We started this journey over one year ago. It was few weeks into the New Year 2014 when we knew this year was going to be a different kind of year. It was the year to start the business we had always dreamed of creating. There was an energy in the air, our hearts beat a little faster and we got to work. Now there would have been easier times in our life to start a clothing line. Plenty of times in fact. Yet we chose the craziest time in our life. We were knee-deep in baby diapers, navigating toddler emotions and sleep deprived. Yes, it was a perfect time to start a business.
The idea for bud & june started at the beach, of course! Well, it started before we got to the beach. There was not one bathing suit that we wanted to put on our boys. We like to consider ourselves resourceful but struggled to find anything. We addressed our issues with the current offerings for boys.- The styles were too long on their small frame.
- Too much fabric especially when wet they sagged even more exposing their bums.
- They all looked the same. The same short made in different "boy" colors.
The style of short most offered for boys is called a boardshort. It has its origins from the surf world in that the style is used when doing sports requiring a board such as a surfboard. It was important that the shorts were long in order for the surfers leg hair to not get stuck on the wax of the surfboard while sitting and waiting for waves. Now I don't know about your children but we don't have that problem with our boys. We love surfers. But our boys are still honing their surf skills at the shoreline. They mostly spend their time dumping sand on our beach blanket, digging for treasures or running from waves. ( And they do enjoy to eat their share of sand too!)
It made sense to us that the suits needed to be shorter and more form fitting. We started on our prototypes. We sewed the samples ourselves until we had what we envisioned. During this whole process, our boys have been on this journey with us. Their feedback by words or movements has guided us. The final test was that our boys loved them! They were excited to have free movement in their bathing suit. Literally, jumping up and down in them. They wore them all season, on vacations and even just out and about to playgrounds, grocery stores and play dates. They dry quick, they are comfortable and maybe just as important allows our children to express themselves by being different.
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