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BJJ For Women

~ Women's BJJ Blog: Interviews, Jiu- Jitsu Events and All Things Fenom

BJJ For Women

Category Archives: Business

Lessons Learned in Five Years Part 2

15 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by fenomkimonos in Business, Lessons learned, Women's BJJ

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

brazilian jiu jitsu, fenom kimonos, girl's bjj, women's bjj, women's brazilian jiu jitsu

Here, in the second part of the Lessons Learned in Five Years article, we are listing 14 items that have stood out in our minds the most.

pinkgi

1. Pink is the most controversial color. Lots of jiu-jitsu women love it; lots of women hate it, and they are not afraid to voice their opinions. Some women believe that wearing pink makes them too girly, and not one of the guys on the mat. Let’s be honest, the color of your gi has no effect on your jiu-jitsu skills. Some like angry animals; some like kanji; some like skulls; and some like color pink! More tolerance, less hate towards color pink! Aren’t we supposed to embrace each others individuality? Let’s not make girls, and women feel inferior because they choose to wear a pink gi.

2. A1 and A2 are the most popular sizes. 80% of our adult gi sales are A1 and A2, the rest 20% is randomly divided between A0, A3 and A4. In the past year, our redesigned A4 size has become a hit among very curvy ladies. This month we started adding tall sizes to put an end to high-water pants.

3. Curvy pants are the most popular mix and match option. We are one of the first companies that started offering mix and match options in 2010, and based on the feedback the curvy pants were created. We had no idea that curvy pants would become our best seller separates. These are essentially half sizes that save the customers a trip to the tailor shop.

pilar

4. Popular vote does not necessarily turn into actual sales. There are people who comment on Facebook when we ask for feedback but never make a purchase. We’ve learned to always listen to the ones who have purchased from us, and to trust our gut feeling.

5. Not all colors sell at the same rate. Navy blue color has been in high demand, and seems to be ‘the color’ for 2013 and 2014. White and royal blue gis sell consistently because they are widely accepted in most gyms. Black gis are unpredictable; they sell in spurts. We do not aim for sprints here and there; we prefer a steady pace. Oh, and gis become especially popular as soon as they are sold out. This happens every time!

6. International shipping is expensive. Yes, it is and we wish it were cheaper as well. USPS medium flat rate box shipping charge in 2009 was 25.95 to Canada, and 41.95 to the rest of the world. In 2014 the rates are 42.25 and 61.75 respectively. Astonishing price jump, eh? We can kick, and scream about it all day but that is not going to make a change. The best advice is to order 2-3 gis at a time, and ask for combined shipping which at times is 60% cheaper.

7. As the business grows, the scam artists get bolder. One would think that all martial arts people are honest. We’ve had people claim that the package was stolen when it clearly shows delivered; ordering the wrong size, and demanding a free gi because in their mind the product is defective; threatening to post negative reviews if we don’t exchange a washed gi; damaging the gi, and blaming us for it; endless exchanges, and disputing perfectly fine transactions; asking for a rush shipment, and not paying the upcharge. No business is immune to scam artists. You have to get used to it, and minimize losses as much as possible.

tamara

8. Not every latest trend should be followed. We are trying to stay away from cliché design elements, as well as overly garish, gaudy, and flamboyant stuff that is in today, and out tomorrow. Your gi should be functional, basic, classic, and timeless, just like your little black dress.

9. You cannot please everyone. In order to have 100 percent satisfaction rate you would have to do custom gis, fitted perfectly to each individual body. If one person does not like the gi, it doesn’t mean the product is bad. It is not tragic, people have different taste and fit preferences.

katieflyer

10. You have to learn not to panick. The sooner you accept that things will go wrong, the less stress you’ll have to deal with. The time to worry is when there is something you can do about a situation. If you cannot do anything then just let others do their job. Will worrying and yelling expletives at DHL make the airplanes fly any faster? If the answer is no; then you might as well sit back, and read a book instead of angrily refreshing the computer screen for non-existing tracking updates.

