We recently connected with Latarsha Giles-Ansah and have shared our conversation below.

Latarsha, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers

The craziest thing that’s happened to me/my business has been receiving shoutouts on the radio from a local reggae dj. It all began during the 2020 pandemic quarantine when there was nothing to do and no place to go. My family and I love to listen to DJ Rickey Lee play reggae music on 99.7 FM every Sunday from 6-8 p.m. Instead of sitting at home listening, we began to drive around town listening to the reggae. I shared my story with DJ Rickey Lee and to my surprise, he started telling the listeners to check out Irie Gear. It was one of the best feelings in my life to have my business name mentioned to local listeners and potential customers.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Irie Innovations, LLC aka Irie Gear began as a result of my love for reggae music. I first got into the business by making shirts with Afro-Caribbean inspired patches. At the time, I was vending at local reggae concerts, Spoleto, and Moja before securing a booth at the Ladson Flea market. After a long hiatus due to the covid pandemic, I am back to vending around town and selling my merchandise online, I am no longer at the market, however I do offer local contactless locker pickup for those living in Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester counties. Customers can order online at www.iriegear.com and select either U.S. shipping or pickup during checkout. My contactless locker pickup is a fast and convenient way to retrieve your order at your convenience.

Although the company name is Irie Innovations, I named the website Irie Gear to represent the unique and affordable items that I sell. Although, I have an all sales final policy, we will work something out with customers if a problem should arise. I am proud to still be in business after 16 years of ups and downs. For me, this is not only a business, but a way to educate and teach about Afro-Caribbean culture. When customers visit my booth at events, I have display cards telling what the African symbols and colors represent. It’s a pleasure to not only make money selling my merchandise, but to also share my knowledge.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

My most favorite recent sales story just happened earlier this month before Juneteenth. My customers kept asking me to print Juneteenth t-shirts, so this year, I took on the challenge. I began printing the shirts and decided to take a picture for social media and post without editing. A couple of hours later, my timeline was filled with shirt request and customers requesting a design that was initially for young girls be printed on an adult shirt. The risk was posting an unedited picture with the words working. The lesson that I learned from this is that everything doesn’t have to be picture perfect for social media to generate sales.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I had to pivot during the pandemic and I am still pivoting as I decided to homeschool my son. It has been a long journey trying to balance homeschool, business, and self-care. It’s like an ongoing act of balancing that never ends, however I would not change it for the world.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.iriegear.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/iriegear
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/iriegear
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@iriegear4253

Image Credits
Latarsha Giles