Sean's Note After 5 Years
TO OUR INCREDIBLE BRAND COMMUNITY,
I’ll start by just saying how awesome the consistent support we’ve felt from all of you over the last six months has been. Man, we’ve gotten so many nice emails from so many of you, incredibly kind notes, Instagram tags etc. - it’s been fueling the creation of The Lomas Brand’s future - so I just wanted to say thank you for that.
Today is a day for celebration. While the burden of the past six months undoubtedly made operating The Lomas Brand significantly more difficult, none more profound than the cancelation of our beloved Fiesta Del Sol weekend in Solana Beach where it is our annual tradition to connect with our founding community in person. It was also undoubtedly time to go into survival mode.
Six months ago, I found myself feeling, like so many of us, thinking the world was spinning out of control as I was tirelessly looking for something to grab to steady the ground. What I discovered to be my steady ground, and as it always is, was the creative studio. I immersed myself inside it - repeatedly saying a quote that I said to myself way back when I was starting Lomas - “Many wrong steps are taken while standing still.” So while the world came to a halt, The Lomas Brand could not. I had to keep it moving forward - for all of us. Together we’ve built this brand and if I didn't, I believed wrong steps would lay ahead. So I took one long deep breath in and jumped into the design studio. In there, the noise and distractions of the world could not get to me. Cutting myself off from social media, the news and television in general, it allowed me to put all that energy into furthering what we all willed to life so many years ago - The Lomas Brand. Here I was able to cultivate the vision I had in my head, innovate products to move us forward, and most importantly survive as a small business during dire and unique circumstances. The result of this time in the studio was three completed new collections, filled with new styles, improved product quality, and most importantly, a blueprint for the future that will take us into Fall 2021. All the while fulfilling countless orders over the months from our community members ensuring our survival as a brand. In the hardest of circumstances, we teamed together and moved this thing forward.
Now we find ourselves here today with new arrivals. According to the most recently updated labor statistics its said that 1 in every 2 small businesses with less than 10 employees will be out of business by their 5th year in operation. Add in a pandemic - and who knows how much worse those odds get. But as we have demonstrated throughout the years, where there is a will, there is a way - and statistics most certainly can be beat. Yesterday, we proudly completed our 60th month in business as a clothing brand - officially 5 years in operation. In that time, together we’ve built a brand from zero outside financial investment, tight budgets across the board, an unwavering dedication to only the highest quality products and customer service, and a genuine appreciation for our customers and their business. That formula was and is the investment. It has allowed The Lomas Brand’s reached to expand across six continents - as far away as Perth, Australia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as far south as Cape Town, South Africa, as far east as Romania, France, Italy, Great Britain, and as far west as Japan and Indonesia! Truly incredible given the statistical odds. So as a community, let’s celebrate this, lets motivate one another and our small business community and lets enjoy this accomplishment together.
This Labor Day release is our first batch of new arrivals, one of 3 to come in the next few months. But this one is special. 5 years ago, I opened The Lomas Brand with about 10 branded t-shirts and a few hats. While I’ll be sending a more updated community note to you all in the coming months when our Fall Collection debuts, I wanted this release of new arrivals to bring it back full circle - full of new graphic tee’s, sweatshirts, hats and duffels to not only commemorate 5 years in business, but to inspire our brand community and allow us to all proudly show off The Lomas Brand and celebrate just how amazing of an achievement 5 years in business truly is. An achievement that could have only been reached with each other. My hope is that you all will share in this excitement with me.
And lastly, similar to how I signed off on our last conversation six months back, I’ll leave it for now with this…
Long live the unwaivering grit of the small business owner and those who support them. Long live a small business's will to overcome odds, and man do I mean this... long live The Lomas Brand and the community we’ve all created.
Cheers to many more steps forward and thank you all once again from the bottom of my heart :)
Sean
I’ll start by just saying how awesome the consistent support we’ve felt from all of you over the last six months has been. Man, we’ve gotten so many nice emails from so many of you, incredibly kind notes, Instagram tags etc. - it’s been fueling the creation of The Lomas Brand’s future - so I just wanted to say thank you for that.
Today is a day for celebration. While the burden of the past six months undoubtedly made operating The Lomas Brand significantly more difficult, none more profound than the cancelation of our beloved Fiesta Del Sol weekend in Solana Beach where it is our annual tradition to connect with our founding community in person. It was also undoubtedly time to go into survival mode.
Six months ago, I found myself feeling, like so many of us, thinking the world was spinning out of control as I was tirelessly looking for something to grab to steady the ground. What I discovered to be my steady ground, and as it always is, was the creative studio. I immersed myself inside it - repeatedly saying a quote that I said to myself way back when I was starting Lomas - “Many wrong steps are taken while standing still.” So while the world came to a halt, The Lomas Brand could not. I had to keep it moving forward - for all of us. Together we’ve built this brand and if I didn't, I believed wrong steps would lay ahead. So I took one long deep breath in and jumped into the design studio. In there, the noise and distractions of the world could not get to me. Cutting myself off from social media, the news and television in general, it allowed me to put all that energy into furthering what we all willed to life so many years ago - The Lomas Brand. Here I was able to cultivate the vision I had in my head, innovate products to move us forward, and most importantly survive as a small business during dire and unique circumstances. The result of this time in the studio was three completed new collections, filled with new styles, improved product quality, and most importantly, a blueprint for the future that will take us into Fall 2021. All the while fulfilling countless orders over the months from our community members ensuring our survival as a brand. In the hardest of circumstances, we teamed together and moved this thing forward.
Now we find ourselves here today with new arrivals. According to the most recently updated labor statistics its said that 1 in every 2 small businesses with less than 10 employees will be out of business by their 5th year in operation. Add in a pandemic - and who knows how much worse those odds get. But as we have demonstrated throughout the years, where there is a will, there is a way - and statistics most certainly can be beat. Yesterday, we proudly completed our 60th month in business as a clothing brand - officially 5 years in operation. In that time, together we’ve built a brand from zero outside financial investment, tight budgets across the board, an unwavering dedication to only the highest quality products and customer service, and a genuine appreciation for our customers and their business. That formula was and is the investment. It has allowed The Lomas Brand’s reached to expand across six continents - as far away as Perth, Australia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as far south as Cape Town, South Africa, as far east as Romania, France, Italy, Great Britain, and as far west as Japan and Indonesia! Truly incredible given the statistical odds. So as a community, let’s celebrate this, lets motivate one another and our small business community and lets enjoy this accomplishment together.
This Labor Day release is our first batch of new arrivals, one of 3 to come in the next few months. But this one is special. 5 years ago, I opened The Lomas Brand with about 10 branded t-shirts and a few hats. While I’ll be sending a more updated community note to you all in the coming months when our Fall Collection debuts, I wanted this release of new arrivals to bring it back full circle - full of new graphic tee’s, sweatshirts, hats and duffels to not only commemorate 5 years in business, but to inspire our brand community and allow us to all proudly show off The Lomas Brand and celebrate just how amazing of an achievement 5 years in business truly is. An achievement that could have only been reached with each other. My hope is that you all will share in this excitement with me.
And lastly, similar to how I signed off on our last conversation six months back, I’ll leave it for now with this…
Long live the unwaivering grit of the small business owner and those who support them. Long live a small business's will to overcome odds, and man do I mean this... long live The Lomas Brand and the community we’ve all created.
Cheers to many more steps forward and thank you all once again from the bottom of my heart :)
Sean