11. High price does not equal higher quality. Every brand faces the exact same issues with production, shipment delays, miscommunication that affects the final product, defective stitching, misprints, wrong labels, etc. The list goes on and on. The question one should ask is; Is this defect minor and does it affect only esthetics or does it render the gi completely useless. Although we strive for the highest quality, some imperfections can be acceptable. We have chosen to offer affordable, high quality products, and will stay on this path.

mim

12. We’ve made lots of mistakes. Mistakes happen. Sometimes a wrong size or wrong color gi is shipped out, and it is very disappointing for a customer who has spent her hard-earned money, and really needed the gi on a certain day. We’ve been yelled at, and told to tear our website down because we don’t know what we are doing. We feel terrible when things go wrong. Our goal is to work on minimizing the mistakes, learning, improving, and always finding a suitable compensation for the customer.

13. Most customers are awesome. If you are nice we will bend our own return policy rules rather often and liberally. Sometimes we exchange washed gis, send free pants, patches, free sample gis, shirts. You just have to ask. Be nice, and people will be nice to you.

14. A good message from a happy customer is worth more than money. Especially when we are having a bad week with delays, and hiccups; a kind message from a customer gives us the necessary push, and surge of energy to continue on the path. Fitting a frustrated customer into the right size gi or making a rush delivery to make someone’s birthday a very special day is rewarding. We truly appreciate it!

Thank you for reading and stay Powered by She!

thankyouf

Lessons Learned in Five Years Part I

04 Saturday Oct 2014

Posted by fenomkimonos in Business, Lessons learned, Women's BJJ

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

brazilian jiu jitsu, fenom kimonos, girl's bjj, women's bjj, women's brazilian jiu jitsu

firstgiIn October, five years ago, we received our very first batch of women’s gis. Five months of somewhat hard work culminated in an actual product! It was such an exhilarating time; so much eagerness and a hefty dose of cluelessness. When you start a business, it is very much like stepping on the mat as a white belt; nervous beyond belief but too excited, and in awe to turn away. The white belt enthusiasm carried us pretty far, and looking back makes us wonder; how did we survive this?

cryRemember the feeling; driving home after a hard training session that could only be described as a gigantic disaster; you were emotionally and physically beat up, overwhelmed, upset and unable to control the tears? Yeah, in the first year we had plenty of meltdowns like that.

Starting commerce with a Pakistani vendor was like learning a new language. A western woman demanding answers was unheard of, and not well received at the factory. Cultural differences, communication errors, and constant clashes resulted in missed deadlines, and resentment on both sides. Fortunately neither party was a quitter, and things got smoothed out over time. Just like in jiu-jitsu you start trusting your training partners, the same happens in business. You find your groove.

When you reach the blue belt level, you walk onto the mat with a renewed confidence and the feeling of ‘oh yeah, I made it.’ After a couple of shipments of gis, that’s how we felt. We made it; the first product is out; we are in business! Woohoo! And then the first customer complains emerge; you panick. Seeing new gi companies pop up every week, and your very first bad shipment sends you to a full-blown panick attack. The kind that makes you hyperventilate; binge eat; and think ”bloody hell, I can’t take it any more”; I’m getting a real job next week.

The second and third year in business are the real test, the not-so-pretty-blue-belt phase. It’s the real grind of hard work, learning, making mistakes, learning, making more mistakes. Bigger companies are still not threatened by you because most start-ups fold by this time. Surely, this one will close up shop soon. But in the back of their mind they wonder, can this company really take customers away from me? How do they keep the prices so low? No matter how big their smile is, inside they are uncomfortable.

sorry-were-closed

Many companies go under since the brand-new-business-excuse cannot be used forever. Making a hundred gis and calling it “limited edition” has its charm until every other company tries to do the same thing. The fluctuating product quality, uncertainty of dealing with vendors thousands of miles away, and cash flow problems can send any company spiralling downward, no matter how cool their products look. Very often you can’t tell if it is a real business, or one of the fantoms trying to make a quick buck promising the moon and the stars, then disappearing, and re-appearing under a new name weeks later.

