We were lucky to catch up with CHRISTINA MOUNTAIN recently and have shared our conversation below.

CHRISTINA, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Success is not linear. There is no “golden standard” when defining success. For our family, we thrive to pursue our passions, lead by example, and be ready to embrace the unexpected, while learning to pivot. We never imagined we would open an e-commerce store, let alone build a business from scratch. Our story has different defining moments of success, from designing our website, to our first sale, and then brand partnerships. It allows us the flexibility to pursue our love for sports and the lessons they bring, the friendships they forge, and the heartbreak they cause and heal in the same breath. We do this in addition to working full time jobs not aligned with our business, while still raising small humans. Having this together, reaching each new milestone, and never giving up is how we define our success.

CHRISTINA, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

We started Pub Bench Sports to share our love for sports and community with our family and friends. It began as a small idea and quickly grew to an e-commerce storefront offering authenticated memorabilia (from our personal collections) and uniquely designed apparel. We are an online storefront specializing in authenticated sports memorabilia and merchandise. We are a family-owned & operated business based out of Mission, KS. We love Kansas City and feel that everyone should have the opportunity to experience some midwestern hospitality and quality. Our ultimate dream would be to open a true store front, or even bar & grill to showcase our passions and support our community in other ways. We are most proud of building this truly from scratch, completely by ourselves. We taught ourselves web design, social media marketing, merchandising, budgeting, and auctioneering. We hope you see our passion for our community and our love of sports shown through our brand.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

We chose to create our own website. It felt more authentic to create our own space to showcase our brand. We are able to utilize the same software to create ads, email campaigns, capture sales / expenses, etc. while paying a very small processing fee to our server. They provided us with 24/7 IT and business consultants to help us reach our goals. The downside is that we are responsible for ensuring the website is always up to date, working properly, and we did need to provide an upfront cost for the URL, software program, and maintenance fees.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

We have two models to our e-commerce store. We manufacture apparel and designs; however, we utilize a drop shipping method. We currently do not do our own printing, and any merchandise is made to order. We have our sports memorabilia in house and sell from our personal collections which we often find at trade shows, auctions, but some of our favorite finds come from resale / thrift stores. After the items are authenticated, they are uploaded to the site for your shopping experience.

It is important to research different vendors and shipment methods to ensure you are staying competitive, providing the highest quality products at the best price. It is OKAY to pivot and try somewhere new.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.pubbenchsports.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pubbenchsports/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PBSKC21
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/PBSKC21
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@pubbenchsports?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc