Our Story

Hi and welcome to Madly Addictive, I am Sandy Lee the creator and designer behind the brand. I want to begin by saying THANK YOU for being here, together with my husband Kurt, we share with you are love (some might call it an obsession) for travel and adventure. Through our designs, our photos and this site we share with you our journey.

Let's start with the name, Madly Addictive. For that we will have to go back to 2012. One day I was at a friends house hanging out as we usually do, we were talking about all these ideas we had for our futures. About a year before this conversation I had gone on this amazing trip to Mexico and it was the first time I knew I wanted to make traveling my lifestyle. Which brings us back to that convo, I told her I would love to create a blog that could eventually evolve into a brand where both my love for travel and creativity could be shared. The first thing she asked was "What would you call it?" and after just a moment I said "Madly Addictive!" "Because that's the way I am, that's the way I want to live my life, completely and madly addicted to every moment." That same day I purchased my domain and it all began.

 Later on that year Kurt and I made the move from Miami, Florida to Frankfurt, Germany. We lived there for four and a half years, I worked for MAC Cosmetics part time and traveled as much as possible on my off time. Kurt stayed super busy with his job and would join me on my travels as often as he could, but one trip in particular is what planted the seed that eventually inspired us to quit our jobs and travel. That was our very first trip to Thailand. Our close friends Ricky and Kelly had just left everything behind in Miami to travel the world. Luckily enough we were able to meet them up in Thailand for ten epic days and after that everything changed.

Fast forward to April 2016, I quit my job and began designing graphic tees, all inspired by my journey. Shortly after, in December (2016) Kurt quit his job! We sold, donated and packed up our things in Germany and left to go backpacking for a year. Our hope was to find artisans to create with, share new experiences and of course explore the world. 

In our search to find the right people to work with there were many ups and downs, failed attempts and some success but, it wasn't until we got to Ecuador that it all felt right. At the time we were making our way through South America and had only budgeted for a short visit through Ecuador. So, we moved on as planned and continued to make our way to Bolivia, where Kurt's family is from. Eventually we worked with artisans in La Paz (which was no easy feat), but I still knew Ecuador was the place. With just a gut feeling we purchased our flights and made our way back, not really knowing what would happen, it was either going to work or Madly Addictive was going to come to an end.

Now, here we are having developed great relationships with our makers and products we truly love. Pieces that are hand made and crafted with generations of experience. Cultivating these relationships, working side by side, traveling the world and seeing the designs come to life are why we do what we do. 

Thank you for being here and being part of our adventure!