We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Missy Kershaw. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Missy below.
Alright, Missy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?
My entrepreneur journey started in college, I packed up my life and bet on me. In 2016/2017 I had finished my first two years of undergrad at a juco and decided to move to a new city to go to a university in a city where I didn’t know anyone other than my boyfriend. I also decided that when I went to a university I wouldn’t work. I had did a transfer for my job, but I just woke up and decided to quit and got ready to dive into the unknown. Three weeks before moving I took a major loss and had to hustle my way through it. All the savings my boyfriend and I had were pretty much depleted, but I still decided to start my business and bet on myself. I hustled through the storm because it was no going back. I had left my apartment and everything I knew the only way to go was forward.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My brand is called “The Sultry Label.” We can be found @thesultrylabel on Instagram. The Sultry Label launched in 2020 and as a brand I’ve went through a lot of transition over the past three years to grow to where we are now. My brand is centered around being a hustler because I feel like I’m a hustler through and through. We’re known as the “Hustlers Club” and it took a lot of molding to get to this point. We drop a limited edition graphic tee each month limited to 30-40 people, each design is a 1of1 and after the shirts are sold out we never drop the design again. Each shirt comes with a name tag and a sharpie to sign your shirt and make it authentically you. We pride ourselves on authenticity and exclusivity. Knowing you have an item not to many other people in the world have is everything. This year we will be dropping our first collection with multiple pieces all coming with the signature name tag and sharpie.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Launching a clothing’s brand was not super hard, for me personally finding direction was the hardest part. When I originally started I sold a mixture of branded items and wholesale items. When it came time to do my second drop I was confused so I switched to the wholesale route and even though things sold, they didn’t sell as quickly as when I had branded items which was kind of discouraging, but I’m not the kind of person that quits I always go back to the drawing board, reevaluate and figure things out. For my third drop I decided to drop a t-shirt and it sold out in 2-3 days, then I kind of just paused between school and my mental health I didn’t know which direction to go in. When I restarted I release a look book of 9 wholesale looks and it was really up and down so that’s when I knew my designs were the way to go. Ever since I decided to use my own designs and make custom apparel I’ve always sold out of 95% of my inventory within almost 24-36 hours. They key thing was to keep going and stay resilient no matter what happened.
We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.
In the beginning I started out doing screen printing with a guy from my hometown, but it was a lot of speed bumps in the road with that route. I told myself I wanted full creative control and access to all type of fabrics and printing so I begin looking for a manufacturer. Finding a manufacturer was hard and I had to learn it takes more work than people think. I was blessed to wake up randomly at 4am get online and find a manufacturer I truly love. The thing is my manufacturer taught me a lot like the fact you have to create sizing charts, learn about different types of printing, weights of fabrics and lengths and widths of items so everything can truly be to your liking. My biggest piece of advice for anyone looking for a manufacturer is don’t be afraid to waste money sampling, buy books and learn about garment makers, spend the money on the tech packs for and make sure you find someone who aligns with your brand + has good lead times to align with your needs. Every brand isn’t the same so it’s important to find what works for you.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thesultrylabel.com
- Instagram: @thatsmissy | @thesultrylabel
- Youtube: TheMissyKershaw