It's been two weeks since Brightspot ended. This event was one of my goals for this year, and I wasn't sure if I would ever achieve it when I initially set that goal. I've made three attempts to submit my brands, including one from RDPNT, but none of them succeeded.
This happened in the midst of organizing The Climbing Cult Party (CCP), the first Amateur Climbing Competition held in an indoor climbing gym. It was a challenging endeavor, but I managed to submit the application quickly because we were fortunate to be in the middle of cold emailing for our next collection.
Fast forward, I forgot about the Brightspot event and became fully engrossed in CCP and our collaboration with Oli Oli. Two days before CCP, during dinner, I received an email that informed me that Mont Hood had been accepted for the event. I was taken aback, overjoyed, and perhaps even a little too excited.
Now, the real work begins.
I wasn't prepared for this event. I had two weeks of travel ahead, and none of our items were finished, not to mention that the designs were incomplete. I had to design and produce while traveling and setting up pop-ups, among other things.
My team is very small, but they've been incredibly supportive in helping me prepare for the event. They've handled inventory counts, collateral creation, and order fulfillment while I'm away, allowing me to focus on designing and production.
Fortunately, I'm traveling to fashion-forward cities that I adore. Being in these places and absorbing the design influences has really helped me determine the direction for the collection. Once I arrived in Jakarta, I managed to kickstart the production, and now it's a waiting game.
On the opening day, one of our products was still being silk-screened. That's how tight our schedule was. I understand that it's my fault for not having a well-structured timeline, but who could have predicted that I would get accepted?
The first week has been a whirlwind of fear, chaos, and fun. I had no idea what to expect. When I was designing the booth, I envisioned it as clean and premium, and I had faith in our booth's design. However, I overlooked the competition from other booths. When I saw all the other booths, I began to fear that Mont Hood wouldn't sell.
On the opening day, it was an invitation-only event, and I observed many people passing by our booth without giving it a second glance. It was disheartening and made me anxious. I started to doubt whether my brand was as good as I had believed.
The next day, we changed our tactics and adopted a hard-selling approach. We actively called people to our booth and informed them that they could customize our products. It worked!
Additionally, I noticed several familiar faces visiting our booth and offering their support. It was genuinely heartwarming.
I want to extend my gratitude to everyone who visited our booth and supported us!