gave Koppel a small role in the not-terribly-well-reviewed movie Gangsta Squad. (Koppel played Max Solomon, which was enough to net him his first and only entry on IMDB).
After nearly 60 missions to Haiti, Koppel’s back gave out and he could no longer provide the type of on-site support he had been for months. So he turned back to the industry he’d been a
Together with his wife Nikki, Koppel came up with the concept for “Links,” a line of bracelets and chokers crafted in base metal with a number of different finishes, in sterling silver and in 14-karat gold.
The jewelry is made in the United States by Haitian workers, with the idea that the line eventually will grow to the point where the company can open up a factory in Haiti. For now, however, 10 percent of the sales from Links go directly to Penn’s Haitian relief organization.
Links is split into two lines, “Sport” and “Classic.” The Sport line has copper (pictured here), carbon microfiber and black steel treatments.
Classic comprises the pieces that are white- or rose-gold plated, sterling silver (above right) or 14-karat gold. All pieces contain the line’s signature Buddha-head charms, set with lab-grown diamonds.
Retail prices for Links jewelry range from $129 to $559.
Koppel said the idea behind the line is to give retailers a price-point friendly, saleable item that also contributes to a worthy cause, hence the collection’s tagline: “Look Good. Feel Good. Do Good.”
It sounds good to me.
Michelle Graffis the editor-in-chief at National Jeweler, directing the publication’s coverage both online and in print.
With the state of publishing what it is today--a gaping online maw for information provided by smaller and smaller editorial staffs--it’s not often that I really get to sit down with somebody and hear, in detail, about a project for which they feel genuine passion.
