Where have we been???
Wow. 4 Years has almost come and gone, and we’ve been here, there and everywhere! At some points in our brand journey, we’ve been a little bit absent, and we are going to get into why and what happens next. This post will be a little longer and a little more serious than others, but hold on for us!
When this shop launched in 2020, I had no intention of remaining open beyond December. “A cute little Christmas Pop-Up Shop” was what I thought I was doing.
Until I found myself buying a printer and a label printer. And filling out forms for a business license. And filing and LLC. And getting logos, and color story and paying for a website. The shop you’ve come to know had very humble beginnings, but we’re seeing beyond the sky in what we want to do with it.
Before we could see the sky, we saw some very personal lows. After suffering multiple financial losses outside of the shop, the loss of my sister and a surprise surgery that had me physically down (and super uncomfortable) for weeks, I could not even address the massive amount of burnout I was experiencing creatively. Fighting the algorithm to be seen had me feeling like the magic had finally run out.
Despite the fact that they also had so much life happen at once to them both, Head Seamstress Nana and Digital Imprint Manager Missy took up the reins so that I could recover physically and mentally. In taking over care of the shop, we began to have conversations about “what next?”. We’ve had so many ideas over the time Chubbdolls has been open, but we wanted to figure out how we could stay in the fandom market beyond the chokers you’ve come to love. What’s one thing a brand can do to stay in the market? Solve a problem.
And our problem? We wanted cuter fandom things to wear. We’re in our thirties and have 3 very distinct styles of dressing that expand beyond what is most commonly found in big box stores. It was going to be a large undertaking, and we actually had said back in 2021 that we’d never even try, but here we are in 2024 getting ready to launch the first items in the Chubbdoll Apparel line. We are so excited to see where this takes us, but we also are (understandably) scared.
Up until now, we have been a 100% self-funded venture. No business loans or grants (even though they’d reallllllly help). That has been difficult for many reasons, but we’ve made it work. This is the first time that we are operating on a pre-order system for items in addition to introducing our brains to the world in a way we haven’t before. We are proud of the things we design, and we want folks to love them as much as we do. We have hope though, that we find our audience again like we did in 2020.
We hope that we find the people who resonate with our style, our story and our future. Let’s make the world our Doll House!