Entries by Shannon

Will You Pledge to Build an Anti-Racist Fashion Brand?

As I’ve been listening and learning over the past months, BIPOC leaders have been asking brands to come forward with a public anti-racism statement. This is something that can be viewed on your website, as one way to stand in alliance with Black people and People of Color.  It’s a commitment to building and maintaining […]

Use This Timeless Marketing Strategy to Grow Your Fashion Brand

“Huh, I’ve never put it like that before…”  I was reading a book by an internet marketer that described a strategy to grow any online business. As the author described the strategy that he’s used again and again to scale his software company to $100MM (without investors), I realized something. What he was describing was […]

Fashion Designers, Don’t Start Product Development Without This

How do you feel when you read the words:  Product Development Excitement? Anxiety? Confusion? Fear? When I talk to designers about patternmaking and samplemaking, many people say they feel paralyzed. The upfront costs for creating your first pattern and sample can look so intimidating that it becomes the most frequent point of giving up. Especially […]

Factory45’er Tripulse Launches Plastic-Free Sportswear Collection

For the past year, I’ve watched as Factory45’er Franziska Mesche has built her plastic-free activewear brand from the ground up. She is now on track to raise over $34,000 in pre-sales to fund her first collection. It started in March 2019 when the idea for Tripulse was born. Franziska was looking for activewear that wasn’t […]

A Free Resource for Building an Anti-Racist Fashion Brand

“Allyship is a verb…” Said diversity consultant Ericka Hines during Rachel Rodgers’ Town Hall to Reimagine Small Business event.  And her words have stuck with me. As I’ve been learning, listening and absorbing how to be a better ally to BIPOC, I’ve also been struggling with the feeling of not doing enough. With every realization […]

3 Things Every Sustainable Fashion Entrepreneur Needs to Know

Do you want to make the leap from the traditional fashion industry to the sustainable fashion industry? Or maybe you want to start off as a sustainable brand from the get go. Sustainable and ethical fashion is a constantly growing industry, especially as more consumers are becoming aware of how important it is to planet […]

Why It’s Never Been a Better Time to Start a Sustainable Fashion Brand

Yesterday, on the American Fashion Podcast, I joined a panel of fashion industry experts to talk about the repercussions of COVID-19. Everyone shared their perspective from their own little corner of the fashion industry, from luxury to brick-and-mortar retail to supply chain. Some of the panelists were optimistic while others were not. But out of […]