We recently connected with Neha Samdaria and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Neha, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about serving the underserved.

Sure thing. So, I was thirteen years old when I first cried in a fitting room. I believe it was 2003 and I was shopping for low rise jeans. I weighed 120 lbs at the time, so I started with the size Extra Small. It was too tight on the hips. So, I moved up to a Small. Too tight. Medium? Nope, too tight. Ultimately, the Large fit comfortably over my hips and thighs, but unfortunately, now the pants were ballooning out at the waist. I remember opening the fitting room door to ask the shopkeeper for belt options and she looked at me horrified; “Oh honey, those are WAY too big for you! Let me get you a smaller pair.”

I was so ashamed of my body and I tried to tell her, “No, they won’t fit my hips and thighs.” But she was already gone, starting to pull pieces that I knew would never work.

I just said “never mind,” shut the door, and cried.

1 in 4 American women have a “curvy bottom” shape, with fuller hips and thighs than the standard size chart. I am one of them and I’ve spoken to hundreds of women like me. This is the community we serve at my fashion label, Aam.

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.

Aam is a fashion label that makes really high quality, well-fitted pieces for women with full hips and thighs. 25% of American women have this body type, with almost no brands that cater to their shape. We’re here to change that, starting with pants.

I’m a South-Asian, pear-shaped woman and I’ve hated shopping for pants because nothing fits off the rack. If it sits correctly at the waist, it’s too tight on the hips and thighs. If I size up to make room for my hips, the waist will gape and I have to belt or tailor it. As a teenager, I envied my straight-figured friends who could just walk into a store and buy what they liked. It took a mental toll on my self confidence; I’ve cried in fitting rooms, chased fad diets to try and change my shape, and for a while, I gave up on pants entirely and just lived in stretchy leggings, skirts and A-line dresses instead. The thing is, the entire time, I thought the problem was me.

Then, in 2017, I traveled to Rwanda. On the last day of my trip, I went shopping in some local boutiques and much to my surprise, everything in-store fit correctly. I was genuinely confused so I asked the shopkeeper what was going on. He laughed and explained that they had thrown out American sizes years ago, because they simply didn’t work for the curvier shaped women of his country.

That’s when the light bulb went off. The problem wasn’t me, it was the size charts.

As soon as I got home, I began researching the history of sizing in the U.S. and unearthed a deeply biased 1940s study upon which modern sizes are based. This study makes a number of incorrect assumptions. First of all, it relies on women’s bust measurements, assuming that we are proportional throughout. And secondly, it excludes all women of color from the results, and we know that body shapes tend to vary by ethnicity.

So, when I realized that the fit issue was a data issue, I became excited because that meant it could be solved with better data. I started building my own dataset, using the measurements of real, curvy bottomed women from around the country, and developed a new fashion line that would fit. That’s how Aam was born.

We launched our signature trouser collection in 2022 and have been featured on Forbes and Stylecaster for our fit and quality. To-date, we have just a 3% return rate (vs. an e-commerce standard of 30-40%) and rave reviews across styles and sizes. As a Founder, I get the most excited when women share how our pants make them feel, which is leveled up and confident in their skin. They’ve worn our pants into board meetings, conferences, on dates and in the classroom.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

I bootstrapped Aam from my savings, which was a somewhat unusual choice for a business born in the Bay Area. In the early days, there was a lot of pressure to raise money and I even had a few people proactively reach out to invest based purely on my professional record. Many early investments are made this way, but I’m a little cautious by nature – I didn’t want to take anyone else’s money till I had validated my idea in the market, and I wanted to retain control of my business trajectory.

So, I built a comprehensive financial plan with detailed expenses for the next two years, both personal and professional. On the personal side, it was things like rent, food, travel, insurance, etc. On the professional side, it was things like manufacturing, testing, packaging, web development, marketing, and sales. Most of these costs could be approximated through some googling or by cold emailing potential partners and sourcing initial quotations. On top of every estimate, I added a 15-20% buffer, just in case.

Then, I built monthly sales projections for the same two-year period. Again, there was a lot of detailed thought that went into this. For example, prior to Aam I worked on new product launch and category growth at Minted. Through that experience, I knew how to approximate marketing ROI, so I used that knowledge to project revenues for Aam across different channels. When I felt confident that I could support myself with savings and break even in a reasonable time frame, I started pursuing the business full-time.

Overall, I’m happy I didn’t raise money, but if I had to do it over, I would change a few things:

Firstly, I would explore grants early on, and apply to as many as I felt qualified for. And second, I would begin building my audience from day one of working on the company, rather than waiting till launch. This is one of the biggest mistakes that product-based businesses make; just because you don’t have a product doesn’t mean you can’t start amassing a following on social media! Think about who your customer is and what other information they might be interested in. Then start handing that content out for free. By the time you launch, you’ll have an audience that you can begin selling to.

As a tangible example, Aam sells high quality, well-fitted clothes to women with full hips and thighs. These women are interested in topics like style advice for their body type, mending and altering hacks to make clothes fit better, and advice on how to shop for quality online. This is all information I had while building Aam and could have easily shared on social media to foster our community ahead of launch.

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

Absolutely. All of Aam’s pieces are made in India. I chose India because it’s a hub for textile manufacturing, many of the producers are willing to work with small order quantities (in contrast to other countries in South East Asia) and, as an Indian, I felt comfortable navigating the culture.

If you plan to source overseas, it’s important not to underestimate cultural differences. For example, Americans are quite direct in their business approach. In contrast, Indians tend to put a high value on relationships and hospitality. When you show up to a factory there, you’re first offered “chai” and snacks. You get to know one another before jumping into business talk. These seemingly small things make a huge difference when it comes time to negotiate or when the factory is oversubscribed and must prioritize your work. If you don’t have experience in-country, you can also work with a third-party agent, who will source and negotiate for you, for a percentage fee (usually 8-12%).

I started my factory hunt with a list of 63 options that I had compiled through Google searches, contacts of friends, and by looking at the sourcing lists of top American brands. I cold emailed almost all of them and after several conversations about their minimum order quantities (MOQs), ethics & sustainability certifications, and overall working style, whittled it down to a dozen that I decided to sample from.

From there, my rockstar designer, Kartik, and I, sent them our initial designs to make samples. Each factory was evaluated on sample fit and quality, communication style, timeliness and ethics. In the end, we worked with two production partners.

But, even once the factory partners were finalized, there was so much I didn’t know. I don’t have a background in fashion, so I did what I typically do – rolled up my sleeves and got in the weeds. I went to the fabric mills and felt over a thousand fabrics before understanding what was needed for our designs. Kartik and I sat on the factory floor beside pattern masters, asking questions about the various production processes and watching how small adjustments impacted the fit and quality. We tested each design on women of different sizes, again and again till we felt confident in the fit. It took 10 months! And we documented the entire process, to streamline future production rounds. I’ll be launching a masterclass on How To Launch Your Own Fashion Label later this year, to help new designers find their way.

My advice to founders is: manufacturing can seem overwhelming, but it’s worth understanding because a great product will always pay dividends. Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty, ask lots of questions, and sample and test as much as you need to feel comfortable.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://aamthelabel.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aamthelabel/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aamthelabel/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neha-samdaria-0141a43b
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@aamthelabel

Image Credits
Kate Rowe Kala Minko Lakeia Perkins Lauren Ramjan