Lox and Chain was founded by Zak and Frei, business partners and life partners.
We met on Hinge in 2018 and started a long-distance relationship—Frei was in the UK working as an engineer, and Zak was at a café in Palm Beach, Australia. After a few back-and-forth intercontinental trips, Frei moved to Australia in 2020.
When the pandemic hit, Zak lost his job, and Frei’s work required weekly travel. The isolation was tough, so we decided to move up to Byron Bay, where Zak grew up, and focus on building something together: Lox and Chain.
The idea started after months of searching for earrings for Zak and finding nothing that felt right. We could see a need for pieces that blended individuality and art. Even though jewelry may be a saturated market overwhelmed with monotonous feminine pieces and where male jewelry is poorly represented by tacky gym-bro chains, Hip-hop iced rings, hardcore bikey pieces and boho Bali beads... We decided to take matters into our own hands.
With Zak’s artistic background and Frei’s knack for operations, we got started by signing up for a jewelry-making course, creating our first designs while living off $350 a week from Zak’s government payments. That’s how Lox and Chain was born, we started with just earrings and chains. The Knife Fight pendant was Zak’s first wax carving, and it’s still a favourite today.