From a shop in Metepec to mugs in more than 100 countries: the Kuppani story

Sometimes you wonder: "how can you turn something so 'simple' into something 'wonderful'?" The answer is simple: believe, share, transform and take the leap!

What am I talking about? 🤨 Let me tell you…

Kuppani began eight years ago. We took the plunge of choosing a name and even designing a logo (with no experience). Maybe we knew nothing about mugs, but what we did know was that we would become something in the future.

Our first name was Dovana. We opened to the public on February 2, 2013, in a picturesque little town that held no magic for me because I have lived there all my life, but that gave my partner a sense of home, of warmth, of wanting to explore what would happen if…

Back then, Dovana was the result of badly paid jobs and of looking for opportunities and not finding them. It was the result of a couple who wanted to be together and do something great with their lives. One day, walking around town on a weekday, when in theory we should have been working, we came across a shop in the center with a "FOR RENT" sign. Without hesitating we called, and without thinking we rented it. What would happen? We did not know. What we knew was that we had a place and that we had to make a living from something 😱. Maybe we did not do things "the right way", but if we have learned one thing, it is that you never learn from someone else's mistakes.

We started with what we knew, the basics: a shop, open Monday to Sunday, run by the two of us, selling gifts and waiting for people to come in and buy. For two years we did not live badly. We covered the rent, we had food, and at the end of the day my partner walked me home. But we had a "something" that bothered us, and we did not know 😨 what it was.

When we decided to specialize in mugs

Honestly, I do not know what happened, but one day we stopped being in the shop, we stopped waiting for people, and things fell into place. We started to see that little gifts were not our thing and that we had a star product: an "ordinary" one that we could turn into a masterpiece.

And so a new journey began 🙃, between my stubbornness about not letting go of the "gifts" and my partner's full conviction that mugs were our thing. We started to research and study 📚. We learned to draw a design on the computer, to sketch a character to put on a mug. I remember that at first it took us almost a month to make a single mug. Over time we perfected the technique of drawing, engraving and painting, and went from a month to just three days.

In that picturesque place we became the mug place. Visitors passed by and took home a mug engraved and painted by us. Design interns came who wanted to be with us, craftspeople trusted the project and fired mugs for us, and shops became interested in selling our work.

A souvenir, a showcase piece, a "that's so cool", an "I will use it every day", an "oh no, my mug broke, I want an identical one", a "I will put my name on it so no one takes it at the office"… these are phrases we have heard all this time. And when they see the final result, they always end up with a smile. That smile means we managed to pass on the Kuppani feeling: turning a simple mug into YOUR MUG.

The big leap: closing the door to open it to the world

Four or five years went by when we felt like doing something more, like stepping out of the box. Once again I was reluctant about drastic change, and my partner had ideas that still did not fit in my head, but both of us were on the same page about making Kuppani great.

Eight years later, we have closed our location to the public (although our great team keeps working behind closed doors) and we have ventured into the world of e-commerce. Me with a thousand fears, and I imagine my partner too 🤭. Each of us started to study and specialize in what we like about Kuppani. The goal: keep passing on what we had in our physical location, but now to thousands more people, nationally and internationally.

And before we knew it… our mugs had traveled the world: they have reached every continent and more than 100 countries, and we are in almost every state in Mexico. Part of our mission had been accomplished: making your home a place of Kuppani memories.

Turning something "simple" into something "wonderful" is not impossible. We simply believed, and we still believe, in our MUGS. Metepec, the magical town that watched us grow, is the place we will never forget, because that is where our story began 🙂.

We want that when you sit down with a Kuppani mug, at home, in your favorite café, at your office, you enjoy every moment and remember it with a BIG SMILE. Because life is about SMILING, ENJOYING and HAVING A GOOD TIME.