Success Story Profile: How Delaney and Katelyn built Hangover Hoodies!
Delaney and Katelyn are two recent graduates who took matters into their own hands when the coronavirus pandemic hit. They started an apparel company that went viral and now has over 1,000 orders in the first few months. They have also done podcast episodes and plan on expanding their business as they get more and more orders.
They have 4.5k followers on Instagram and 22.7k followers on TikTok and those numbers grow every day. In addition, they have also added a brand ambassador program titled ‘The Weekend League’ where people can apply and if accepted, they get to represent their brand merchandise through social media! Their hard work and social media presence really pave the way for their success, so keep reading to learn more about them and how they got to where they are today!
Tell us a little bit about your background and what lead you to start a business together?
We are childhood best friends who grew up in South Bend, Indiana. We played on the same soccer team when we were five years old and we've been inseparable since then. After high school, I went off to Miami University in Ohio where I studied Communications and Writing, and Katelyn went to Indiana University, where she studied Marketing and Business Analytics. After graduation, I came back and went to business school at Notre Dame for a year and Katelyn got a full-time job in Columbus, Ohio. Even when we were off to different parts of the world, we stayed connected by visiting each other often, and connecting with each other’s friends.
When did you start Hangover Hoodies and what were some things you did in order to get your business running?
When everything started shutting down because of COVID-19, Katelyn left Columbus and came back to work from home in South Bend. I had just graduated from business school, but there were hiring freezes at all the companies I had been interviewing at. So, I was living with my parents and was nannying in order to make money. We had talked about having some kind of side business, but we didn’t know exactly what we wanted our product to be. I wanted to put my new business degree to use, and Katelyn works for a retail company, so we felt like we had enough knowledge between the two of us to start something in fashion, specifically focusing in apparel. We first came up with the idea in mid-May, and our first drop was July 10, so we put in a ton of work in those initial six weeks to get everything up and running.
What made you start a hoodie business specifically?
Both of us love wearing them and felt like there was a gap in the market when it came to moderately-priced hoodies that were really cool and interesting. As recent college graduates, we wanted a brand that would emulate how college students, specifically your twenties, feel when you're out with friends having a great time. One thing about our company that has helped us a lot is that we personally fall under our target market. That makes it a lot easier for us to find content that we think will resonate with our buyers and viewers, and it also makes the design process easier because we base it off of whether or not we would actually wear/purchase what we create.
Did you girls always plan on starting a fashion company, specifically focusing on apparel?
No! We thought a business would be cool, but we didn’t get set on apparel until we decided to match our skills and personal tastes into what we wanted to design. The fashion industry is really amazing because there are so many different possibilities, and you can constantly change your designs to match trends as they evolve.
You went viral on the popular creator app TikTok, what was that like?
It was pretty crazy honestly. TikTok is an amazing tool for small businesses because you have the potential to reach an enormous audience without spending any money. We started off posting a few videos that would get basically zero views, and then all of a sudden, one of our videos got 150 thousand, and two weeks later one of them got 200 thousand. And now, we have a video with over half a million views. That’s insane to us, especially because it’s so many people who are just like us. I’ve been working as a nanny full-time, and Katelyn has been working full-time too, so we were texting each other at work when the first one went viral, and just refreshing the TikTok page over and over again.
Would you consider Hangover Hoodies as a stand-alone fashion brand or do you see expanding the line in a retail level?
We’d love to evolve it into more of an entire brand over time because we just didn’t expect the reaction that we received from our followers. People really resonate with the message of the brand, and the feeling that we try to convey in our content. We thought at best, we’d sell 200 hoodies by the end of 2020, and now we’re about to sell our thousandth hoodie.
What are some new things to expect for Hangover Hoodies in the next few months?
We’d love to do even bigger drops and push the brand further, but we’re working out of my parents’ basement right now, and it takes around 20 hours to pack up and ship all the hoodies after each drop. Additionally, we just guest starred on The Golden Hour podcast and are trying to work with a few other ones too. We’re also looking into developing our own podcast eventually, in addition to other products and services for our customers.
Tell us more about the “affordable & sustainable” aspect of Hangover Hoodies.
We both were very conscious of how damaging fast fashion is for the environment, and most of that stems from super cheap products that are shipped in plastic bags, worn a few times, and then
thrown away. In comparison, our products are all shipped in 100% compostable mailers, with recyclable tissue paper and stickers to make sure that we’re not contributing to the damaging environmental side of e-commerce. We also picked a price point that wasn’t cheap enough where people could wear it a few times and then throw it away, but not so expensive that it seemed unattainable for people to get. Because it is a high-quality hoodie with a slightly higher price point, we believe that people will be more likely to appreciate our handcrafted designs for a longer period of time.
There it is - from idea to a full operating apparel business! If you would like to tag along and follow their growth and success, you can visit them at www.hangoverhoodies.co, and on Instagram and TikTok at @hangoverhoodies!