The Hero Pin is something that Marcel Wanders started about 20 years ago. His girlfriend and big love at the time was very ill. Plagued by uncertainty of whether they would meet the future together, Wanders wanted to present her with a token of his feelings. He says: “She was, in ways more than myself, the hero of us two and one day I wanted to tell her this.”

Wanders made a small jewel pin using only four letters; H, E, L, D to make “held" - hero in Dutch. The pin was meant to inspire people to think about the values that are most important to them. Wanders also wanted to encourage people to recognise good values in others and reward them with the Hero Pin.

The Hero Pin is now available for purchase for 5 euro-cents at Galerie Louise Smit in Amsterdam.