We were lucky to catch up with Alison Okerman recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Alison thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

In 2019 I had made a sweatshirt for myself on a whim. After wearing a few times, I had multiple people ask me “where did you get that”, or “can you make me one?”. The idea of having my own brand was always in the back of my head, but with huge walls up that I thought would never come down. With a lot of encouragement from friends, I decided to take the risk and create Park Barrett. The risk wasn’t financial to be honest. I didn’t have to put a huge amount of money down or get investors to get this going. But I did have to put myself out there and make it known that I had started this venture. The risk of this not succeeding was huge for me in that way. Fast forward 4 years….and here we are with a company that has grown in more ways than one.

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.

I always had a vision of working in the apparel industry. I loved clothes, how they were made, etc. I started my career at Juicy Couture at the height of its popularity. And because of that I really learned a lot. Over then next 15 years I worked at various companies in contemporary apparel, surf and skate, and sports licensing. All game me incredible knowledge that helped when I decided to start this company. I had been part of companies that failed, companies that did $100 Million in sales annually, and some in-between. Being able to work with multiple departments, and understand the full scope of how product is made is a strength I have and that I am proud of.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

Brand loyalty is very important. We have so many return customers and to me that is such a great sign of success. I get emails daily that say “I heard about your brand from my friend…”. I love that. I want to ensure that each customer is getting what they paid for. If anyone is dissatisfied, I try my best to fix it for them. In addition, our social media is a great way to maintain relationships with clients. From reposting their tags, to responding to all messages we get, we make sure to interact as much as possible.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media is crucial to our business. It really enhances our reach and grows our customer base. When first starting out, just having people tag us was huge. From influencers to celebrities, the social media influence was real. Just starting out, I would recommend daily if not twice daily posts. Really putting yourself out there. We also gave away free product in exchange for posts and it paid off. Soon people were coming to us wanting product and we had to say no to some due to the high demand. I guess that’s a good problem to have!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.parkbarrett.com
• Instagram: @theparkbarrett