10/24/2024
Cottage Gear Giveaway! - Link in Bio
It’s been 19 months since we shipped a Pillow Strap to our first customer! Making a product takes such a leap of faith, and we struggled to decide whether or not we should take that leap. It is a difficult choice; you want to know that someone will like your creation and find it valuable, but you cannot know until you put it out there. Those first few Pillow Straps went out into the world, and we waited nervously, wondering what people thought of them, with us being somewhere between UL and lightweight backpackers ourselves where every item counts. Then, a few more shipped out, and eventually, something really special happened when we received the first message from a customer expressing how much they enjoyed our creation. As it turns out, one of the amazing things about this world is if you create something and find it helpful, someone else likely will too. And maybe a bunch of people will, and before you know it, a business is born!
We encountered many bumps in the road to get where we are today, and nothing can quite prepare you for the ongoing roller coaster. As a small maker, there are so many skills and things to become proficient at quickly. We cut, sewed, and packaged over 800 Pillow Straps before seeking professional help. We designed the packaging and website, took product photos, worked on marketing and supply logistics, and learned about sales taxes and international shipping. The list goes on, however the initial making helped refine the design, and that is one really cool thing about the cottage industry. It also fosters a deep connection to the process of making things by hand. Anything that’s sewn is made by a person, with a person’s hands, no matter where it’s made. Robots may or may not be able to dance or drive you around, but they cannot sew.
This spring, we realized we couldn’t keep buying rolls of fabric and cutting them by hand. It was wasteful and inefficient. It was time to seek professional help. We now have a wonderful working relationship with a great team of professional sewists in Pennsylvania.
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