Starting Knickey came from the desire to bring an authentic, earth-friendly product to a mainstream market. I had been working in sustainable home textiles since completing my Master’s in Fashion Studies focused on Sustainability, and I was itching to get back to my first passion: fashion. I wanted to illuminate the impact that our clothing has on the environment, but also on our bodies.
With Knickey, we want people to realize that the clothes you put on your body are just as important as what you put on your plate or on your skin - and most people just don’t know that. Aside from the motivation of the mission itself, I have always been drawn to creating things and building brands - so launching a business with my own vision felt like a natural expression of that drive. In starting Knickey, I love marrying two things that have traditionally been decoupled: apparel and sustainability.
Everyday presents new challenges at a startup. I think that the biggest lesson I have learned is that nothing is ever perfect, and your work is never done. Even when you think you have completed a project or made the best product out there, there is always room to improve, iterate and innovate. This is true in sustainability, and in business.
Truthfully, everything about entrepreneurship and launching a company can be scary! I think that being realistic about your capacity, level-setting your goals, and knowing that some form of failure is inevitable, can [in some capacity] help to quell those nerves and bolster your confidence.
That said, I think that what I am most fearful of is failing the brand, and not realizing the full potential of the business.
My father told me at a young age that if you do something you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. I have always held onto that, and subsequently pursued my passions, even when a career path wasn’t the most clear.
Now that I have taken the leap into entrepreneurship, I glean inspiration from the people who have paved their own paths in emerging industries; women who have afforded me the space the pursue professional goals, and my dear friends and family who are collectively the most supportive people out there - they keep me going!
I am a fairly routine-based individual, and I value consistency in several areas of my life in order to maintain some semblance of balance. These daily routines, however are incredibly difficult to maintain while running a startup. So they vary with the season, the month, even the week.
Right now, I am really enjoying making my coffee in the morning, with a scoop of collagen and a side of my favorite podcast.
Be kind - everyone is fighting their own battle.
About Knickey
We believe standards are made to be raised. So we skipped the pesticides and petroleum-based fabrics that make up most women’s underwear drawers and went with a natural-born winner. Our undies are made from clean, cool, certified organic cotton—so you and your lady parts can breathe easy.
We are living in unprecedented times.
As a small business, we must figure out a way to survive and communication is key to survival. While large brands may have teams of communications experts to help craft their crisis communications and messaging, small businesses might not have such luxury. Read on to find the top 5 examples of good crisis emails.
