Sweet Spot Skirts: Celebrating Four Years

Happy 4th Birthday to our Flagship Store! Opened March 1, 2012.

In 2012, I was busy jetting between my wonderful home seamers, gathering skirts and putting them in envelopes to send to our initial customers. And then, with all that running around, we missed an order! I was mad. I hate letting customers down, so I began the hunt for one central location where we could do business, sew our skirts and where, if a customer walked into the store, they could buy their skirt in person. Thanks to many miracles and a great landlord, we found a new home at 6th and Main. in the revitalized Downtown Vancouver. I called all my seamers into the store and asked who wanted to work in the new space. Mary and Dianna both thought it sounded fun and joined in as the first employees at the Flagship store!

Around the same time, my dear grandfather passed away, and I received $895 from his estate. I used it to buy interior paint and a few items from IKEA to "beautify" then new space, and BOOM we opened for business! With a heartfelt dedication to my sweet grandfather, we began to sew in our brand new store and we waited for people to come inside. If you build it, they will come...?!

Over the last four exciting years, we have learned and grown every day. Today, our Flagship store provides a place where women come to shop. and to tour and enjoy our warm and cozy space. We have been a "downtown destination" from the beginning. Early on, we brought in a bright pink couch and two chairs to use up the huge amount of space in our store and made a "gathering space".

Our heat source and brick wall added warmth and character to this enchanting space. We filled the walls with local artists' works in hopes of bringing in shoppers for the First Friday Art Walk. It worked, and it was so much fun! We highlighted some really amazing and talented local painters, photographers and other artists.

Our building was green and it was the prior home of the Sixth Street Gallery. With enough money for a few gallons of Grey recycled paint ($55), we began to transform the green, helping the building blend in with the surroundings. (The green and purple were very eye catching, but didn't match the playful tone of our skirts.) The grey became a great backdrop for our colorful skirts and designs.

Our original sign read "Sweet Spot Sports". We had bike rentals and wanted to be much more than skirts. The sign was made by our good friend Doug. It lit up and looked very cool.

These were our rental bikes. They filled out our space, and we helped bring touring bikes to the Downtown area - so fun! Eventually, the bikes were pushed out to male more room for skirts!

My chiropractor moved to a new space just as we were moving in and gave us this beautiful "hand me down" cash wrap. It took up a good deal of room and gave the space some depth.

The "aftermath" of the cash wrap collapse!

One day that cash wrap collapsed... it was very tired! :) We found it a new home with another startup business that needed it for their new space. **note** the new who was able to reconstruct it with more than just duct tape and a few bricks.

In the opened space, we added pictures, a mirror and slat board. These upgrades brought our wall to life. Four years later we continue to use the same displays. Have you been in to the store lately?

We finally had the outside of the building painted, thanks to my amazing cousin Dana. Our sign needed an update and we finally figured out who we truly were... Sweet Spot® Skirts!

Many people helped us become a destination that is sought out by women across the country. Our customers are thrilled when a conference, vacation or unexpected visit brings them into Vancouver, WA. It's always so fun to welcome them to our store... our "Hub of Happyness."

The following photos show our growth and fun times that have been had over the last four years.