A Year's Reflection

April 17th 2013 was the first day TomboyX had our first online sale via our newly launched website. This was almost a month after successfully raising over $76,000 on Kickstarter. The funds for Kickstarter paid for us to get the TomboyX Collection into production: the Sweet Caroline in light blue and medium blue, the LJ Polo, the Franco Polo and the Maggie Blazer, in brown and blue. Our fit and style was what we were excited about. 10 days into the campaign, we realized that we had a brand. A brand that women with tomboy spirit were identifying with, from all walks of life, from all over the world and from all ages. It dawned on us that we had gone beyond a clothing company just by the fact that women in an unmet market were feeling seen for the very first time. It changed our company's mission, it changed our direction and it changed our focus. And, interestingly enough, Team TomboyX started to feel a sense of responsibility to our customer in a way we could never have anticipated just 30 days earlier.

So, the journey began. A year later we moved out of our garage and into a real warehouse space. We can't afford an office space, too, so we've adapted by building a creative working space within the warehouse. Thanks to the generosity of friends and TomboyX fans, we now have a warm and inviting TomboyX HQ, located in the SODO area of Seattle. It's been amazing to move out of a small, dark garage and into a big, open space. Everything has a place, Naomi has a designated shipping area and there is even room for a small showroom, which people can visit by appointment.

We're sponsoring a softball team with the Outwest Bar in West Seattle. We are so proud to watch them wear our jerseys and trucker hats as they exude tomboy spirit both on and off the field. They piled into the new TomboyX pick up truck for the team photo and nearly blew a tire! The team ranges in ages from 25 to over 50 confident that no matter what, this is a winning team!

In a year we've built a tomboy family that touches not just our local community but worldwide. We've shipped to 18 countries so far and we've managed to maintain an average 5 star rating on our reviews. We have awesome brand ambassadors evangelizing for us and we LOVE them all: Catie Curtis, Traci Dinwiddie, Hannah Thomas, Dana Goldberg, Gina Yeshere and Shellie Hart! We are humbled by your generosity.

While we have come a long way, we are still a long way from being 'established'. We are having a great time and will continue to plug away at living up to our Kickstarter motto of 'staking a claim in women's fashion'. It's been an incredible journey, one in which we learn from our customers every day as we strive to get this right.

Fran Dunaway