Starting out as a small home-based online business almost 5 years back, Kristal was not sure how her products would do in the market. All she knew was that she wanted to create designs and products uniquely created around the theme of surrogacy, something almost no one was doing back then.
SurrogateSisterDesign is a thriving online brand that designs customized shirts, socks, bags, magnets, stickers, hot 'n' cold pads and other cool accessories based on surrogacy and infertility themes. Their products are a hot favorite amongst surrogates and #ttc couples. So we decided to have a chit-chat with the mastermind behind it all to learn more about her one-of-a-kind, unique brand.
Q. So tell us what's the story behind SurrogateSisterDesign? How did you come up with the idea of designing exclusive apparel for our brave surrogate warriors?
I was a surrogate and delivered in 2015. Going through the process of surrogacy I was not able to find anything surrogacy related to wear during my journey. I have always had a love for crafting, photography and graphic design. After my journey it inspired me to start a small home business and that's when Surrogate Sister Design was created.
Q. Being a surrogate yourself I'm sure you can relate to the struggles of carrying a baby for another family. What's the running theme of your brand? What do you aim to achieve with your designs?
The running theme is surrogacy but we are trying to expand and offer more items for IVF. Our main goal has always been to create unique, one of a kind designs for our customers to wear, share and love. Our goal and mission has always been to advocate, encourage, support and empower others on their journey.
Q. Where are your products manufactured?
We order all our shirts, socks and bags blank and we imprint each of them with our customized designs ourselves. All our pineapple pads in fact are handmade. The shirt designs, our stickers, magnets are all lovingly made in-house down to glittering our tumblers which are an absolute fan favorite.
Q. When you started out were you nervous? And what's the level of competition that you have to deal with?
Yes indeed I was quite nervous. It was a scary thing coming up with items and designs and sharing them with others. You never know how they'll react or if they would even like them. I had never imagined even owning a small shop. I feel like this has become my 6th child! It started small and it's now growing into something much bigger than I had expected. When we started in 2016 we did not have much competition however, we do have a fair share of competition now. But we are confident about where we are now and how much we have grown over the years.
Q. Where do you see your brand in the coming 5 years? Do you plan on diversifying or scaling it in anyway?
In the next 5 years we would definitely like to have our own website and maybe even an actual shop! As of right now, we are still comfortable with running our shop from a corner of our bedroom :)
Thank you so much, Kristal for sharing your wonderful story with our readers. We hope Surrogate Sister Design continues to grow and create memorable designs for our brave ttc and surrogate warriors.