Well, we can all agree that living in this era is a strange one indeed. As a human, taking in this information and accepting the reality of the unknown is a whole new paradigm to live in. As Blowfish starts its Summer things for sure don't seem business as usual. Although, we persevere.
Owning a family business with a bare bones team is almost comical and when you add in this whole shenanigan it gets real interesting. With our manufacturing dropping off for awhile and my husband and I fighting for work time there were a few days there were I was laptoping in the back of my car on a sea of boxes wondering if I would make it to the Post office before 5 in a fury. It felt a little strange, chaotic, and definitely not picture perfect.
At the core though our business is still here and we are grateful that we can keep trucking through this. Our hats are built to feel free in, to socialize in, to adventure in, to play in, to feel like an individual in, to stand out in a crowd in...and we may not be able to participate in all those things how we usually do right now. Yet, some things never change and the journey we are all on daily is it's own unique ride. One that is highly varied depending on where you are and what your having to trek through.
We hope you can still get out and take your family out. In fact, we hope that this Summer opens up space for you to fit that in instead of full on busy productive mode per usual. Adventure doesn't have to cost a lot of money, just sometimes a lot more imagination.
We are churning away at the shop and even though our manufacturing was on a bit of a hold we still are doing the best we can to bring new designs to the forefront and get them up on our websites so people can buy online. A big part of why we do this business, and our business model, is picking hats out in person and that personal connection we have with you as you try hats on. Honestly, gonna miss that a lot and don't know if we will be doing any festivals or markets this Summer.
Online stuff tends to elude me and I am not the best at keeping highly engaged with it as a small business owner and mother. That is five fold now. So we all take these baby steps and learn how to do this together. In the meantime we still get outside, safely, and feel the real appreciation of the freedom we can find. Even if that is just a walk down your block!
Each day feels a bit different in a mix of gratitude and despair. The politics of this feels like it has heightened to a scary and dangerous level of divisiveness. As people, and as business owners, I just believe we need to support small businesses and farmers the best we can so that our communities can survive this mess. Are we at the end of large global travel, unsustainable business practices, and because of this an environmental awakening? I just don't know. I just know that for us staying small is, and always has been, a key part of our model.
Eventually we will all be arm and arm again basking in our new found elatedness for all things that bring us together and hopefully be better because of all this trudging through this tunnel. Sending love from the Blowfish home office to yours.
***If you don't see a hat you like online please do write as I am doing custom orders. Also have lots of sale hats if your budget is tight. Please do just write me and say hello**** erin@blowfishhats.com