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

Emily, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

As a life long artist, I was excited to try a new technique of silk screen printing, where I could translate my art into fashion. As I started up-cycling clothing, unknowingly how important the production choice to up-cycle was, I came across documentaries about the devastating effects of the fast fashion industry. My passion was sparked to create an alternative to this detrimental industry, by sustainable AND ethical clothing. My brand was born in 2017 out of my tiny Ocean Beach, San Diego apartment, where my all of production took place. I came up with the name eMpulse for the brand by combining my name Emily + my impulsive art ideas = eMpulse. I continued along the path of up-cycling clothing as my main production method. Up-cycling clothing — repurposing/repairing/recycling discarded garments — it is the most sustainable form of fashion by not only recycling something that already exists, but also preventing clothing from ending up in landfills.

Emily, 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?

*see previous question on how I got into the industry*

Being able to create art, my passion in life, for a important mission, to help humanity and the planet, has been the most fulfilling endeavor of my life. My unique wearable art is genderless — fashion has no gender!!– and is made from up-cycled garments, repurposed deadstock fabrics, and vintage fabrics. Repurposing something that already exists is the most sustainable form of fashion. eMpulse is an alternative to fast fashion and I am so proud to have full production transparency from fabric to the sewing of the garment. I still sew about half of the garments, but am stoked to finally have some help with production! Keeping production local in Southern California, between Los Angeles and San Diego, brings transparency, ethical confidence, and lower carbon emissions for my brand.

I created a brand that customers can feel good about wearing on style, ethical, and environmental levels. Inspired by my coastal California surf/skate lifestyle, my transitional everyday layers have a retro colorful vibe that you won’t find anywhere else. I am selling my product on my website, eMpulseline.com and pop-up events.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

When I started translating my art into fashion by silk screen printing, a skill I taught my self with a little help from a friend, and sewing, an old skill from childhood, it was just a hobby. A hobby that was an exciting new creative outlet that I named eMpulse (Emily + impulsive art = eMpulse). When my small collections of twelve to twenty up-cycled t-shirts continued to sell out at my local farmer’s market, I realized there was a demand for my wearable art and sustainable fashion. And I also realized I could actually make some money off my art, something I’d never considered. A career in the artist industry isn’t seen by society as a true “career”, which is why it took me a few months of good sales to truly recognize that my clothing brand could be a business. I slowly made bigger and bigger collections of not only t-shirts, but flannels and sweatshirts. I also slowly shaved off my many side jobs. I was working five jobs at one point, with nannying being my full time gig. After about two years of working a crazy amount and growing my business to a recognized brand in the community, I made the decision to go full time with eMpulse. It was a scary leap I had to take to dedicate my full energy and time in giving eMpulse a true chance. Going full time with eMpulse not only forced me to hustle harder with my business, but it gave me more time to run the business side of the company. Since I’e gone full time with eMpulse I’ve slowly scaled the amount of inventory I can produce and sell with a production team and proper business plan.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

I started the brand by making everything, souring garments to up-cycle, screen printing, and sewing. I had to brush up on my sewing skills and watch a lot of youtube videos to fine tune skills and troubleshoot at first, but to me if was more effificent that going to fashion school. My business got to a point where I could not keep up with production, and I also needed to dedicate more of my time to actually running the business.

Finding a production team has been a daunting task, but I started out by getting help with just one part of production, screen printing. I still work with the same local screen printer since the beginning of eMpulse. Finding a cut and sew team has been the most challenging, but critical part to scale my brand. I currently work with three different production teams between L.A. and National City, depending on the project. It may be more expensive to keep production domestic, but having transparency and ethical production is a core value of my brand. I also value being able to drive and be able to check on projects and talk to my team.

It was a bit of trail and error in finding the right production, but you have to just jump in at some point and send it! I’d suggest setting up meetings with different teams and going to the production facilities. I was able to get a vibe from the different teams and the facilities to see if they seemed like the right fit for me. I’ve also found that once you find a one part of the production puzzle, be it the pattern maker, the sew team, or cutting team, they can usually point you in the right direction to help find the remaining pieces of the puzzle.

Contact Info:

• Website: empulseline.com
• Instagram: @_empulse_
• Facebook: @empulseline
• Other: TikTok @empulseline

Image Credits
Teagan Maddux, Laysea Hughes, Lily Day, Austin Rowe, Michaela Carmen