The sleepless city apparel
Born in 2009, The Sleepless City was a brand created out of wanting a pacific northwest style, that was simple and geared toward all riders. My business partner and I started building a brand in our dorm room in Seattle, WA. The opportunity arose when screen printing equipment became available to us via a family friend that had recently retired, owning a metal fabrication shop. He used the tooling to screen print text and logos onto sheet metal and with a few changes, we were able to start screen printing our in-house designs on t-shirts by hand.
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Once we had the funds to put back into the business, we purchased an embroidery machine to start embellishing beanies and socks. We had a simple website accepting PayPal for our D2C sales and frequently had a booth setup at weekend street fairs.
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This was each our first time bringing products from concept to market and it energized us to see our ideas being realized into something we could wear and share. Near the end of our time at college, it was clear we were heading into different industries and decided to dissolve the partnership.
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Building a brand allowed me to wear many hats over the years which never produced a dull moment. This venture allowed me to solve problems in every area of the business and make product for the PNW riders.
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The process of building a brand from scratch requires consistency; understanding who our target market is and what they want. Product design and planning must align with brand strategy and values in order to communicate authenticity.
As this was our first time creating something like this, we were flying by the seat of our pants for the first year. We found out we quickly needed to be about more than just churning out product and tell a story We began sourcing from ethically and socially responsible manufacturers. - sweatshop free. It was also prominent that we let people know these products were being embellished right in their backyard, at our shop on Whidbey Island.
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Our second year in, we were approached by a volunteer group heading to Africa to build playgrounds at schools. We made just over 100 shirts for them at cost. It allowed us low cost advertising and provided positive brand association.
