I started a brand in 2023, and here’s why I think you should too.

What is saint toba, why did we start it, and how did we do it?

Me and my partner Natalie, started a brand back in July 2023. Kidswear brand that aims to elevate basics like oversized tshirts, baggy skater pants, ribbed singlet, shorts and graphic tshirts. These basics are essentially inspired from the daily wear that we have. Where the clothes are worn much more than an occasional apparels.

We want to create pieces where Yves (Natta’s son) can grow into. Pieces that last long with great quality.

Now back then, I have no background whatsoever in fashion industry. Whereas Natalie is 6years deep in working with 1million pounds per month in revenue brand; Motel Rocks(now Motel). She’s been in charge of their digital touchpoints and presence. But again, none of us know how to design a tshirts, pants, with patterns, what fabrics, what type of seams and sew in labels do we need.

Now; me being from a product design and branding background, I do what I thought is the most sensible thing to do, market research, and workshopped our brands. And put together a project roadmap for the first collection!

Starting with no following in your instagram in 2023

Not like an influencer, my instagram & Natta’s following were probably max 2k combined. If that. This is one of the biggest challenge that we actually have in growing the brand awareness with no leverage of the kidswear industry.

We started with 0 follower, and as per today(20th June 2024) we’re still on the 3K. This is obviously a win for us and had been a journey in building the brand. Since we’re only selling online, instagram and tiktok had been the only platform where we can put out our website and brands.

Now i think if you’re like me, someone who’s not famous, and don’t have much following in your social media, be patience. These things takes time, and it’s okay.

We both are still working, and have business on the side

The only reason how we can manage to do this, slowly, only two of us in the beginning, is that we both have jobs, and another income stream. DotDesign for me, while working with GovTech Edu, and Natta works in Motel.

We treat this as a passion project. Therefore, an investment that we make, is highly calculated, small, and carefully crafted with intentions.

Now here’s why I think you should start your own too

I can only speak for Fashion industry right now, but check this out

The global fashion market is projected to grow by 8.94% from 2024 to 2029, reaching a market volume of $1,183 billion by 2029 (The Clothing Startup).

Now imagine getting a 1% of that market volume; it’ll bring you $10 million. Now 1% is such a high goal because, there are other 99 players in the industry that if you’re a guy like me; working two jobs, running a business, and still wanna live a meaningful life spending your time with your family, I am happy to be the 0.5% of that market.

There are 3 things that I do believe, that if you want to start your own brands, you should be aware off:

1. If this is not your main income stream, learn: how to build a desireable brand, leverage ads, and understand marketing.
2. Finding the best product is always second most important thing. Strive for quality.
3. Calculate how much you can loss. This will help you understand whether you’re doing the right thing, or not. Learn the market, what’s reasonable amount of money that you can lost, to learn how to build a brand.

Where we are right now: AW24 - 2nd Collection of Saint Toba

Running this business had made me learn about my personality so much more than I’d ever know. Doing a business with your romantic partner, as a passion project, can quickly turn into a home-made stress factors.

But we learn. We learn to work together, build a system that works for the family. Build a workflow that make sense for the business, all while still trying to perform our sales and ads in the best we know.

Our first collection was great, we had items that we needed to reorder again and again, and now we’re in the middle of launching our winter collection. We’ve learned how to work with suppliers, and handled complaints.

Our Aim in 2025

I haven’t write a blog in awhile. This is partly because how busy I am. I wanna take saint toba into a sustainably running business by 2025.

Until then, I’ll use these upcoming blogs as part of our documentation in the journey of building saint toba.

PS: For Natta, this blog is purely written by me, Irvan Lathief. Not AI, and I will show you this one day.

‍