- Coffee with
“Alright. Now. All in.”
I’m sitting with Lara Kinzel, drinking a Mount Hagen coffee (a Peruvian espresso with lots of milk) and talking about her small but wonderful company, LOVE:40. Here, used privacy screens and other materials from tennis courts are turned into beautiful bags and accessories.
Barbara Beiertz
When materials tell stories.
BK: Lara, I know you’ve designed bags for high-end brands. Are you now on the upcycling track with LOVE:40?
LK: Yes, exactly. I used to work for a company near Frankfurt, designing bags and accessories for Escada, Stella McCartney, Gucci, and other brands. That’s when I came up with the idea for LOVE:40. I found it incredibly exciting to develop bags because they’re such an exciting product. The process is challenging. But at some point, I reached a point where I asked myself: Why always design for others?
Of course, when it comes to design, the final decision always lies with the customer. You can learn a lot from that, and it’s also fun. But then there came a moment when I thought: Now I’d like to decide whether it should be blue or green.
B: But how did upcycling as a concept come about? What was the driving force?
L: LOVE:40 wasn’t actually born out of the idea of upcycling at all. In 2015, when the idea first came about, nobody was talking about upcycling. The word wasn’t as common as it is today. It came about more because I find materials that tell a story incredibly exciting.
When a material is new, every bag looks the same. But when I work with old material, one side may be faded, while the other may have become a little cloudy from water. There may be a tear or a mark on the material, or it may be creased. In other words, the material tells a story. And that was the central theme that interested me. I think it’s so cool to work with something that’s simply not new.
B: Unusual enough, because most designers would say: I want a “blank slate.”
L: Yes, it’s special, but in that moment, I’m essentially incorporating a story into my product. For example: The oldest tarpaulin in our collection is 22 years old. When you think about everything it has been through in that time…
B: And if it were able to speak…
L: Exactly. It would be incredibly exciting to tell that story. There are also customers who absolutely love this aspect of the products and say, “Please tell me right away where the tarpaulin comes from! What is the background? What do you know about the material?”
Wherever possible, we try to categorize the products and say, for example: Here we have a material from the Davis Cup in Düsseldorf, and that black one was from the tournament in Hamburg. And so, each product has its own story.
Let's see what happens.
B: How did you come up with the idea of using tennis nets, tarpaulins, and all that stuff?
L: I have been playing tennis since I was a child and have spent many years of my life on tennis courts – back then at tournaments, with all the waiting times between matches and so on. I have always been interested in everything that goes on around it. So it wasn’t that strange for me to go for a material that comes from these courts.
The exciting question was, of course, whether these wind and privacy screens (as they are officially called) could even be processed and sewn. That was completely unclear. The first two screens were given to us by Klipper THC Hamburg at the time. The first samples were ten shoulder bags that were sewn, ten cosmetic bags, and ten lanyards. I wasn’t sure at all: Would it work with an industrial machine? Is the material something that people like to touch, or does it feel unpleasant? And how does it behave? It was a blank slate at that point.
Today, I can say that it’s a cool material. It’s lightweight, robust, and has no problem with water – so it’s fantastic for bags and accessories. I come from a product design background and have worked for companies in this field. Not always bags – I also used to make costume jewelry and eyewear for many years, but I’ve always stayed in the accessories sector.
B: And now you’ve been doing LOVE:40 since 2015?
L: At the time, I was still working in my old job and commuting between Hamburg and Frankfurt for a long time. That’s where the idea came from. Far from it becoming a company – it was just an idea. And somehow cool: Let’s give it a try and see what happens.
Perhaps a key factor was that the tennis magazine published a very short article about us. I had sent them a photo to show them what we were doing and find out what they thought of the product. As a result, people actually got in touch and asked if they could buy it. There was no online shop at the time, so it was all email inquiries. In any case, it was clear that not everyone thought the idea was stupid.
And then it slowly and gradually grew a little bit more. But as I said, that wasn’t my job at all at the time. I became a mother and had other priorities.
The story behind upcycling.
In 2018, we attended an event in Nuremberg. It was a tournament where the organizers gave us the opportunity to have a small booth with three start-ups throughout the week to present our products. I remember being incredibly excited at the time and traveling there with two Ikea bags full of merchandise.
You can imagine that it didn’t pay off at all, because the accommodation costs alone far exceeded the income that could be generated from selling two Ikea bags. But the feedback was good. And – it was 2018 – it was interesting: We had to explain the word “upcycling” very, very often back then. “Upcycling? What’s that?” It wasn’t familiar at all. So, we told the whole story: We work with old materials, we process them by hand in Hamburg, everything locally.
At that time, price was naturally a major issue. Our cosmetic bag cost €39 at the time. The reaction was often: “What? I can buy a cosmetic bag for €10. Why does yours cost €39?” It was then really necessary to break down the entire manufacturing process: We get the material from an association. We first have to cut it to size, wash it, and store it. Then it goes to the tailor’s and is handmade in Hamburg. “Ah, yes, that makes sense,” people would say. But it required a lot of explanation at the time.
