Our Story

From two collars for Skip and Teddy to a brand that plays by its own rules.

Every brand starts somewhere. Ours started with two dogs.

Dog with a Mission was founded by Eugenie Verbiest and Kim Koopman, who went looking for a dog collar they couldn't find anywhere. At the time, most collars were practical, sensible, and almost always black or brown. Beautiful craftsmanship was rare. Color was rarer still.

So they made one themselves — something as bold as the dogs wearing it.

Looking back, that one decision sparked an adventure neither of them could have predicted.

A Kitchen Table, Leather, and YouTube

In 2014, Eugenie was working as a flight attendant for KLM, and Kim as an interior stylist. Neither had ever touched leather, let alone built a brand.

The first collars were made right at their kitchen table. Kim cut the leather, hand-stitched every collar, and attached the colorful straps one by one. Eugenie built the webshop, launched Instagram, and handled everything happening behind the scenes. Whenever they hit a wall, they simply looked it up on YouTube.

The First Customers Found Them

On walks with Skip and Teddy, people kept stopping to ask about the collars. The same question always followed: "Could you make one for my dog too?"

So they did — not because they wanted to build a business, but because making someone else's dog look this good was reason enough.

A small concept store in Bergen agreed to display a few collars. Within a week, every one had sold. It still didn't feel like a business.

Then an email arrived from Germany.

The Email That Changed Everything

It came from Amy & Friends, a pet boutique in Germany, with one question: could they sell Dog with a Mission?

For Eugenie and Kim, that was the moment it started to sink in — this might be bigger than they'd ever imagined.

From Doing It Alone to Doing It Together

At first, Eugenie and Kim made everything themselves. It was creative, it was fun, and it was a lot of work — especially as orders kept coming in.

Eventually, they had part of the leather cut by a local leatherworker in the Netherlands. The colorful straps, though, they still attached by hand.

One thing was clear: if Dog with a Mission wanted to grow, something had to change.

A Suitcase Full of Possibilities

Messages started coming in on Instagram from manufacturers around the world. One was based in India. Eugenie wrote back to ask if they could produce samples.

Not long after, Eugenie and Kim stood at their first-ever trade show — Interzoo, in Nuremberg — as the manufacturer from India opened a suitcase packed with samples.

The moment it opened, they knew. The pieces looked exactly like something they would have made themselves: colorful, sturdy, and full of the same attention to detail that defined Dog with a Mission from day one.

That suitcase marked the start of a partnership that still stands today. The workshop in India has grown alongside DWAM ever since, and that long-term relationship remains one of the brand's foundations.

A Leap of Faith

Dog with a Mission kept growing — new customers, new stores, new collections, more plans than hours in the day.

Eventually, it was clear the brand could no longer be a side project. Eugenie left her job at KLM, a job she'd genuinely loved. Kim committed to Dog with a Mission full-time too.

It was a leap. But it felt like the right one.

From then on, DWAM wasn't something they did alongside their lives — it became their daily work, their creative outlet, and eventually, their life's work.

Growing, Learning, and Choosing Again

Growth never happens on its own. During the pandemic, Dog with a Mission grew fast — more orders, more customers, more work, and a growing team to match.

That growth taught them something unexpected: hiring more people doesn't automatically make things easier. Eugenie and Kim realized they were makers and designers first, not managers.

For a while, that growth pulled them away from where it all started — designing, creating, staying close to the brand. It was a valuable lesson: bigger isn't always better, especially when it costs you the creativity you built everything on.

Three-Time FD Gazellen Nominee

During those years, Dog with a Mission was named an FD Gazellen nominee three years running — the Netherlands' annual award for its fastest-growing companies.

Growth was never the goal in itself. But it proved something: an idea that started with two dogs and a kitchen table had become a serious international brand.

Why DWAM Is Different

Dog with a Mission has never followed the pack. When Eugenie and Kim started, the market was full of muted colors and safe designs — black, brown, and forgettable.

DWAM went the other way: color, character, and combinations nobody else was making. Inspiration comes from everywhere — a trip abroad, a fabric, a street corner, an old towel, a detail most people wouldn't think twice about.

That's why collections come together intuitively, not from a trend report or months of meetings, but from two people looking at something and simply knowing: this is it.

More Than a Collar

A DWAM product isn't just meant to work. It's meant to mean something.

You should be able to see and feel the care that went into every last detail — the color, the leather, the finish. Not just any collar, but one that makes you smile every time your dog puts it on.

It's the reaction Eugenie and Kim still hear from customers today: the quality surprises them. The colors look even better in real life. Their dog gets stopped for compliments on every walk.

That's exactly where this all began.

The Mission Behind the Name

The name Dog with a Mission comes from Kim's previous dog, Beertje, who died young after an accident on a walk. For Kim, Beertje's memory has always carried one idea: that his life meant something.

Beertje became the dog with a mission. That idea still runs through the brand today — Dog with a Mission isn't only about beautiful products, it's about giving something back.

That's why DWAM has supported animal welfare projects for years, including initiatives on Bonaire and animal aid closer to home in the Netherlands.

The mission takes different shapes over time, but the idea behind it never changes: build something beautiful, and use it to do something good.

From Dogs to Horses

The love for horses was always there, quietly, in the background. In the early years, Eugenie and Kim even sketched plans for horse products and designed browbands, long before there was ever a line to build around them.

At the time, they chose to focus fully on dogs. The world of horses felt like its own universe, with its own rules and its own demands.

The idea never disappeared, though. Years later, a major customer in the US asked whether Dog with a Mission made anything for horses — and the idea landed back on the table, at exactly the right moment.

That's why the new horse line doesn't feel like a side project. It feels like something that was always part of the brand — the same colors, the same instantly recognizable style, the same love for handmade design. Just for horses this time.

Our Story Continues

Dog with a Mission was built on passion, creativity, and a love for dogs. That might sound simple, but it's exactly what still drives the brand today.

Every design comes down to choices — about color, material, fit, and quality. About what belongs at DWAM, and what doesn't.

Eugenie and Kim have learned a lot since those first collars for Skip and Teddy. They've made mistakes, celebrated wins, and chosen their own direction more than once. But one thing has never changed: Dog with a Mission only makes what it's genuinely excited about.

Products with character. For dogs with character. And now, for horses with character too.

What started at a kitchen table has grown into a brand that dog lovers around the world keep finding their way back to. But the foundation is still exactly the same.

Two women.
Two dogs.
A world full of color.
And a mission that's only just getting started.