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

Emily, appreciate you joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

I was actually researching names for our fourth daughter who is named Iris. I was born and raised in Chicago and moving to Michigan was a big leap of faith for me and my family. Since Iris was our first Michigan born baby we wanted her name to mean faith or have something to do with following God’s call to Michigan. We ended up purchasing a home on Plaster Creek so we were looking into names tied to that meaning and location. Remington means a place on a riverbank. I prayed a lot over her name and God kept telling me Remington is a place not a person. So I kept that name tucked away until this dream of starting a company came to be.

I thought a place on a riverbank was and is a beautiful illustration for the vision behind Remington. A life giving place that connects socially conscious patrons with intentionally sourced handcrafted goods. If you look closely at our logo you’ll notice the kick out in the R in Remington that represents the cross (faith) and the little waves next to Intentional Goods that represent water.

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

For the last 11 years I’ve helped my clients, friends and family transform their homes through interior design. Through this process I have researched and purchased countless products. I grew up in a large family (I’m the youngest of 5 kids) where mission work was the norm. My exposure to global poverty undoubtedly had a transforming effect on my character and worldview. Remington was born out of an eagerness to unite both my background in design and my desire to help others. Every curated product sold by Remington is handcrafted meeting sustainable and ethical practices. By bringing people and cultures together my hope is that Remington will enrich the lives of both the artisan and the customer.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

This is an easy one. The best source of new clients is word of mouth! When customers come into the shop and they’re excited about the products and mission behind them they tell their friends and family. It means so much to us! This is especially important since we don’t have the funding for big ticket marketing.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Remington has had many homes since it started in 2020. Through each location came challenges and lessons learned. I started Remington in an 8’x8′ booth inside of an antique store. At the time it was a perfect fit. I had 2 out of 4 kids at home so running a retail shop with full time hours was not an option. I really felt called to jump into starting my business even though the timing wasn’t ideal. We certainly didn’t have the funding either. This was the best way to test out the concept of Remington without a big financial commitment and time commitment. The biggest issue with this location was lack of connection to customers. In order to build a brand you have to tell the stories behind the products and get to know your customers. This just wasn’t possible in this setting. The next Remington location was inside a coffee shop. This was a short stay as running three businesses cohesively in the same location was nearly impossible. At this time I decided to pivot to an online business and reassess Remington as a whole. To be honest this pivot was devastating and took some time to heal from. Although this season was painful I learned a lot about running a business, inventory, relationships and much more. During this season I attended a lot of trade shows and was always reminded of the joy that Remington brought to customers and decided to not give up. I was so grateful to have a new friend during this time that was running a jewelry business in Heartside. She asked me to move in and after much hesitation I said yes. It was so fun to have someone to collaborate with. After being there a few months a listing became available for a rental space in Alger Heights. I had been looking for retail rentals in Alger since I started Remington. I decided to check it out. It needed a lot of love but the location was killer and the landlords seemed to have similar values. This was really invaluable to me. I showed it to my dad and my husband and they both said DO IT! I called all my best girls and they said the same thing. I didn’t have much faith in myself but it was really clear to everyone I loved that this was a good idea so I decided to go for it. Turns out if you don’t give up you’ll eventually succeed but you won’t come out unscathed.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.remingtongr.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/remingtongrandrapids/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/remingtongrandrapids