We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Valerie Schimel a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Valerie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
I am an avid outdoor exerciser with a history of skin cancer & sun damage. I searched high & low for a sun shirt, but couldn’t find one that I liked. Everything was too itchy, too thick or too much designed for a speciality sport (fishing, triathletes, etc). I couldn’t find a comfortable, chic sun shirt – so I decided to make one.
Valerie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
JOJU makes buttery soft, ultra lightweight, chic sun shirts for men & women. Each of our shirts provides UPF 50+ (max) sun protection without any additional sunscreen required. If you’re covered by JOJU, you’re protected.
Our shirts are performance – moisture wicking, quick drying & machine washable and dryable. Perfect for tennis, golf, hiking, biking, SUP, walking and/or general outdoor living.
Our Italian fabric is super soft and surprisingly lightweight – put on JOJU and you’ll never take us off.
Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.
I started JOJU by googling “How to Make a Shirt.” It has been a long, windy, expensive & inefficient process to date – but one that has resulted in our perfect design, fabric & manufacturer.
In the process of building JOJU we have
Hired 5+ pattern makers in & around Miami, California and Europe
Tested 23+ fabrics
Hired 2 independent testing labs
Worked with 5+ manufacturers in Miami, LA, China, Mexico & Europe
Spoken with 20+ industry experts on sourcing, manufacturing, pattern making, designing, etc
Wandered the aisles at industry trade shows in Miami, Las Vegas & Orlando
We have learned to
Ask questions from everyone
Demand highest quality
Be patient & wait for the right manufacturers
Ask for – and insist on getting what we want/need
How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.
We sell on Shopify & it has been a wonderful experience. The platform is robust beyond our needs & facilitates on & offline sales and inventory management. There was a bit of an initial learning curve, but we are very happy with the platform.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://livejoju.com
- Instagram: @livejoju
- Facebook: @livejoju
