Stick-lets began with a conversation about childhood memories. When industrial designer Christina Kazakia and her friends shared their favourite memories, almost all of them had taken place outdoors. This raised an important question for her: do children today still have enough space to create memories of their own in nature?
While studying at Rhode Island School of Design, Christina explored how screens, busy family schedules, parental concerns and declining access to outdoor education could increase the distance between children and nature. In 2011, her research led to Natural Imagination: Reconnecting Children with Nature and ultimately to Stick-lets.
Christina was not looking for a toy that prescribed what to build. She wanted to create a simple, portable tool that allowed children to explore, design and construct for themselves. The result was a range of flexible connectors that join found branches and sticks.
A den, animal, geometric shape or original invention can be taken apart and rebuilt again and again. Nature provides much of the building material; Stick-lets brings the pieces together. The outcome is never fixed and changes with the location, the available branches and the builders’ ideas.
Stick-lets are made from stretchy silicone rubber. The connectors are reusable, weather-resistant and suitable for branches of different thicknesses. When they are no longer used for play, they can take on a new purpose in gardening or practical constructions.
Silicone lasts a long time, but it is not biodegradable and is not easy to recycle. The brand selected this material for its combination of flexibility, strength and outdoor durability. Stick-lets therefore recommends reusing the connectors for as long as possible and not leaving them outdoors permanently.
The concept is easy to understand at a glance: collect branches, connect them and discover what emerges. Yet every structure is different. Stick-lets therefore has a clear story for customers looking for outdoor play, open-ended play and construction materials that allow children to develop their own ideas together.
The different colours and shapes accommodate branches of varying thicknesses. The collection includes compact sets and larger versions for several builders. The same recognisable product idea remains at the centre while the scale of the construction can grow.