During COVID a lot of things changed. Upcycling – almost everyone knows what that means today. Local production has also become more visible, and people are aware that Germany and Hamburg have higher production costs than if production took place on the other side of the world. So, it has become easier over the years because people have gained a better understanding of the process behind it.
B: And when did you officially take the plunge and resign from your old job?
L: I put it off for a long time and continued working part-time for a while. At some point, it became clear that it just wasn’t going to work with a child – part-time work and LOVE:40. I would have had to give something up, maybe sleep (she laughs). That was too much for me. I said to myself, “Okay, let’s take the risk.” You just have to see how it goes.
B: And how is it going?
L: It’s awesome because it allows me to focus.
B: Would you do it differently if you could?
L: No! But that’s an interesting question. I think if someone had given me today’s answer at the time, it would have been absolutely perfect. Before that, I was always employed and, as a mother, I really appreciated the security that came with it. But then you suddenly have to weigh up other values: Self-fulfillment, freedom, all these aspects that run counter to that. And yes, it wasn’t my wish to file my taxes quarterly, but now I’m even happy to do that (she smiles).
B: An indiscreet question: Can you make a living from it?
L: Yes, things are going quite well now. But if I did this job for a company, I would probably earn more.
B: So, you have a child, your store, the online shop. You have to develop the design, take care of the materials, maybe even talk to your seamstress. You have to come up with new ideas. What does a normal day look like for you?
L: To be honest, there are no “normal” days. There are certain things that happen repeatedly. For example, taking my son to school. Of course, there are times, just like in any other job, when you say: Now I’m going to check my email, now I’m going to take care of this or that.
It’s great that I have people with whom I’ve simply grown together. A lot of things are no longer very time-consuming. We understand each other, and a lot of things just work out with a quick call. There are people who really take the pressure off me, and that’s great. There have been and still are phases, especially when things are in transition, when it can sometimes be a bit much. But once you get back into a bit of a routine, it’s actually fine.
B: Getting consistency right is the hardest thing of all, isn’t it?
L: Yes, I always feel like it’s a staircase – and you always have to climb up to the next step. There’s a bit of continuity, and then the next step comes along.
B: Are you a big coffee drinker?
L: Three coffees a day. Two in the morning, one in the afternoon.
B: Really? That strict?
L: Yes, more is not good, and less is not possible either.
B: To be honest, this is my second one. And there will be two more to follow. – What does your son think of all this? He’s six or seven now, right?
L: Seven. He just grew up with it. It’s completely natural for him. I also think it’s great how he thinks about materials. For him, it’s a completely normal process to reuse things, not just throw them away, and come up with good ideas for what to do with them. He applies this principle in other areas too, which makes me really happy, because you can see that he’s growing up with it.
B: Do you believe that having a role model helps?
L: I don’t know if I would call it a role model, but somehow he gets it.
B: You live it, let’s put it that way. Of course, we constantly ask ourselves how we can motivate people to think about it and perhaps at least change their perspective. What I have noticed time and again is that if you set an example, it will at least make people think. Just like you explained your product: Look at what’s behind it.
Take our coffee, for example: A kilo costs around 22 euros (approx. 26 USD). But that means no pesticides, no chemical fertilizers that make life very easy, no mechanical processing that makes life very easy, no monocultures, so a lot of manual labor. This coffee is actually picked by hand and sorted by hand. That always sounds so strange, but it’s true.
L: I think that when you know what’s behind it, it completely changes your perspective. I also saw your calculation of the price of coffee and thought, Yes, of course, when you start thinking about it that way, it’s completely logical. And legitimate. But how often do you do that when you’re standing in the supermarket? Definitely not often enough.
Win-win.
B: Do you know what would normally happen to those green, blue, and yellow wind and privacy screens you use if you didn’t process them further?
L: This is commercial waste that is being disposed of. Disposal is even subject to a fee.
B: Does that mean it would be burned?
L: I suppose so.
B: Wow… And it’s not an insignificant amount, is it?
L: No, it’s actually a lot. Here you can normally see individual “portions” of the material. The normal situation is that there are mountains of it. When a facility or tournament registers, they make sure that as much as possible is reused. But if the material is printed or has been fastened with cable ties, that’s obviously not possible. Another interesting case is when there’s a change of sponsor. You will never be able to reuse everything.
On the one hand, there’s the tournament. There are mountains we sometimes have to face. And then you really have to select carefully and decide what to take with you and what to store. And then there’s the club: It has twelve tennis courts. Each court has two screens for wind and privacy protection and advertising space. One of them is 24 square meters – measuring 12 by 2 meters. That’s the standard screen. Some are also oversized. So, we have 24 screens measuring 24 square meters each, which is 576 square meters of screen material on this one facility – and then, “surprisingly,” the main sponsor changes…
B: Oh dear, what happens then?
