Lena Park
Founder - Head of Design
Since 1997
"Every weld gets seen. If we can't see it in this building, we don't ship it."
28 years. One building.
We've been in the same factory since 1997. Same address, same floor, same welders - some of them for over two decades. What changed is what we make. First patio furniture parts, now dog playpens, kennels, and crates. The people and the standard didn't move.
Story Timeline
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1997
A workshop in Ningbo opens
Lena Park rents a 400 m2 space and buys two secondhand welding rigs. First product: patio furniture parts for a trading company in Shanghai. Three people on the floor. One office.
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2003
First in-house powder coat line
Until then, frames were sent out to be coated - which meant waiting three weeks and trusting someone else's quality control. We installed our own line. We've never sent a frame out since.
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2009
Marcus Wei joins the floor
Came in as a welder on the second shift. Now leads manufacturing. Still welds the first prototype of every new frame - a rule he made for himself in 2014 and hasn't broken since.
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2014
Salt spray chamber built in-house
Before this, we tested to industry standard - 96 hours. We built a 500-hour chamber instead. Every powder coat formula now runs 500 hours before it goes on a product. That's the test that decides whether a frame ships.
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2019
First dog playpen ships
Lena's dog Momo had outgrown every folding pen on the market - thin frames, plastic latches, rust after one winter. We made one that didn't. Started as a favor for friends. Became the whole company.
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2026
Still 40 people. Still one building.
No investors. No outsourcing. No second factory. The building is the product - every weld jig, every paint line, every salt spray chamber is under one roof. That's not a limitation. It's the standard.
A letter from Lena
"We hire people who'd notice if a weld was off. Everyone else, we train."
FREEPET is not a startup. We've been in the same building since 1997. What changed is what we make - first patio furniture parts, now dog playpens, kennels, and crates.
The team hasn't changed much either. Marcus has been on the floor for 22 years. Daniel left a materials lab to run quality here. Sophie answers every customer email that comes in - you'll see her name in our inbox too.
We're small because we want to be. We're slow because we make things that last. And we're hiring carefully, because every person we add changes what this place is.
If you're reading this because you're deciding whether to buy one of our frames: the answer is yes, we'll stand behind it for ten years. If you're reading this because you're deciding whether to work here: come see the floor first. That'll tell you more than this page can.
Lena Park
Founder & Head of Design
By the numbers
Four numbers we keep an eye on.
Not vanity metrics. These are the four numbers that tell us whether we're still the company we meant to be.
28yr
Same building, same address
Moved in 1997. Never left. Every weld jig and paint line is still here.
40
People on the team
No layers, no middle management. Everyone in the building ships.
4.3yr
Median tenure
Long for this industry. The floor team has been here the longest - some since 2003.
500hr
Salt spray before shipping
Every powder coat formula runs the full 500 hours before it goes on a product. No shortcuts.
The people
Four names you'll see a lot.
Forty people make FREEPET. These four are the ones whose names come up most often - on the site, in the emails, on the floor.
Marcus Wei
Head of Manufacturing
On the floor 22 years
"I still weld the first one. Every new frame, I build it myself before the line gets it."
Daniel Tan
Head of Quality
Left a materials lab for this
"500 hours is the floor, not the ceiling. If a formula passes at 500, we run another 200."
Sophie Chen
Customer Experience
Answers every email
"You email us, you hear back from me. Not a bot, not a ticket number. Me."
Inside the building
Where every frame gets made.
Cutting, welding, powder coating, salt spray, packing - all under one roof. No handoffs, no suppliers, no "somewhere else."
Factory film - 4 min
One building, start to finish.
From the steel coil to the sealed carton. You'll see the tube cutter, the jig-weld station, the powder line, the 500-hour salt spray chamber, and the people who've worked here the longest.
How we build
Four rules we haven't broken.
Not values on a wall. These are rules with a cost, and we've paid it more than once.
Slow on purpose
We don't ship a product until it clears the 500-hour salt spray test. That sometimes means a three-month delay between the design being finished and the first frame leaving the line. Nobody gets punished for that here. Slow, on purpose, is faster than shipping twice.
Every weld gets seen
We don't outsource manufacturing because we can't see inside someone else's factory. Every weld on every frame is done here - and if a weld fails, we know who did it. Not because we'd blame them. Because that's the only way quality actually improves.
Forty people, not two hundred
Because everyone in this building should know the names of the people one floor up. At 40, that's still true. At 200, it stops being true, and the weld tolerance starts to slip. We'd rather turn down growth than lose the thing that makes the frame work.
Fix it, don't replace it
Free spare parts for ten years. Free repairs for as long as you own the frame. Our support team has permission to ship a replacement latch on the first email - no photo, no proof, no questions. We'd rather send a $4 part than have someone buy a new frame.
FAQ
Things people ask us first.
We moved into this building in 1997 and never left. Every weld jig, every paint line, every salt spray chamber is here. Moving would mean re-tooling - which means a new tolerance, which means a different frame. The building is the product.
Because we can't see inside someone else's factory. Outsourcing means trusting a supplier's weld inspection on a frame that will hold a dog's full weight. We've seen how that goes for other brands. We weld it here, we inspect it here, and if a weld fails, we know who did it.
We don't ship a product until it clears the 500-hour salt spray test. That sometimes means a three-month delay between the design being finished and the first frame leaving the line. Nobody gets punished for that here. Slow, on purpose, is faster than shipping twice.
Because everyone in this building should know the names of the people one floor up. At 40, that's still true. At 200, it stops being true, and the weld tolerance starts to slip. We'd rather turn down growth than lose the thing that makes the frame work.
Lena Park founded it in 1997 and still runs design. Marcus Wei has been on the floor for 22 years and leads manufacturing. Daniel Tan left a materials lab to run quality here. Sophie Chen answers every customer email that comes in - hers is the name you'll see in our inbox.
From a mill two hours north of the factory. Hot-dip galvanized before it's cut, then phosphate-washed and double powder-coated in-house. We know the coil numbers on every batch we've run since 2003 - that's how we trace a frame back to the day it was welded.
The best way to know us is to see the floor.
If you're in Ningbo, come by - we do tours on Tuesdays. If you're not, the factory film is the next best thing. Either way, you'll see how the frames are actually made.