At the purple belt level, the white belt enthusiasm, and blue belt hunger have disappeared. You kind of know that you will never use every technique you’ve learned. Starting to fine tune your favorite ones becomes exciting. Most of us have probably had our fair share of injuries by now, and hitting every possible open mat in 100 mile radius is not the priority any more. The game has some finesse but there is still so far to go. Training smarter, not harder!

todoIn business, this is the time where things are running pretty smooth. Frantic, knee-jerk movements have been replaced by relative calmness. There are still days where things go very wrong but this is normal. We’ve developed solid customer and vendor relationships that we continue nurturing. Seeing the vision come to life, and grow like a mushroom thanks to the immense support from jiu-jitsu women is gratifying. However, the work never ends; we are far from putting our feet up, and sipping martinis all day. Finding balance while making a mark in the world is what we strive for. Thank you so much for being part of our first five years!

Designing a Gi

05 Thursday Sep 2013

Posted by fenomkimonos in Business, Women's BJJ, Women's Gis

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

cornflower, eesti naine, estonia, estonian bjj girls, fenom kimonos, jiu-jitsu, kaheksakand, rukkilill, women's bjj, women's brazilian jiu jitsu

This is a story about the gi design process. This is also a story about an unusual relationship. Fenom Kimonos is a Dallas based company run by Triin, the designer who works for Fenom is Agnes. These two Estonians are childhood friends, one lives in Dallas, the other one in Pärnu, Estonia. A couple of years ago the ladies reconnected and a new professional relationship took off. Two friends living thousands of miles away and working on making classy women’s jiu-jitsu gear, how cool is that?

It all starts with a vague idea, and the most annoying request a designer can get: Make something pretty! Sometimes we know what we want to do, sometimes we know what we definitely do not want to do. This time it started with a desire to do a flower design that stays away from the widely used Asian and Hawaiian influence in BJJ designs. So instead of looking far, we looked at our beautiful Estonian cornflower (rukkilill) and decided to go with the nordic vibe.

B3A0v5Qqmj

The best way to showcase the national flower was to incorporate some folk patterns and our signature F. First it seemed like an impossible task. How can you mix a geometric shape with our curvy F and make it look like a cornflower?

Estonian folk patterns use a lot of geometric shapes and colors, each having a specific and mythological meaning. Even the tiniest islands and counties have their recognizable color scheme and preferred patterns. Mothers have taught their daughters for centuries how to knit, crochet and embroider these patterns, keeping the skills alive. We wanted to honor our mothers’ and grandmothers’ effort, and make something meaningful not just for us, but for all girls and women.

pilt_19

We decided to focus on the octagon (kaheksakand), also known as an eight-pointed star or cross, which is one the most significant and widely used shapes in our patterns. It represents dawn, and a new start, it brings good fortune and protects us, our souls, and our homes.

IMG_0044

The designer went to the drawing board and came back with a few design concepts. Some were scrapped right away, couple of more tries and there was something that caught our eye. A few more tweaks and color changes, and three best ones emerged.

F-rahvusmuster-4 (1)-01We were going back and forth, arguing if light blue or dark blue would look the best in real life on the gi. After we finally picked the two favorites, the design got sent to the factory in Pakistan for the test embroidery. Sometimes the design looks awesome on paper but not so good when embroidered. This time we were pleased with the test and didn’t change anything about the F. The embroidery looked beautiful and delicate, crisp and cool, just like we had hoped for.

number 1 and 2

More back and forth discussions, since there was no clear winner. Eventually we picked our favorite, drew up the full gi design, added a few more design elements and sent it to the production. Now the waiting started. A few weeks of nail-biting and the prototype was ready! But oh no, something unexpected happened. Contrast stitching…. this was not in the specs! Somehow the factory decided to do blue stitching. After a complete mild panick attack, the more we looked at it, the more we actually liked the contrast stitching. Some mistakes are not all that bad after all!

sinine_NEW

So there you have it. This is how the whole process works. It looks simple but it’s not easy. It takes between 3-6 months to bring out a new product. Delays are normal, some ideas never make it to the finish line and that is okay too. Over the years we have realized that this is part of the process, you just need to get used to it and not fight it.

Now we are anxiously waiting for the DHL truck to deliver the new gi shipment so we can take product shots, update the website, test the gi out on the mat, and see if it is going to be well received by the customers. We hope you like it. Thank you and stay Powered by She!

4149131_YdrfTc

Upgrading: A new help desk

31 Thursday Mar 2011

Posted by fenomkimonos in Business, Ideas and Concepts, Lessons learned, Products

≈ 1 Comment

It’s pretty exciting times around the Fenom shop. Our customer base is growing faster than ever before and we’re super grateful for all the support we’ve received from just about everyone — a testament to the Fenom brand and what it represents.

