Two Women Create Swimwear Brand for D-Cups and Up

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

Just last week, we looked at a business for women with larger shoe sizes. That was episode 1011, New Zealand Shoe Hustle Sizes Up Profits. And it was started by a woman who was frustrated with a lack of comfortable yet stylish options when it came to shoes. So today we're gonna consider a similar business, but for swimwear. Now in this story, two friends in Minnesota create mid range adjustable swimwear, designed specifically for women with D cups and up.

Hey, this is real life. Not everyone wears the same sizes that big brands manufacture for. And if no one is catering to an overlooked group, well, you can bet that group is frustrated and you might be able to do very well for yourself in addition to helping out those people with more options. So after getting fed up with poorly fitting swimwear, these friends realized that larger women are just an afterthought when swim brands design suits. And they decide to change that.

Their first season just finished to rave reviews and strong revenue. I'll tell you all about how they went from idea to income. That story is coming up in just 30 seconds after this shout out to our sponsor. [Music]

Best friends Liz and Lou both hated shopping for swimsuits. It wasn't unheard of for them to walk into a dressing room with 20 options, only to leave half an hour later empty handed.

But it wasn't because they were picky. They just couldn't find anything that fit. Liz and Lou, both in Minneapolis, Minnesota, didn't understand why it was so hard to look and feel great in traditional swimsuits. They weren't the only women with this challenge. So why weren't swimwear brands making it easier for people with different body shapes to shop?

As a UX designer by day, Lou was used to finding problems that customers face whenever they're using a product and then thinking up creative solutions to solve them. She kept coming back to this idea that shopping for swimsuits was a user experience problem, a disconnect between brands and shoppers. And if she applied her problem solving skills, maybe she could fix it. That's when she started researching swimwear in her free time. She made a huge spreadsheet of over 200 swimwear brands and realized that fewer than 20% even sold a single top designed for D cups or up.

A clear sign there was a market gap. A few nights of Googling turned into two weeks, then a month. And by the end of three months, she had all the research she needed to truly understand the problem. What she discovered was that there were two sides to the issue, not just left and right. No, what I mean is the first was on the side of the swimwear brand.

For most clothing retailers, swimwear makes up less than 5% of their sales. So they don't actually focus on it. They outsource it. A few giant manufacturers dominate the mass market swimwear world because most clothing brands order from those same manufacturer catalogs and only make minor customizations. These companies tend to design for medium sized bodies, whatever that means, which leaves everyone else without great options.

Now on the side of consumers, this makes the pieces inexpensive, but also poorly made. And unless you want to pay $400 or more for a designer swim piece, those low quality items that don't fit very well are your only options. Now that the problem was so clearly framed, it wasn't hard for Liz and Lou to see where they could carve out a much needed niche with mid range adjustable swimwear designed for women with decuffs and up. Between Lou's UX experience and Liz's marketing experience at a local clothing design studio, they knew they were right for the challenge. They were going to launch their own swimwear brand called Wild Isles.

They started looking for a sewing freelancer who could help them prototype a few designs to save on the cost of using a more established design house. But this process didn't go swimmingly, at least at first. They tried fashion industry meetings, searching on Google, and even putting up ads on Craigslist. But everyone told them the same thing. It was too technical, and they'd rather not work with swimwear.

Finally, after six months of searching, they came across a woman who teaches apparel design at a local college, and they've been contracting with her ever since. Liz, Lou, and their freelancer worked on prototypes for the next few months, doing try on testing with friends they knew would give honest feedback. They ended up with a top piece they were especially proud of. They dropped the underwire and foam cups using a tie in the back to create adjustability. They also found an exceptional fabric from Italy that behaves more like a yoga pant than traditional swim polyester, which makes their suit far more comfortable.

Look out, Lulu Lemon. When they thought they had everything in place, they got ready to place an order with this Italian fabric manufacturer. But then they heard the final price tag. It was outrageously expensive and largely because of customs. They asked the manufacturer if they knew any importing companies they could partner with to lower costs.

And sure enough, they learned of a process called port forwarding, where they could essentially send their fabric through Chicago with another shipment for nearly a quarter of the cost. They both say now they have no idea why port forwarding is so much less expensive, but they're just glad they thought to ask. While waiting for the inventory, they built a Shopify website and got their social media accounts in order. The marketing plan was simple. Offer a monthly giveaway on social media to build a loyal and engaged following.

It began with friends and family, but since each person had to tag three other people to enter the giveaway, usually other women in the target group, their following grew by a few hundred people each time. Wild Isles missed the 2019 spring break season, but when they finally launched their signature suit in May, they couldn't keep abreast with inventory. They sold out three different times, even after launching two more styles. Their first summer season generated over $50,000 in revenue, which for now they're keeping in the business to continue to invest. They didn't have a complicated strategy, paid ads, viral social media posts, or a lot of press.

The magic was in finding an innovative way to solve a problem that nobody else was trying or willing to solve. [Music]

Congratulations to Liz and Lou and the Wild Isles team. Fantastic project. So glad that they are meeting these needs. And listeners, notice the research process here.

Pay attention to what Lou did and ask yourself if you can apply it in some way to a problem of your own or an idea that you have. So in her case, she goes and makes a spreadsheet of every vendor she can find that's selling swimsuits. You could do this too, for whatever product you're thinking of, and then see if you spot any patterns or trends. Why is everything priced a certain way? Why is everything a certain color?

What is missing here? Now in this case, clearly what was missing was plus size suits. Okay, so from there, you go to the next phase. You've identified a more specific problem. None of these vendors have much in the way of plus size suits in this story.

Why? And from there, you go and figure out your plan of attack. So you see the pattern or the trends, then you understand what the greater problem is, why most of these fashion brands aren't selling a wider range of sizes in bathing suits, because they don't really care about bathing suits, they outsource it. And then you decide, okay, this is gonna be my market or our market. This is the story that we're gonna tell.

And in the case of Wild Isles, they did this on a low budget, just like so many of our stories and they're going places. So pay attention to them and get to work on your own. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. To find the show notes, including everything I mentioned in this episode, just go to sidehustleschool.com/1020. That is 1020, also known as 1020.

Thanks so much for listening. I'll be back again tomorrow. Be sure you're subscribed. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

- From the Onward Project.