We were lucky to catch up with Whitney LaMonda recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Whitney , thanks for joining us today. Talk to us about building your team? What was it like? What were some of the key challenges and what was your process like?

Thread Vision is a female owned and operated small business. The ladies that are bringing our products to market all worked together in our past corporate lives! We met back in 2014 at BB Dakota, after a buy out from Steve Madden our offices were shifting to Madden’s NY HQ and we did NOT want to leave sunny so-cal :) In 2021 Thread Vision was founded with the idea of creating a business that could utilize the wonderfully talented and extensive network of fashion savvy individuals that we had come to know and love working with- all while providing a service that was needed in the market.

Although the idea of getting the band back together initially felt like a pipe dream, within 2 years we now have 4 original team members in place! We feel so lucky that the hiring process has been so easy, relying on our established network leaves a pool of exception talent. I couldn’t have dreamt up a better way to staff a company and am so grateful!

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?

My name is Whitney LaMonda and I am the founder of Thread Vision-a custom apparel and accessories company that helps content creators launch their own brands and further monetize their audiences. After a successful Division one athletic career I shifted my passion to fashion, I taught myself the corporate ropes at Juicy Couture, O’neill and Rusty Surf brands, and BB Dakota/Steve Madden. Through these two decades I honed my skills so that I could successfully recreate a corporate fashion house, geared to content creators wanting to create their own brands.

Thread Vision is your one-stop-shop for elevated apparel and accessories, each piece created is designed, sampled, produced, and fulfilled in-house so our clients don’t have to outsource components of their creation journey. As experts in the industry we know how overwhelming it can be to try to create a product yourself-so we do it ALL for you. We handle everything using our time, years of experience, and elaborate network so that our clients can focus on their content and being the CMO of their very own brand.

We are not your typical merch company-those use “blanks” or existing apparel items to print or add branding, we are building all our styles from scratch! Meaning we are selecting all components down to the fabric and fit! Because we get to start at the bones of the item we are able to customize each piece exactly to our clients desires, resulting in unique and on-brand styles that represent the creator and their audience specifically.

While Thread Vision specializes in apparel we offer a wide range of products! From home goods and kitchen to headwear, drinking vessels, small leather goods, tote bags, socks, and very successful paper products. Every project is unique so don’t hesitate to reach out with your idea!

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

I honestly still feel like I make pivots to the business daily; a growing business presents a constant opportunity to be nimble and adjust to new demands, customer challenges, tech advancements, internal process’, vendor management and life shifts. But I don’t know if there was ever a bigger pivot than deciding to leave the corporate world and go out on my own. I never really “planned” to have my own company or be an entrepreneur, it just felt like the right thing to do at the right moment. The opportunity also presented itself during a chapter of personal turmoil, so it was even more appropriate to have a greater challenge and focus in life.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

We all have some pre-programmed tendencies and identifying what they are and if they are more beneficial or detrimental has been a wonderful learning experience for me personally. I am absolutely a do-er and so many times I could just take the initiative to get something done-but is that the best course of action? Not always. When managing people and growing a team it’s vital to provide everyone with the tools to be able to successfully complete the tasks on their own, so that next time I don’t have to worry about who/what/where/how it will get done. Pausing to teach rather than do has been a real lesson and challenge in evolving my management style.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thethreadvision.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/threadvision/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheThreadVision/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/89535790/admin/feed/posts/
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/thethreadvision/_saved/