About Good Luck horseshoes
It must have been my mother’s first car in the early 60s. In that small, light blue simca 1000, as far as I can remember, there was always a horseshoe in the glovebox. Nobody ever asked why it was there because everyone knew that driving at that time was dangerous and that horseshoes brought good luck. And I’m sure it worked because my mother drove for 50 years without damage. And she rode like a guy.
When I obtained my driver’s license many years later, she also gave me a horseshoe for the car. That horseshoe is now in the trunk of my 9th car and I am still driving without damage.
In recent years I have regularly given horseshoes to friends and family. In the beginning it was when a driver’s license was obtained, but later also at a wedding, a baptism or an exciting exam.
Slowly I got so much demand for these lucky charms that I made it into a little shop in 1999.
That shop has grown fast and now we send lucky horseshoes around the world with a whole team.
The horseshoes have become more beautiful in those years, the packaging is better and the package that we sell has become more complete. But the most important thing is: those lucky horseshoes are really used and still bring good luck.
Luke
1999
The demand for lucky horseshoes takes on such forms that it seemed easier to sell them via the internet. That was at a time when internet shops were still very unknown. The first shop therefore focused on the USA, where web shops were already well established.
2000
We thought it would be nice to provide the horseshoes with a personal engraving. That was easily made up, but in practice it was more difficult than expected. The first engraving machine that we bought turned out not to be really suitable. The wrought iron is very hard and in the beginning we have lost a lot of engraving needles. In the meantime we have a whole series of engraving machines specially adapted for us.
2001
The attacks in the USA even have a major impact for us. Most packages that we send to the USA are seized by customs. They don’t trust anyone anymore. Time to look for a new market.
2002
Because the sale to the USA has stopped, we have translated the webshop into Dutch. We are very curious whether the down-to-earth Dutch would like to give each other happiness. And that is indeed the case!
2003
With the Dutch site we get a lot of newspapers and even come here and there on TV. The highlight of the publicity was the attention of ‘Kopspijkers’ for the website. What an enormous response you get!
2004
Times are changing, we are ready for a new design of the webshop. We immediately made everything in German. And that goes well!
2005
We are making a cautious attempt to resume sales in the USA. They have gotten over the worst and the sales are starting again. We are allowed to hand over more lucky horseshoes to famous movie stars.
2006
We have now also adapted the site for the USA for England. Englishmen love lucky horseshoes. Fortunately we are not bothered by the time difference here and the transport costs are not too bad.
2007
The list of foreign dealers is becoming longer and longer. It demands a lot from our office occupation but it is very nice to hear their enthusiastic reactions.
2008
Neiman Marcus is a very chic retail chain in the USA. At their request, we develop a special set of lucky horseshoes. We are even in the Christmas catalog with half a page.
2009
The Ronald Reagan Museum has included the Giant USA in its collection. And we are very proud of that. (not because of Ronald, but because of the museum 😉
2010
We are invited to stand at the Gift Lounge of the Golden Globe elections. It is a wonderful parade of famous (and less famous) movie stars. And they all love the Lucky Horseshoes.
2011
To our surprise, a Giant Horseshoe hangs prominently for an entire season in the office of the protagonist of the American television series Entourage.
2012
Okay, we’re going to do it: For years people asked if they could send in their own horseshoe to get a gilt.
2013
We launched our first Facebook page.
2014
Time for something new: we have redesigned the entire website. Much more modern and now also suitable for mobile use.
2015
We post our first photos on Instagram.
2016
We start selling our Luck on Wood . Completely developed in our own workshop.
2019
Another new website, but now we approach the concept differently. Make your own lucky package, where you can choose your horseshoe, filling and engraving.
2020
Covid… we have to work from home. Suppliers are closing. Exciting times, but we continue to send horseshoes all over the world.
2021
Covid seems to have peaked. We are moving to a larger location. More space, more storage and even a real forklift!
2022
A new year, a new website, we are improving the production process and are busy restyling our happiness packages.