I Wrecked My Lower Back

So according to all the leading experts in marketing, now that I’ve started a clothing label I’m supposed to start bombarding you guys with a ton of marketing emails and blog posts telling you about the latest T-shirts, Hoodies, Joggers or other new items we have available.

Then, when you unsubscribe, I’ll still conveniently manage to find a way to continue to wind up in your inbox or throughout social media campaigns, maybe with a “WE MISS YOU” mail out, or an exclusive discount code to rope you back in.

First of all, I don’t really know how to do all that fancy stuff. Working out how to write this blog post and a basic email list that just has people on it who opted in on the simplest webform has already been a challenge.

Rest assured, I have no desire to learn how to do that and start. I mean, first of all, we nearly completely sold out of Volume One in less than 48 hours - so there’s not much TO advertise to you just yet.

But more importantly, it’s not what I’m about.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but whenever I get those sorts of marketing emails, I unsubscribe and delete immediately. They’re just annoying, and they don’t tell me anything about the brand or the people behind it, other than that they see me as a walking dollar sign and they’re looking to fuel the rampant consumerism and materialism that we’re already so overrun with.

Yes, I see the irony in saying that as someone who now runs a clothing label.

So what’s the alternative?

Instead of cheesy marketing, I’d like to use this to bring you into the fold; The Ganbaru Culture Family.

To share with you some of the behind the scenes to everything we do, what drives us and what we care about.

For instance, after Volume One’s Launch, Katrina and I spent roughly 12 hours a day for the past 5 days straight sorting stock, fulfilling orders and stuffing dozens of carloads full of packages to come straight out to YOU. After ruining our backs within the first 24 hours from the hours of sitting on the floor, lifting boxes and rummaging through boxes of Hoodies, T-Shirts & Leather Lifting Straps in awkward positions, we learned that the spare room in my house (that has very fortunately taken a lot longer to furnish due to lockdowns) isn’t the best fulfilment facility and that we’ll need to move it all into a warehouse next time. But for this order, it simply wasn’t an option with all the stock being here already.

(Interesting story for another time if y’all are interested - I had an employee who was demanding I repackage and send all the stock to her house instead because it would be more convenient for her to pack from there. I’m glad I didn’t go that route because chances are you’ll still be waiting for orders to even go out with that level of entitlement)

So here we are, sat on the floor amongst the absolute chaos of sorting, writing and packing.

I shared about it a bit on Instagram and got a very valid question:

“Isn’t there some sort of fulfilment company who can do that for you? Your time is way too valuable for that!”

There absolutely is. I mean, as I mentioned above, the role of one of the only employees I’ve ever really had was to handle this stuff.

But even before the repackaging/resending debacle, my intention was to always handle this release on my own.

Why?

To get skin in the game.

There’s a certain sense of pride of ownership that you get when you’re actively involved in a process. It’s one thing to create a label and have every step of the process outsourced, automated and taken care of by throwing money at it. But it’s another to slow down, get your hands dirty and put in the sweat equity and effort yourself to see the job through to it’s completion. Of course it’d be far easier, quicker and more profitable for me to outsource. But without getting involved, I’ll never appreciate and understand what goes into it. I’ll never have respect for that side of the business. I’ll never OWN that side of the business. And most importantly, I’ll never have complete Pride and Love for everything we do - which is what matters most.

When I say that I can’t wait for you all to receive your product, I can say it with absolute certainty. Because I know exactly what it took to get it to you - from the very first day that I entertained the idea of designing and manufacturing clothing, to the final step of mailing it all out - I’ve lived and breathed every part of it - And when you wear our pieces, you’ll be wearing a part of it too.

Talk soon,

Eugene