Ігор Вишневський Startup 7 November 2025, 09:00

“People don’t know anything about this material. They only have associations that it’s slippery and that it smells.” How Ukrainian startup Fiskin is conquering the fashion industry by offering luxury accessories made from fish skin

Yulia Buglak is the founder of one of the most unusual Ukrainian startups that clearly stood out at this year’s IT Arena. Fiskin makes luxury accessories from fish skin (!) — in particular, the startup’s website presents women’s bags, cardholders, bracelets and watch straps made from this unusual material for the general public.

This is not a cheap pleasure — for example, a fish skin bag will cost over 66 thousand UAH, and a cardholder — over 7,000 UAH, but the brand is positioned as luxury. To learn more about the startup’s origins, its development, prospects, and customers — we spoke with the founder of Fiskin.

From biologist to startuper

According to Yulia Buglak, she has been passionate about fishing and nature all her life, but she also gained relevant knowledge while studying at the international master’s program for fish biologists at the Scottish Association of Marine Sciences. Later, she had her own consultancy in the field of fisheries — Aquaculture Ukraine.

While still studying in her specialty, Yulia received several grants, including from the UN program, and during one of her trips abroad she had the first opportunity to see fish skin as a material. Even then, it really impressed her.

«I was surprised not only by the fact of how environmentally friendly it was, but also by how visually beautiful it was. This fish skin was functionally no different from regular skin, so I really wanted to bring it to the world, and I had this idea for a very long time,» Yulia Buglak shares her memories of the creation of the Fiskin startup.

Fiskin founder Yulia Buglak and her products

The first thing she tried to do was find craftsmen in Ukraine who were ready to work with this unusual material. Yulia went to all possible thematic exhibitions and events, but there were no enthusiasts. At first, she simply thought of selling this material to manufacturers in Ukraine, acting as a kind of intermediary, but, to her disappointment, she did not see a proper response among craft craftsmen at that time. «Everyone refused, no one wanted to work with it,» says Yulia.

Then the founder of Fiskin simply tried to find at least some people who could take on the production of several of her orders from fish skin, but that wasn’t easy either. «Finally, I found a few people. One girl made such a bag, she worked with it for a very long time. But in the end, she said that she didn’t want to work with it anymore. And one guy even made two batches of orders, but he said that they had a lot of trouble and were not interested in it. And I was also dissatisfied with the quality of his products,» the startuper shared.

All the initial failures did not demotivate Yulia and she tried to achieve results, despite everything — she even tried to negotiate with one of the factories about manufacturing products. But when that was also unsuccessful, she decided to make fish skin accessories on her own.

Shortly before the full-scale war, the girl was already making fish skin bracelets for her first customers — mainly friends and acquaintances.

In parallel, Yulia Buglak went to business school to gain knowledge and skills in marketing in order to be able to more professionally promote her product. However, the hostile invasion somewhat changed these plans, although it did not derail the founder of Fiskin.

Between Norway and Ukraine

After the start of full-scale war, Yulia Buglak, like hundreds of thousands of other Ukrainian mothers, was forced to find herself abroad with her daughter: first in Germany, and later in Norway.

«When we settled down and people asked me what I did, I told them about fish skin. All the Norwegians were delighted,» says Yulia. At that time, it was economically difficult for her to continue projects in her consulting business, so she focused entirely on the startup Fiskin.

The girl says that she studied Norwegian business law and accounting in detail and started in this country «from scratch.» «I had very little material and some tools, so I started with bracelets, and then I started making cardholders and bags. So, step by step, I can say that I conquered the Norwegian market myself,» Yulia shares her first successes.

In her last year in Norway, she finally realized that the startup was working: the basic product was selling, and 30% of users were returning for repeat purchases. She was getting good feedback on her products and there were no returns.

«So I realized that I needed to scale. The last year we were in Norway, I was already actively studying, going to an accelerator, looking for investments, pitching my startup,» said Yulia. At the same time, along with realizing the potential of the Fiskin startup, another realization came to her — it would be very difficult to develop in Norway with its legislation and economic standard of living, and in order to scale, you need to return to Ukraine. That’s what she did — on the eve of the new year 2025, Yulia has already restarted Fiskin in Kyiv.

«When I realized that I needed to hire people, it was unrealistic in Norway. The salaries there are very high, and there are very few competent people in this field. Of course, there are, but in the region where I lived, the population is generally very small,» Yulia added.

She also said that at some point they helped her find manufacturers in Italy who work with famous brands like Prada, but logistically working between the two countries would have been difficult for Yulia. In particular, because of her child, who in Norway was forced to travel with her mother to various events or stay overnight with friends.

«We lived in a remote town, two hours from Oslo. My daughter traveled with me to Oslo, sat in on all the business meetings, conferences, we also went to Oslo Fashion Week. In addition, she spent the night with many of her friends, her Norwegian classmates, but this is very, very emotionally draining. And a founder must have strength! Plus, my husband was not around, there was no support there, and all these factors accumulated,» Yulia explains the reasons for her return to Ukraine, where starting a business was much easier for her for both economic and personal reasons.

Yulia Buglak during the presentation of her products

However, in Norway, Yulia also had moments when she felt significant support from local residents or received quite real business prospects. According to her, they organized a collection for a valuable industrial sewing machine for her, raising $2.5 thousand and almost completely covering its cost. In addition, she received an Innovation Norway grant, which she unfortunately had to refuse due to returning home. «This is one of the most coveted grants in Norway — it is about $10,000. In addition, they also planned to give me another grant from the municipality in the amount of about $5,000,» she noted. However, despite the possibility of receiving these grants and even the interest of a local investor, Yulia still decided to return to Ukraine.