L: Everything needs to be taken down – the entire set of equipment. The sponsor won’t be left hanging there. Then we arrive and find ourselves standing in front of a mountain that is significantly taller than I am.
B: Which would otherwise simply be disposed of… Because the sponsor is changing. And you say that it would be very expensive as commercial waste. So, the clubs and tournament organizers are naturally happy when you take it off their hands.
L: Yes. But many now also think it’s cool if something new can come out of it. That’s how our partnerships came about, for example with the German Tennis Federation (DTB): We take a lot of material from the DTB, process it further – and then some of it goes back to the DTB as a product.
This way, we can tell the story of what happened to the items that were discarded back then. It’s really nice that clubs, associations, tournaments, and companies now contact us directly with information and requests for materials when they have something to dispose of. It works really well now. It wasn’t always like that in the beginning; it took a lot of door-to-door canvassing, but now we’ve reached the point where word of our mission, “Save the Tennis Planet,” has spread.
B: Are there other sports where this would also work?
L: The principle of upcycling works for every sport. Every sport has materials that are produced over and over again. These can be flags or logo walls, for example. We can recycle all of these materials. But the focus of LOVE:40 is tennis.
B: What I find so brilliant about this is that it’s a classic win-win situation. The club or association has a problem getting rid of the stuff. You turn the problem into an opportunity and add value, which is of course extremely interesting for a brand or a tournament.
L: Yes, totally. We did that for Porsche this year. Last year, Porsche had put up some really great photos of the players in various areas of the tournament. After the tournament, all the material was given to us. We then used it to make racket bags. We used a variety of colors for the outside. And on the inside, we sewed in all the Porsche materials with the motifs – sometimes players’ faces, sometimes a winner’s trophy, a wide variety of cutouts. A limited series that was only available this year, 2025, 25 pieces – very exclusive. And they were then sold by Porsche at this year’s tournament.
B: From a branding perspective, it’s a very cool concept. You can communicate on a level that others are not on. It’s almost guerrilla-like in how you can use it without having to put in a huge amount of effort.
Creativity. Frustration. Motivation.
B: Where do you get your ideas from?
L: I can’t really say where they come from. They’re just there somehow. Sometimes they’re not, but that’s really rare – luckily. And that’s the part I like doing best. Tax returns aren’t part of it, but this part is.
B: What do you do when you have a mental block?
L: It’s best to take a step back. If I don’t have an opinion on something, then I can’t move forward. So, I do sports, something completely different, and leave it alone. That’s the nice thing about having a lot of work – there is always something to do. I also spend a lot of time with my son, which is always a distraction. I think that’s normal in any creative profession. We’re not machines that can constantly churn something out.
B: It would be a real shame if that were to happen – keyword AI. My big topic right now is confidence. At the beginning of the year, I sat there and thought, I can’t hear any more about all these crises. I don’t want to hear about them anymore. Did you feel the same way?
L: I went through that phase too at some point. I thought maybe you have to stop consuming media so you don’t have to deal with it anymore. I think that when you can’t change things, it’s frustrating, but then you have to distance yourself from it. And do what you can in the area you’re in. I get incredible joy from my work when I see new products being created. When we come up with cool designs. When a bag like this works in practice, it’s amazing. That motivates me so much. Perhaps we need to focus more on this than on all the issues that we cannot influence, or can only influence to a limited extent.
B: Through your work, you still exert influence despite everything.
L: In one area, yes. But I also believe that talking about it and passing on the story is something that sticks with people – and can have an impact. And so on.
B: What do the companies you work with think about this?
L: The companies I work with treat this issue with great respect. They are aware of it and see the necessity. We can’t all save the planet every day, but we are doing something in areas where we can make a difference. In the early days, some people would smile and say, “Oh, nice Mrs. Kinzel, she had a nice idea.” But that has changed in the meantime.
B: What was the reason for that?
L: I think there are several factors at play here: Society has changed, of course. And I’ve probably become more confident over the years. It’s easier today. We don’t just do something sustainable. Of course, LOVE:40 is sustainable, but what’s behind it should be sexy, it should be beautiful. That’s our focus – to show that you can really turn things into something truly beautiful. Like these racket bags, for example. Then it works.
Now. All in!
B: My very last question, which I ask all my “coffee with…” interview partners: What was your best mistake?
L: We touched on this earlier: That was the point before I decided to take the leap. I held on to this hybrid model of still working part-time for a really long time. It took a lot of effort to take this step. But it was totally worth it.
B: What do you mean by effort?
L: It’s probably this juxtaposition of values. We talked about that earlier. It was a process, and uncertainty probably played a role too. The process took time until I was ready to say, “Alright. Now. All in.”
From today’s perspective, I would say: Of course you have to decide something like that earlier. But simply knowing what you’re doing it for wasn’t a mistake after all. In that respect, it was the best I could do.
A brief addendum:
As we continued to enjoy our coffee, Lara informed me that LOVE:40 has been nominated for the German Sustainability Award for the second time this year.* The winners will be announced in early December. We are certainly keeping our fingers crossed.
