by Mackenzie Hurlbert
You know the saying: If you like it, then you better put a ring on it. Well, as the leading wholesale supplier of sterling silver and stainless steel jewelry, The Welman Group has the quality, variety, and affordability jewelry resellers desire. With hundreds of designs and everything from rings, to ear cuffs, to pendants and chains, the company has worked since 1983 to be on top of the wholesale jewelry industry. “We are constantly searching for new and popular styles,” said Corey Simons, sales manager from The Welman Group. “It is always good to be setting the trends rather than following the pack. You have to be aware of what everyone else is doing, but it is nice when you hit your own stride and you start something new yourself.”
When it comes to designing new styles, The Welman Group pulls inspiration from current trends, fashion, and history. One of their most popular items is the Claddagh ring. “They have been around forever,” said Simons. “They started hundreds of years ago in Ireland and they are more popular now than they have ever been.” Once a source of inspiration is discovered, the company works to tweak and redefine the style in new ways. “You can always twist a style, you can add a stone, you can change a stone, you can realize that this not just a women’s ring but it overlaps into a men’s ring as well,” said Simons. “You can tweak, change, and expand. There are lots of opportunities.”
The Welman Groups’ most popular products are silver rings and stainless steel jewelry. When the price of silver increased drastically in the 2000’s,The Welman Group shifted to include stainless steel jewelry in their product catalog. Simons said consumers have different relationships with their jewelry and its material. While stainless steel is tough and durable, silver has more sentimentality. “People like the stainless steel,” said Simons. “Stainless steel is surgical steel and it never tarnishes. You can swim in the ocean, you can garden, you can work, and nothing ever happens to stainless steel. It is hard to break it even if you try.”
Silver, however, is a more cherished, delicate metal, Simons says, and holds more emotional weight. “Sterling silver is one of the most classic metals that there is. It is considered a precious metal. People, who love silver, really love it. A lot of people love silver more than gold. If you offered them a gold ring or a silver ring, they take the silver.”
Simons says the weathering and impressionable feel of silver is what gives it an emotional significance: “Over time the silver ring gets battered, it might get a dent in it that you remember from a certain night and you tend to get a personal, emotional relationship with your silver, especially with silver rings, which are our best seller.” Looking to the future, The Welman Group hopes to keep expanding and improving. “We are always changing, expanding, going with the trends and trying set the trends,” said Simons.