The story of Mustard
This winter I have launched several new colours in the long sleeve range. Peach and Teal, along with some new colours in the long sleeve crews.
However it was the colour Mustard (available in the long sleeve scoop) that was probably the most eagerly anticipated, by my 10 year old daughter.
For several years now, my eldest has been campaigning for me to introduce a top in yellow, her favourite colour. I was firmly against this for a long time (does anyone really want to wear yellow?!) but last year I relented and decided we’d give it a go.
It’s true that some of you have in fact asked for yellow, and I figured it would be a nice addition to my rainbow of colours, but the real reason I decided to go ahead with it was because I wanted to give my daughter an opportunity and taste of entrepreneurship.
I started my business before they were born, so they’ve grown up surrounded by it. Literally when they used to sleep in a room with stock boxes (!), and now as they observe me on my computer daily. The world of ecommerce can be quite abstract to a child in many ways, but seeing physical products makes it reality. I wanted to take her on the journey from idea through to production.
Once I’d agreed we’d do it, I told her I wanted her to be involved right from the beginning. It started with looking through the pantone colour book to choose some yellows to dye in bamboo fabric. When our swatches arrived, we worked together to select a shade and brainstormed ‘yellow’ names, keeping in mind it wasn’t just about choosing a name we liked, but one that also reflected the shade we’d chosen. After much family debate, we settled on Mustard. Then it was back to waiting while her vision was made reality!
A couple of months later our production samples arrived and she was thrilled! Unfortunately she’s still too small to wear any of them (she’s also trying to convince me to do a children’s range!) but we chose a model for the photoshoot, and got things activated on the website.
We then headed out to our Adelaide distribution centre to see where it was going to be warehoused and picked and packed and posted out to our customers. She helped me prep a launch email to you all to announce the arrival of Mustard, and then we watched and waited to see what you’d think.
Of course the best bit about having a business is payday, she gets a commission on every Mustard top sold! It’s been four weeks now, and every Sunday night we add up the week’s sales and she receives her earnings. And it turns out I was wrong, you guys do like yellow!
She still wants to be a gymnast and a vet when she grows up, but the other day on the way to school she told me she also wanted to run her own business 😊