Norway didn’t suit her business model anyway, and these steps were only a temporary solution to the problems. «There, you need at least $4,000-5,000 per employee, and with taxes it will be $7,000 or more. For a startup, that’s a very large budget, even for one employee,» she explained.

According to Yulia, returning home was the best option for her — here she emotionally recovered, feels fulfilled and happy. This is exactly the mood she needs to move on.

Norwegian salmon and Ukrainian carp, «seasoned» with cactus

As of now, Yulia Buglak still makes products on her own, but she has come as close as possible to hiring people for this. She is able to fulfill orders quite quickly — from a few days to a few weeks (depending on the complexity), but the work she does herself does not allow her to fully focus on the development of the startup. Among the first buyers of the Fiskin brand, the majority are Norwegians. She also continues to order the material — fish skin — from this country.

As for the material itself, Yulia claims that the skin of almost any fish, including ordinary river fish, is suitable for making products.

«The only thing that distinguishes them is the ornament, pattern, texture, and its hardness/softness. I have a main supplier in Norway. She developed organic fish skin for me, and she has her own tanning process. This skin can also be safely disposed of as organic waste. After all, my brand is positioned as sustainable and ecological. But, in principle, I have relatively many suppliers. And I also plan to try to produce leather in Ukraine,» the startup founder shared their plans.

According to Yulia, she currently works with salmon skin, but wants to try working with common carp skin. «Carp has very interesting ornaments,» adds the founder of Fiskin.

As for the characteristics of fish skin, according to Yulia, it is even stronger than that of a cow. «If we take fish skin and pull it in different directions, we won’t be able to tear it. It stretches, that is, it stretches, but it doesn’t tear. In addition, it is much thinner than traditional types of leather, so in some designs it needs to be combined with other leather,» explained the founder of Fiskin. It turns out that Yulia has plans for even more original materials for making such products — for example, cactus skin and apple skin.

«Of course, fish skin will be at the heart of the brand, but we also want to add other innovative sustainable, eco-friendly materials,» she explained.

As for the nuances of working with fish skin, Yulia says that it is necessary to monitor the cleanliness of your hands and the uncontrolled ingress of glue or paint very carefully. «If you work with regular leather, then if glue accidentally falls somewhere, you can wipe it off and nothing will happen. But here, if glue or paint accidentally goes beyond the edge, then your product is ruined. You have to be very careful, it takes more time, and your hands must always be clean,» the startuper explained.

Yulia also said that the same Scandinavian peoples historically had a tradition of making products from fish skin. «In wartime, fish skin saved them a lot, they even made shoes from it. Therefore, in principle, this is an innovation, but historically it is not exactly an innovation. The innovation is that modern manufacturers have learned to make it more durable, visually more beautiful and remove the smell,» Yulia clarified.

When it comes to other luxury materials for making products — such as snakeskin or crocodile skin — there is one very significant difference, according to Yulia. «You consume fish, but you don’t kill fish for the skin,» she says.

From New York to Singapore: about brand development plans

After returning to Ukraine, the founder of Fiskin has already taken some important legal and organizational steps: she re-registered her consulting company under a new type of activity and with a new name, added other KVEDs, changed the brand, closed all her obligations in Norway and moved the website to the Ukrainian platform. She also actively began applying for various grants to give a boost to scaling the business.

In addition, a marketer and a professional model with experience as a brand manager in the fashion industry began working on the development of the startup.

Fiskin products at the exhibition in Oslo

As for the rather high price, in addition to the luxury positioning, the main thing here is that the process of making things from fish skin is 10-20 times more expensive than from cattle skin.

According to Yulia, at all major events, including IT Arena, her products and technology caused a wow effect among people who had not yet heard of her startup. «It’s 100% wow effect. When I showed that I had a fish skin watch strap and how it looked, people said that it looked like some kind of python skin,» she said.

Currently, Fiskin has a free return option, although users do not use it. However, Yulia is still focused on removing customer distrust of this material in her marketing activities. «The most difficult nuance with fish skin is to be an icebreaker that will fill this mental gap, that is, the lack of information about fish skin. Because people do not know anything about fish skin at all, and they only have associations that it is slippery and that it smells,» she states.

Today, Fiskin also allows you to order your own design of accessories, and in the future, Yulia sees the opportunity to expand her product line to include clothing and decor.

For the first step towards scaling up, she plans to hire two employees. «I need two people: one would be my assistant for the production of products for now, and then she would become the main person who would make accessories — and I would only be on the sidelines. And I also need an assistant who would help with sales,» explained Yulia Buglak.

Yulia Marketigovo believes that the best way to promote her brand is to attract bloggers, and she plans to do such collaborations. She already had an initial community around her brand in Norway, and now she is determined to build it in Ukraine. «The plan is the same in Ukraine. I have already gone through accelerators. I am looking for opportunities to get some grants, because if you win a grant, the grantor also advertises you. There will also be collaborations with creative people. I have a lot of options for how to do this,» announces Yulia Buglak.

At the same time, the old-timer is looking much wider — both mentally and geographically, as she recently established a collaboration with New York designers from the fashion industry, and also has plans to gain a foothold in the Scandinavian market.

In addition, Fiskin products, according to the brand’s founder, intend to make their way to countries such as the United Kingdom, Dubai, and Singapore.

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