Our home is now a warehouse

Our first production order has finally arrived, we're quite satisfied with how it came out and the overall quality. We now have actual 'stock' – a couple of tees, shorts, and a few hoodies. The next step is figuring out where to stash these boxes and how to deal with logistics.

Being in Portugal is great for production, but not so much for logistics. Although still in Europe, it's very much at the end of it all. In ancient Roman times, Sagres – 15 min from here – was considered the end of the world. This means shipping, from here, to the rest of Europe isn't as fast and comes at a higher cost. For now we'll have to make it work, but eventually we do intend to outsource this part of the business to a fulfillment partner more centrally located.

This is the reward of working with physical goods, to have something you can actually hold and touch, of which we can be very proud. But also, a bunch of boxes and limited storage space. I guess it's pros and cons.

We're still waiting for the main items, which are going to be the polos. However, as previously explained, we had to look for a new partner once again. This time, we found what seems to be a much more reliable partner. Instead of working directly with the factories — where communication is poor and we’re often overlooked — we decided to try out an agent.

We found a very kind, older lady, based up north. She comes with years of experience in the textile industry and has a lot of local contacts. This should make it much easier for us to develop and finally get things done. It's also great to have someone close to the production who is in our corner, looking out for us in terms of design, quality, and cost.

Things are looking up, and we are getting closer and closer to get all the garments ready and start setting up shop.

Next week we'll take a break from these stories, and focus on the brand itself. The name, the logo and more