The cool, yet slightly nerve-wracking reality is that with this growth comes a lot more one-on-one interaction with our customers. Effectively managing and responding to emails every month has become difficult to stay on top of. With the help of a few tools provided by Google Apps we’ll be upgrading how we manage some internal processes to better serve you — starting with a web based help desk system. Support requests are separated by topic and routed directly to the appropriate team member for handling. Each customer interaction is viewable in thread form so we’ll always have a quick way to reference the entire conversation. No more “oh let me look back at your original email” moments!

Log on to http://support.fenomkimonos.com for all your Powered by She needs.

Just in the Nick of Time

07 Monday Mar 2011

Posted by fenomkimonos in Business, Products

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

bjj, brazilian jiu jitsu, girl's bjj, girl's brazilian jiu jitsu, jiu-jitsu, women's bjj, women's brazilian jiu jitsu

Just like every small start-up company out there, we constantly deal with things that go wrong. Everything ranging from product specifications, vendor management and late shipments. Fortunately, we’ve been blessed with a solid base if supportive and happy customers willing to forgive our shortfalls when we drop the ball every now and then.

During our most recent scramble to get orders out, one particular situation stood out from the rest. Melinda Bringham of Virginia ordered a Fenom Lotus Gi for her daughter Becky’s birthday! The women BJJ goddess was in our corner and instructed the United States Postal Office to get the Gi to Becky a few hours before her birthday party!

We thought it was a great story so we asked Becky’s mom Melinda to tell us about her daughter:

Becky has been training for 2 years under Pat Tray of Trident Academy ( www.tridentmma.com ) and has been actively competing since May 2010.  She has excelled in the sport very quickly and is now competing in the advanced divisions for her age group.  She has competed in Junior Grappling Tournaments ( www.jrgrappling.com ), NAGA, The Good Fight, and US Grappling up and down the east coast.  She is an Honor Roll student  and also is a member of her middle school volleyball team and wrestling team but still makes time to train for 2 hours sessions 4-5 times a week in her favorite sport of BJJ.  She is very lucky to have a few younger girls to train with at Trident Academy but she likes to train with the older boys to sharpen her skills.  She has never let gender be a barrier for her.  She quietly sets personal goals and has the drive and determination to achieve and excel in everything she does.  I have watched my daughter gain self confidence and inner personal strength through her BJJ training.  She now has her sights set on the Pan Am Games!

We would like to thank everyone at Fenom Kimono’s for ensuring that the kimono ordered for her 13th birthday arrived only hours before her birthday party!  She was thrilled that it fit great and she finally has a kimono that works for her size!  Most kimonos are way too wide and too short for her.

The birthday girl rocking her new Fenom Lotus.

Becky with friends and family.

Becky receiving her orange belt!

Shipping problems

07 Thursday Oct 2010

Posted by fenomkimonos in Business

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

brazilian jiu jitsu, women's bjj, women's brazilian jiu jitsu

The last several weeks have been pretty hectic around here. Along with all the activities related to the upcoming Women’s Jiu-Jitsu Championship, we’ve been struggling with getting our next shipment in. The last few orders were smooth – a new batch of Lotus Gis for women and the super-dooper-cutie-pie-in-your-eye Lotus Gis for girls all came in with no problems. On this batch of Fenom Classics, every thing that could go wrong did go wrong. Wrong shipping documents, misspelled product descriptions and customs agents acting like FBI agents. Not a very pleasant experience but part of the game. After weeks of frustration and panic, the Gis were released by Customs for shipment to Dallas today! Everything is as it should be. We have peace.  🙂

To all our customers who have been waiting for their Fenom Classic Gis to be shipped — we’re extremely grateful for your patience and plan to have all orders sent out by Friday. We hope that you’ll enjoy your new Fenom Gi along with the Free patch we’re including. We also hope this small token of our appreciation keeps you Powered By She!

As for the shipping problems – there’s only so much that can done. We just keep paddling and hope to make it to shore every time. Why do we refer to it as “shipping” if it’s delivered via airplane anyway? Food for thought…

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