The Clear Cut founder Olivia Landau says her company’s partnership with Tracr is another step in her commitment to creating a more transparent future for the natural diamond industry and helping clients shop for these gemstones with confidence.
Tracr is a digital platform (owned by De Beers) for industry partners to trace natural diamonds to their sources. This allows consumers to know their diamond’s country of origin and its journey from mine to jewelry store.
The Clear Cut’s collaboration with Tracr has a nondigital component: a diamond pendant necklace available for purchase on the Clear Cut’s website. The Tracr x TCC pendant, which features a 0.5 ct. Botswana-sourced natural diamond set in 14k gold, is produced in Botswana and registered on the Tracr blockchain platform with a unique ID.
“We wanted to find a way that we could authentically and directly connect the Tracr technology with our customer base and decided an approachable, diamond-forward piece was the right way,” says Landau.
With the pendant’s digital record and individual identification, owners get a look at the diamond’s provenance and authenticity. They also can learn about how the diamond industry can benefit diamond-producing countries such as Botswana, by expanding educational opportunities, boosting economic diversification, and creating jobs, Landau says.
“The partnership with Tracr was a no-brainer because we’ve always loved telling the origin story and the good that natural diamonds do,” she says. “Our [proprietary] Gem technology is, in my opinion, the best digital platform for diamonds in the world and serves as the ideal platform for Tracr. Together we are able to make the story of origin more approachable and accessible for the public.”
Landau spoke further with JCK about the Clear Cut x Tracr collab and pendant.
What drew you to work with Tracr?
The Clear Cut has always been at the forefront of technology and diamond education. We started the Clear Cut originally as a blog to empower and educate the consumer. In 2022, I had the opportunity to visit Botswana for the Forbes 30 Under 30 conference. While there, it was so moving and life-changing seeing the direct positive impact that natural diamonds had on the larger community. I got to see firsthand all the positive impact diamonds have had on the country and how Botswana has been able to reinvest their diamond wealth in their community.
Since then, we have returned to Botswana several times and have focused on educating our community on the diamond journey and all the good that diamonds do.
In 2023, I had the opportunity to meet Wes Tucker, the CEO of Tracr. It immediately became clear that we were extremely mission-aligned. Wes is an incredible leader and champions natural diamonds in a way that’s impactful. Quickly after meeting, we determined that we had to collaborate to help tell the natural diamond story and educate the public.
Why is transparency more important than ever with natural diamonds?
Transparency has always been incredibly important with natural diamonds, but previously we did not have the tools to always do so. Tracr’s technology provides a way for us to better tell this story and create a sense of connection between the client, the diamond, and the community from which the diamond originated that was not possible previously.
Currently there is also an incredible amount of misinformation regarding lab-grown diamonds ethics and sustainability. Many people in the industry are making unsubstantiated claims on these topics. Tracr can provide retailers with a useful tool to cut through all the noise and misinformation.
Natural diamonds are not just ethically sourced; they go beyond ethical sourcing because the diamond-producing countries of origin use the profits from their natural diamonds to take control of their own natural resources, providing free education, free health care, and creating infrastructure through natural diamonds. It is an incredible story that needs to be told.
What else can I share about your efforts toward transparency with natural diamonds?
Despite being a relatively new company [founded in 2018], I think we have realized we have an incredibly influential platform and community to champion natural diamonds. We are proud to be the first company to offer lab-grown diamonds for free as travel rings. We are leveraging our voice to educate and inform the next generation of American consumers and we are uniting pro-natural stakeholders to help in these efforts.
We’re committed to combating misinformation and educating the consumer online. We recently partnered with DeBeers’ SynthDect device to educate people there are multiple ways you can distinguish between lab-grown and natural diamonds. We also held an incredibly successful event for media and press at an exclusive private club in NYC, in partnership with Tracr.
Looking forward, expect the Clear Cut to double down on these industry-leading efforts. We are building a coalition of natural diamond advocates to tell the story of the good that diamonds do and continue to combat misinformation through technology and content. Stay tuned.
Top: The Clear Cut’s Olivia Landau, second from right, with (from left) De Beers Group business development manager Ben Prior, Tracr CEO Wes Tucker, and Landau’s husband and business partner, Kyle Simon, at the Clear Cut x Tracr launch event in January
(Photos courtesy of the Clear Cut)
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