It's been a busy year-and-a-half since our last post... and man has it been busy.
First things first. What's this "our" and "we" business?
Sometime last year, my good friend Ryan approached me in efforts to establish his own clothing brand. I've helped dozens of customers design products, line sheets, advertising and other odd/end jobs, but with Ryan I felt a bit more help was in order.
Unlike most of my customers, Ryan was not a businessman or an entrepeneur. He was simply an artist. An artist working full-time in another completely unrelated industry, and he was my friend.
Ambitious as it may have been we set off to create this "brand" and somewhere along the way I told him MY dream of creating a one-stop-shop where ANYBODY who wanted to create a clothing brand or small business could walk in, and we could help them. Heck, if they knew how to use the equipment we could let them rent our equipment. Everything you need to get the job done. From A - Z.
Well, what a dream. The real work of nurturing our own brands, trying to find reliable vendors, keeping track of inventory, opening up distribution channels, networking, collaborating, and trying to keep up with day to day life and life and life kept us busy and unfocused on that somewhat insignificant conversation.
Sometime in that year, though, our good friend Jordan who owns another very successful brand named "50th State of Mind" inceptioned us into crowdfunding with a Kickstarter.
Long story short, the Kickstarter was unsuccessful - but the doors were open - the word was out. We WANTED to do our own thing, and we wanted to be able to help anyone else who felt the same way. Unexpectedely, people offered help in various ways and today we're happy to say that "we" are open for business. We've still got dreams and aspirations to grow, but we'll take it as it comes. Day by day.
The Fresh Foundation.