We recently connected with Hillary & Loren Cullum & Heller and have shared our conversation below.

Hillary & Loren, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Loren “birthed” the idea for Berkley Clothing while she was pregnant with her daughter, Leighton. As a health-conscious mom-to-be, Loren was unable to find maternity activewear that was fashionable, comfortable and functional. She identified a gap in the market and immediately shared it with her friend. Hillary shared Loren’s passion for style, health and wellness, and was dismayed by the gap in the maternity market. Determined to change things for future moms-to-be, Loren and Hillary set out to design the perfect pair of maternity leggings for before, during and after pregnancy.

Berkley Clothing is a luxury activewear line designed to make women feel beautiful, confident and heathy during every moment of pregnancy and beyond. Berkley believes that when you look good, you feel good and that women should never have to sacrifice comfort for style (and vice versa.) The company celebrates pregnancy through soft, luxurious clothing that empowers women to stay active, celebrate every moment and most importantly, be themselves.

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

Dallas-based Loren and Hillary share many passions, including hiking in the mountains of Colorado (home state shout out!), sweating out frustrations, small fluffy dogs, a really good glass of wine, and luxury everything. They met working at Neiman Marcus, the place they credit with not only bringing them together as friends, but also with shaping their knowledge and expertise of high-quality, flattering clothing. It’s their collective experience working in luxury retail, that provided the foundation for their expertise and the knowledge necessary to build a business from the ground up. In addition to their experiences at Neiman Marcus, both Hillary and Loren have worked as consultants for various industries and companies.

Berkley is a female-owned and run business, and everything we do is centered around empowering women. To keep us grounded in that mission, we’ve named our brand and all of our products after important women in our lives. Berkley is a maternity activewear brand, specializing in high-quality, comfortable and functional leggings and tops for every stage of pregnancy and beyond.

Their signature product is their leggings, in two different styles: The Janey and The Cindy, named for Loren and Hillary’s moms. With a focus on quality, the leggings have key features including four-way stretch, moisture wicking and antimicrobial properties and are available in go-to classic tones and on-trend prints that are a rare find in maternity departments.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

As a relatively new brand, word of mouth is everything. As such, upon launching Berkley, Loren and Hillary were open to and embraced every different type of marketing channel – including paid advertising. What they quickly realized is that they did not have the capital to compete against the large existing brands in both the maternity and activewear spaces. After months of pivoting and trying various approaches to paid advertising, Hillary and Loren made the decision to significantly reduce ad-spend and instead put capital and efforts towards influencer marketing, a 180 degree shift in strategy. The result has been slower, but more authentic and reliable brand awareness and growth.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

Loren and Hillary met on the sales floor of Neiman Marcus Denver, where Loren was an entry-level coordinator and Hillary was an intern. At that point, some fifteen years ago, the two never imagined they’d start a maternity-activewear brand, based out of Dallas, Texas.

The two went on to work together for several years and in addition to building a life-long friendship, developed key insights about themselves and each other that proved critical to creating a successful business partnership.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://berkleyclothing.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/berkleyclothing/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BerkleyClothing
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/berkley-clothing/