We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Maria Luisa Mendiola. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Maria Luisa below.

Maria Luisa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

I consider myself a risk-taker. The biggest risk I have ever taken has been starting MIGA. When you create a swimwear brand whose mission is to raise awareness about the disability community you are sending a clear message that all bodies deserve to enjoy the beach or the pool without any type of harassment or discrimination. The disability community deserves to feel comfortable, confident, and sexy.

Since starting MIGA, every year we continue to take bigger and bigger risks. Coupled with hard work and determination, those risks have paid off. Last year we launched our first collaboration with an influencer and attended our first tradeshow. This year we hope to do our biggest collaboration yet. More on that to come :)

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

MIGA Swimwear starts from my experience with a disfigurement I have on my feet. Every time I would go to the beach or the pool, which was often because I grew up in Costa Rica, I would get self-conscious and uncomfortable because people would stare at or ask intrusive questions about my feet. I would cope with my difference by wearing bold and vibrant swimsuits that took attention away from my toes.

It wasn’t until I did my masters in design at Central Saint Martins UK, that I started to play with the idea of creating swimsuits that not only were eye-catching and beautiful, but that also encouraged the wearer to accept and love their body as is.

Since then I have worked with over 400 women, disabled and non-disabled to create swimsuits that make women feel comfortable and confident.

I am most proud of the women I have gotten to work with. Seeing them overcome their fears when it came to wearing a swimsuit, to see them actually enjoying the beach and the pool, there is nothing more rewarding than that.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

My background is not in product development, so after a year of many challenges trying to do it all on my own, I realized I needed help. I needed to hire people that were smarter and more skilled than me, especially in the skill sets that I do not have myself, in order to scale our business. After a lot of cold calling and really putting it out there that I needed help, I found a pattern cutter that is highly detailed-oriented and professional, an overall badass lady. I worked with her for our last two collections and I couldn’t be happier with the results.

Similarly, we found our factories through asking people for help. A referral led me to the best ethical US factories I could have ever hope for and I couldn’t be happier with the personal relationship we have. Specifically, last year they went above and beyond to help a small brand like ours navigate issues like shortage in personnel and fabric delays. They believe in our brand and we believe in the quality of their work. We are lucky to have found production partners that prioritize their clients, no matter how small, take care of their workers and are always willing to find a solution to any challenge that can arise. Plus they are always looking for ways to become more sustainable.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

We sell on our Shopify site and also through retail partners like Zappos and Wolf and Badger. Maintaining your own site and driving eyeballs to it can be incredibly costly so with time I have realized that relying on retail partners like the ones mentioned above is much more sustainable for a small business like us. We are always looking to find more retail partners that align with our mission.

Contact Info:

• Website: migaswimwear.com
• Instagram: @migaswimwear

Image Credits
Sophia Schrank, Brittany Cohn