INĀ KEI TE TO MOHIO KOE KO WAI KOE, I ANGA MAI KOE I HEA, KEI TE MOHIO KOE, KEI TO ANGA ATU KI HEA
If you know who you are and where you are from then you will know where you are going
Our story begins with one of the founding owners Leighton Faulkner who serves as a soldier with the New Zealand Army. It is here during his time serving that he identified a gap and often thought that a curated box to keep his service dress clean, organised, and complete would be of benefit. His idea lay dormant for several years until 2017 when he and his partner in life and in business put their Kiwi number eight wire and Māori ingenuity business minds together to create the Service Dress Box(SD Box©). With no current offering on the New Zealand and global market, the SD Box© is positioned as the first of its kind because it has been specifically developed to store, protect and transport service dress wear for regular, reserves or retired service men and women in Aotearoa (New Zealand) and around the globe. We are in the final stages of prototyping before we test it and launch into market in 2022. During our journey it was asked if we could also look at designing some carriage products to store, transport and protect cultural items after a few months of designing and testing we bring to you to the first of our cultural range – R A K A U
Haere mai he wāhanga ō te kōrero Squared Away, come and be part of the Squared Away story!
TE PARANI
(the brand)
Our brand is inspired by the chevron that you often see on service men and women’s uniform both here in Aotearoa (New Zealand) and around the globe. Looking at the chevron you get an isometric view of a two layered box, incidentally this was Leighton’s rank as corporal in the New Zealand Army. In the top right arm of the chevron we included a raranga pattern (traditional Māori form of weaving) that incorporates the three sacred mountains in the region we reside, Tongariro, Ngauruhoe, and Ruapehu. The raranga pattern is symbolic of our Māori identity and acknowledges Tangata Whenua, it keeps us connected to who we are, where we are from by weaving a pathway forward to connect us to Te Ao (the world).
The name Squared Away is a term used widely when referencing to organise, prepare or complete something which is our promise to you.