Our Story
It started the way most good things do. In nature, with family, and a genuine curiosity for the way it all works.
Growing up in Florida, I learned to hunt for sharks teeth at Hogtown Creek near Gainesville, FL before I knew much else about the world. My dad, Charlie, taught me how to read the riverbed, what colors and textures to look for, and what species each treasure came from. Sting rays, sharks, and the occasional random cow or horse tooth. He must’ve found 20 sharks teeth before I finally found one. And I’ll never forget it. A tiny black shiny tooth on the edge of the creek bed, calling my name. Once you find one it gets exponentially easier to spot them, as if your ability is earned based on the time you put in. I didn’t know it then, but I was in the early phases of a healthy addiction to being fascinated by the world and the ocean.
Fast forward 30 years later, while working at OluKai, I found myself deep in a different kind of shark tooth search. I was working on a project to create a unique and special gift for the elite athletes of the world’s most prestigious big wave surf contest: The Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational. Held in honor of one of Hawaii’s most legendary watermen, the contest only runs every few years when waves get over 40 feet tall. I had the honor of seeing it run in 2024. The idea that we landed on for the athlete gift was tiger shark teeth, because Eddie’s brother Clyde had just passed away and tiger sharks were an Aikau family ’aumakua; their ancestral spirit animal. I remember thinking how special it must be to carry a connection to your family's past through certain animals. It also made me realize how easy it is to lose touch with the stories and people who came before us, especially those we never had the chance to meet. It’s unfortunately uncommon to really celebrate and connect with your bygone family. It’s maybe even considered weird if you invest time in that process.
But in this period of being in Hawai’i, learning and researching sharks teeth, I stumbled onto the largest megalodon tooth collector in the world. Jackpot!
That wormhole led to my first DIY bolo tie, built for Burning Man from a 6-inch replica megalodon tooth. I never really considered myself a Burning Man person, but it felt like a Bucket List experience that I may never have the opportunity to pursue again. The only downside was I would have to quit my dream job at OluKai. But at the time it wasn’t the dream. I was working regular 12 hour days, commuting to an office, spending half of my life on a computer on back to back to back calls. So I did what any aspiring bolo tie artist does and I quit my stable job to go to Burning Man. And it exceeded my expectations. It was the perfect place to rep a gigantic megalodon tooth, and maybe the only place I could pull it off. People who knew what they were looking at were floored. Even with 100,000 people at the event, I was consistently pointed out as “the mega tooth guy”.
Leaving Burning Man inspired by the endless creativity on display, I bought my first two real megalodon teeth, from that same collector I initially found at OluKai. With those, I built a more subtle design for a friend’s wedding in Montana. It was the perfect geography and the perfect application for my first real pieces. It didn’t feel like an outrageous costume the way Burning Man did. It felt like an extension of my personality; A culmination of the ocean and country cultures that shaped who I am. Aesthetically it looked phenomenal. The couple getting married went all out and had trophies made for different superlatives, and I ended up winning the award for best dressed, “Rhinestone Cowboy”. But what really stuck with me was how many people offered to buy the bolo off my neck on the spot. One guy, granted this was after a few drinks, offered $1,200. I don’t regret not selling it. I’m wearing that same bolo right now on a flight as I write this and I don’t think I’ll ever let it go.
A few days later, on my birthday, my mom gifted me a bolo tie that had belonged to my grandfather, who passed away before I could meet him. I had no idea he wore bolo ties. It was at least 80 years old made with inlayed coral and turquoise, depicting a Native American chief dancing. It was a full circle moment that brought me back to the Hawaiian ‘aumakua, the tiger shark spirit animal, that had first pulled me into all of this. I had never thought deeply about my ancestors or my connection to them, but that bolo made me consider what my grandfather’s life was like. What his personality was like. What we had in common. And how I wouldn’t exist without him. We have similar style, similar interests in craftsmanship, similar enthusiasm for life. I felt closer to him in that moment than ever before. And it made me want to pursue this bolo artistry even harder.
Around the same time, a close friend named Porter was attacked by a shark in the Bahamas. My third close friend to get bit, but this one was the worst, by far. He was spear fishing, trying to retrieve a grouper, when a reef shark took his entire head into its mouth. He survived, and was stitched up and rushed back to the US. I gifted him one of my first bolos from the Montana wedding as a token of my appreciation that he went through this wild experience. And then I realized I needed to make more. Whether they were for my own collection, for sale, or to gift to friends, I needed to make my next batch.
As all of this was going on I told my girlfriend Lauren what I was building. She had spent her career in retail buying and product development, understanding what makes something sell, what makes people come back for it, what makes it last. She saw immediately what this could become. We decided to build it together. What I bring in story, obsession, and craft, she brings in structure, taste, and business instinct. Marelic is what happened when our skillsets merged.
We’ve come a long way together. We’ve got a website that you’re probably reading this from. We’ve developed the product, now on its 4th iteration of improvement. We’ve strength tested every aspect of our process and refined it. We found issues and fixed them. We found poor quality materials and stopped buying them. We’ve innovated with inlayed stones like turquoise. And we’re more fired up than ever to create something unique that represents this story.
Marelic exists because objects carry things deeper than themselves. Time, ancestry, memory, intention, story, energy, healing. A megalodon tooth was swimming through ancient seas millions of years before humans had words for any of it. These aren’t accessories. They’re relics, found and passed forward. They’re the only remaining artifact of Earth’s most badass predator to ever exist.
Every piece we make is built to become something beyond an accessory. And it exists to encourage deeper, more interesting conversation. These teeth existed millions of years before you, and they will outlast you, so someone can feel a connection to you long after you’re gone. Let your story live on.
James + Lauren
