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I follow a ridiculous number of jewelry brands on Instagram—I gave up counting at 31. My feed is filled with thick, brass hoop earrings resting sedately on marble trays, zodiac medallions layered with nameplate necklaces and diamond chokers, pinkies adorned with custom-engraved gold signet rings and silver stacks. But how many of these jewelry brands have I actually worn, you ask? Uh, that’d be a mere four out of 30-something. It's a ratio that probably drives the founders of many new jewelry companies nuts: If Instagram likes were actual sales, they’d live in solid-gold houses.
Of course, it’s easy for a potential customer to follow and “like” a brand on social media. It’s much harder to get that follower to actually part with their hard-earned cash and buy something. It’s a dilemma every new brand faces, and one that the founders of Finley Jewelry have solved in a pretty clever way: by giving their real, fine jewelry away for free. Yes, y'all: FOR. FREE.
It’s a proposition I was low-key suspicious of when I first saw it on Instagram. Here's how it works: For the price of shipping (which costs $17.89, since the brand is currently shipping straight from its workshop in Hong Kong), Finley will send you your choice of a ring, earring, or choker from its Essentials Collection in silver or 14-karat gold vermeil for free. You can also purchase all three pieces for $40.
I tried it, and can confirm that it's real. The Gigi Choker (pictured above) I received is lovely and well-made—I found it comparable in quality to similar pieces I own from Catbird—and its beading makes it a welcome upgrade from the basic delicate chain you probably already own. It's just what my necklace-layering situation was missing.
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The brand's other styles are a minimalist pair of bar stud earrings and a simple, beaded band ring. More styles will come soon (and shipping costs will also drop once the brand starts fulfilling from Toronto). The promotion clearly works, because I’m now eager to see what the brand comes up with next—even if I have to, you know, pay for it.
Giving away free stuff is clearly a genius solution to the reluctant-customer problem, but how on earth is it possibly sustainable or profitable? “That’s the million-dollar question!” Kathleen Chan, Finley’s cofounder, says with a laugh. She’s only kidding: Chan and longtime friend Nathan Tran Trinh launched the brand in August, having saved up what Chan calls “a healthy marketing budget.” However, the two have a background in marketing, and knew that getting new customers on board when the world has no shortage of cool jewelry brands would be both very difficult and very expensive.
“We thought, what’s the best way to learn about a brand? Experience the product firsthand,” Chan says. ”We reworked our plan—instead of spending the money on flashy ads, we put all our advertising budget into covering pieces for our early customers. We hoped this would create grassroots buzz because, hey, it’s not every day someone gives you free bling, and lucky for us, it has.”
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In fact, the buzz has been way bigger than Finley’s founders anticipated. “The response has been massive,” Chan reports. “Since we launched two months ago, we’ve had over 15,000 orders—our site actually glitched out temporarily from all the traffic.” Thus far, it’s a word-of-mouth phenomenon: people trying the brand and spreading the word to their friends. Even at full price, Finley's pieces are pretty reasonable—they range from $80 to $110—but there's just no denying the appeal of free. Not gonna lie, I have personally sent out a few IG messages of the “GIRL, did you see this company is giving away jewelry?!” kind.
It’s a marketing model that’s not totally without precedent: A year ago activewear label Girlfriend Collective generated lots of social media buzz (and subsequent press coverage) by giving away its leggings for the price of shipping alone. The promotion has since ended, and while the brand did not respond to our request for current sales figures, anecdotal data tell us the promotion helped Girlfriend Collective establish a foothold in the also quite crowded athletic market.
Another thing Finley has in common with Girlfriend Collective is the brand's dedication to sustainability and ethical manufacturing. I'm going to admit right here that I routinely side-eye such claims, because it often seems like every direct-to-consumer brand on the block is touting its ethical bona fides, while not actually copping to the massive problems in the industry, or doing much to solve them. But I was genuinely impressed with Chan's knowledge of and candor about the human and environmental costs of jewelry manufacturing, and her brand's earnest dedication to doing things a better way.
“Two of the biggest concerns we wanted to address are [the industry’s] unethical labor practices and unsustainable water process,” Chan says. “It’s unfortunately common to see forced or compulsory labor, unsafe work environments, unregulated hours, the list goes on—it’s not something that should ever be accepted, let alone common in the industry.” To correct for this, Finley works only with SA8000-certified partners across its entire production process, which means each one is subjected to rigorous, ongoing audits to ensure they're exceeding guidelines for safe working conditions and paying employees at all levels fair wages.
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Chan also minces no words about the jewelry industry’s environmental ills—the biggest of which, she says, concerns water. “The water used to mine and manufacture jewelry contains a vast amount of corrosive waste metals," she says. "More often than not, that water is dumped back into a water source that people and wildlife depend on, without being treated." This means water sources, such as rivers and streams, are contaminated, leading to "debilitated wildlife and potentially irreversible environmental damage." To fight this, Finley puts all water used to craft its jewelry through a multistep filtering process that separates the water from waste materials. The water is then sent to a recycling facility for use in other forms of manufacturing. “It’s not a cheap process,” Chan says, "but we don’t believe something as crucial as clean drinking water should ever be put at risk.” To date, Finley has recycled over 67,000 gallons of water, and Chan says they will continue to put responsible wastewater handling at the forefront of their environmental policies.
Finley’s philosophy seems poised to overcome all manner of resistance to trying a new jewelry brand—whether you feel guilty for the environmental impact of your precious metals or you just like to try before you buy. Even in a crowded jewelry market that could be a recipe for success.
Chan reports that the brand plans to continue to help its manufacturing partners invest in cleaner technology, while adding new designs based on customer feedback. Currently, she says, customers are clamoring for ”customizable jewelry options and astrological-themed pieces, which you’ll see in our full line.” There are plans to introduce recycled metals into its collection down the line too.
And about that full line: No official date as of press time, but it launches soon—and when it does, the free-piece campaign will be wrapping up too. So get it while you still can.
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