We recently connected with Andrea Brockson and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Andrea thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Almost every entrepreneur we know has considered donating a portion of their sales to an organization or cause – how did you make the decision of whether to donate? We’d love to hear the backstory if you’re open to sharing the details.

When I starting working on the plan for my vintage business, Pachi Collective, I knew I wanted to give back to a local cause. I didn’t have to look too far since I had been following the efforts of the Fallbrook Animal Sanctuary for some time. After visiting and adopting a kitten from them, I knew that I’d love to donate a portion of my proceeds to the sanctuary. The Fallbrook Animal Sanctuary is the only no-kill, non-profit animal rescue group in North San Diego County operating solely on donations. They are also staffed entirely by volunteers. Since 2002, FAS has saved and re-homed over 4,500 lost and abandoned pets. Last year, I worked with a graphic artist to create a collaborative sticker in honor of the sanctuary to raise money.

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

Well, let’s see. I can start at the very beginning – my childhood was filled with fun, creativity, thrifting and antiquing. My mom was a full-time restaurant server, but her part-time passion was in making our 1920 home look like some kind of historical museum. Growing up outside of Philadelphia, my 4 sisters and I took part in many of my mom’s trips to barn sales, thrift stores and antique shops. She started selling some of her beautiful relics on the side and called it Nancy’s Nifties.

At 14, my mom got me my first sewing machine and I was up and running in creating my own looks and just a few short years later, I landed at Parsons School of Design. During my sophomore year, my mom was diagnosed with cancer and we lost her just 2 months later. That was the hardest thing I ever had to go through – losing her and trying to continue with the rigor of an intense art school. I took a much needed hiatus and returned to school to graduate in 2006. That same year I got married and had my son.

We moved to San Diego and I starting working at the San Diego Hat Company as a Design Assistant and was eventually promoted to Associate Designer. I later left and started working in the action sports world for almost 5 years and returned to the hat company because I missed working in women’s fashion. (During this time I had 2 more babies – both girls and my love for fashion was reinvigorated.)

Along the way, I have always thrifted the majority of my own clothing, furniture and home decor for a number of reasons – I love the look of mixing unique vintage finds, being a young family new clothing and goods can be very expensive and ultimately wanting to save perfectly good items from a landfill. As I thrifted, I amassed quite a collection of vintage clothing, accessories and home decor and decided a few years ago to share some of my finds just as my mom had. I decided to name my business Pachi Collective. Pachi (puh-chē) was my dad’s nickname for my mom.

Today, I sell mostly at Vintage and Makers Markets in and around San Diego, and can be found on Instagram and Facebook.
I pride myself in hand-picking each item that I source and do not shy away from flawed items. Since I have a background in sewing and alterations, I am able to repair and renew garments in-house.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

While I was designing accessories for a company in action sports, I knew I wanted to be doing something I was more passionate about and had always hoped to go out on my own as a small business owner. I worked on my business plan for about 3-4 years before I even started it as a side-hustle. I am a bit of a perfectionist, so I wanted to have all of the graphics dialed for the brand identity. I worked with a local graphic artist (a former co-worker) from Bravewell Design Company to create the logo, business cards/hang tags, signage and stickers. During this time, I moved on to design headwear for another Southern California based company. Then Covid hit and my priorities shifted. I enjoyed being home more, spending time with my family and working on growing my vintage inventory. Since I wasn’t commuting almost an hour to work anymore, I definitely had more time to work on Pachi Collective. I started vending at markets on evenings and weekends. I started meeting more and more vintage sellers and got awesome feedback and insight from the customers as well. I decided to walk away from my full-time hat designing job in November 2021 and the decision was not an easy one. After being an Accessory Designer for 13 years, I had certainly grown accustom to the security of that next check and the comfort of shared work responsibility. Now that I am a few months in to it, I am enjoying the freedom of working at my own pace and for myself.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The best source of new clients for me is definitely vending at new markets. It seems like since the Pandemic, there are far more markets popping up with people making the shift from their former careers to becoming makers or curators. I prefer the face to face interaction of markets over trying to sell on social media. I turn 40 this year and admittedly, that is an area not terribly familiar, but I do know I need to get a bit more active on to grow my customer base.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pachicollective
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pachicollective
• Other: email: [email protected]

Image Credits
Photography credit: Susie Fiebich (Susie Fiebich Photography)