The Origin Story
At 18 years old, Reuben founder of Sulis Hot Tubs was spending his evenings and weekends designing and building furniture and timber creations in his friend’s Christchurch-based workshop. He was pulled toward creative expression, quietly wrestling with a sense of unfulfillment in his building apprenticeship. So, he followed his curiosity wherever it led until one day, it led to a new passion project: to build a cedar hot tub.
Many late nights followed. Reuben poured time, energy, and intuition into early sketches, trial builds and testing different methods. Eventually, after 8 months, his first cedar hot tub came to life. At the time, he didn’t know this was the start of something far bigger... a journey of personal growth, self-reliance and the slow, messy process of learning how to run a business. A path where he would become the driver and orchestrator of his future.
Tub No. 1 was soaked in and loved by Reuben and his flatmates until, on a whim, he listed it on Trade Me. It sold a week later. Encouraged, Reuben bought enough timber to build two more tubs. This time, it only took six weeks. Again, they sold. The cycle repeated itself two or three more times before Reuben packed up his life in Christchurch the city he grew up in and followed the sun, surf, and spearfishing north to Whangamatā on the Coromandel Peninsula.
The first year in Whangamatā was spent finding his feet exploring new breaks, diving, hammock camping in twisted pōhutukawa trees. He continued his building apprenticeship but the same feeling returned: something inside him was being stifled.
So what did he do?
In March 2022, Reuben bought a 2.4x4.2m garden shed and built another hot tub. That was the spark. The fire was restoked and there was no going back.
In 2023, Reuben signed the lease on his first commercial workspace. Over the next 18 months, he slowly built his idea into a functioning business one step at a time. By the start of 2024, he was 22 years old and fully self-employed. No longer a builder working for someone else but a maker, innovator and founder following his own rhythm.
Since then, Sulis Hot Tubs has grown steadily, producing over 50 tubs and refining four primary designs. Today, Sulis employs two full time workshop hands, a sales manager, business operations manager and still Reuben, at the helm, guided by passion, craftsmanship and a creative force that refuses to sit still.
This is what it looks like to build something from scratch. To follow your gut. To design not just a product but a life.