WE MOVED ~ You may have seen this via our Instagram (@unidesign_world)
but let me tell you more about it all.
It all started in March when I (Maya - founder of Uni Design) was trying to brainstorm ideas on how to spend the summer. For the last few years I have been growing my small upcycling business by doing pop up events and local outdoor markets. This lifestyle is NOT for the weak - all weekends booked up with very long hours, take out lunches, heavy lifting of bins and tents and racks, a lot of sitting and waiting and very unpredictable sales which were so dependent on weather, mood, foot traffic, event marketing e t c.
I swore last summer would be my last and that I needed to find a new solution but what could it be ? I had toyed with the idea of opening up my own store (looking back I was def not ready for this) but the rent prices in Vancouver for commercial space were SO high and I didn’t know if I’d even be able to afford the staff and the production help I would need to maintain a (even small) storefront. My mentor Randa recommended that I try some pop up events at local stores and partner with other small businesses rather than markets.
I reached out to Decade Studio: and said : email subject : Pop Up in Your Shop :)
Hi Molly,
My name is Maya and I am the founder of Uni Design, a local upcycled clothing brand. I was chatting with Randa earlier this week and she mentioned I should reach out to you about having a pop up in your shop!
I create one-of-one designs and work with a lot of denim. I am looking to connect with stores who have like-minded values about sustainability and high quality, well designed and well made garments. I thought this might be a fun way to connect and also bring our audiences together.
Planning it around Earth Day this coming April (on the 23-24 perhaps?) could be a perfect opportunity. Please let me know if this would be a possibility. I really look forward to hearing from you.
Warmly,
Maya
To be honest, I never expected for them to answer. I’ve sent many emails that were ignored or left unopened over the years. To my surprise they were very interested and asked to meet up in the shop that same week.
We decided to organize an event focused on denim / jeans alterations called the Fit Clinic where we would offer some simple alterations like hem & waistband fixes as well as some more fun creative upcycle ones like adding sides panels to create wide leg jeans, turning jeans into shorts, adding lace to the sides or adding visible sashiko mending.
The turnout was unreal!! We were not expecting to have such a crazy busy weekend. People showed up starting from 10 min. before it opened, it didn't stop and went over time the second day. We had a giant pile of jeans stacked and did fittings for over 50 customers in 2 days, some of them brought 2-3-4 pairs of jeans so we had close to 75 pairs of pants to mend.
We were of course both ecstatic and overwhelmed - Ana, my seamstress was the hero of the story, having done back to back fittings for the whole weekend fueled pretty much only by coffee and brie cheese. On Saturday, after day 1 I said to Ana : “I don’t want to get my hopes up about this but I get a really good feeling about those people and the community that showed up and the space - I think we are going to be spending a lot more time here”. Sunday morning we came in and the first thing Molly said: “I need to to talk to you about something, I really want you to think about this today, no pressure to make a decision right now, but I want to tell you we LOVED having you here, we want you here more - would you be interested in moving in to that space as a permanent studio ?”
So, the feeling was mutual and the Fit Clinic was the beginning of a very exciting new chapter for Uni. We got to work organizing the move (and getting through all those jean orders) and we officially moved on June 1st. This new space allows us to have a showroom style set up so that customers can come in and shop in person. It also made it possible to expand our offerings to clothing alterations, mending and reworking because we now have a space for fittings.
If you’d like to come by and visit the space, shop around, chat about custom orders or, of course, get some clothing repaired, altered or mended, we would love to have you ! You can book in by appointment. We can’t wait to extend the life of your clothing.
Fit Clinic 4 ever!
Maya xx