Siblings Zelia and Dario are the core of Oy. Read about their roots and some answers to questions they are often asked!

"For pure joy." That's the answer you get when you ask Zelia Zadra what made her start Oy. Although it was never her goal to become an entrepreneur, she started creating her first surf bikinis in 2012. A year later, the online shop was launched. Throughout all these years, Zelia has been guided by her passion for surfing. Together with her brother Dario, she discovered the happiness and beauty of surfing during a family holiday almost 20 years ago. To this day, surfing is something that connects them both and influences their path in life in many ways.

Dario was involved in the company from the beginning, especially in setting up the website. Having already spent a lot of time helping out here and there, he decided it would only make sense to join the company full-time. Today, the siblings form the core of Oy. Zelia runs the company from Zurich, takes care of communication and marketing, creates the designs and oversees production in Portugal. Dario, who studied product design and lives in Berlin, has since taken care of the online shop and sales in Europe.

Zelia, what is your favorite bikini from Oy?

Buri, Mako and Orfe if I want maximum sun protection. And I always need a dry bikini with me. I prefer Ora and Oroshi.

Dario, what can you not do without in your private life?

Spaghetti, spaghetti, spaghetti. I need a double portion of spaghetti at least once a week, carb loading times three. Fun fact: for the entrance exam for design school, I designed a spaghetti vending machine.

What is it like to work together as a sibling team?

Basically, it's like any other team; each member brings their own skills and strengths to the table, making the team complete. At the same time, each member has their own preferences and ideas, for example when it comes to developing a new product or designing a new campaign. This can sometimes lead to lengthy discussions. The best thing about a sibling team is that everyone trusts each other unconditionally. This gives the working relationship a sense of calm that is very pleasant and fun.

What has Oy made you more aware of in terms of sustainability?

As a manufacturing brand, we are always in conflict between consumption and sustainability. We want to have as little impact on the environment as possible while selling products at the same time. The logical consequence would be not to produce any products at all. But since we know the demand for good bikinis, we have decided to deliver a maximally sustainable product and thus push less sustainable bikinis out of the market. In the ten years that we have been producing bikinis, we have learned an incredible amount about materials and processes. For example, we started working with recycled materials relatively early on and tried to shorten transport routes by moving production to Portugal, for example. We are also proud to offer very high-quality bikinis that last more than just one season in terms of design and quality.

What is most important to you at Oy?

As a brand, we want to constantly inspire and set a good example, especially when it comes to sustainability. Personally, we want to do what we enjoy. With Oy, we can do both: We bring a useful product to the market and can stand 100% behind our work. We want to be more than just a product and offer our customers added value by sharing our experience from bikini production and our knowledge of a sustainable lifestyle.

What are the biggest challenges?

Our biggest challenge right now is getting the product ready to be produced on time. It starts with planning the collections and ordering materials. At the moment, there are extremely long delivery times for materials. This is forcing us to start planning the 2024 collections now. In addition, the demand for local production facilities in Europe has increased enormously, which means that the order books of the manufacturing companies in Portugal have been full for a long time. This makes it very difficult for smaller brands in particular to assert themselves and get a production slot in time. We are incredibly grateful that we have a very good and long-standing relationship with our sewing factory in Portugal, which ensures the production of our bikinis.