Many people don't realize it, but what most of us are after is authenticity.
We want the real, because the real is so hard to find these days in a sea of false prophets.
I want real art, real commitment and real products, and I'm willing to pay for it when I can find it.
G’day legends and a happy new year! Massive month to finish the year and an even bigger month coming up.
Wanted to start a monthly insight/update email about the brand, to see what I’m doing, where I’m going wrong, what’s going right, and the lessons and takeaways overall.
Above all else, trying to make it worth ya time!
So the large looming question is, when will you launch?
I’m thinking of a mini-launch. And when I do start, I want to structure the launch as a golf tournament. 4 days. Thursday to Sunday. Why? 2 reasons:
-
Gives me a test run as to not overwhelm myself. I don’t want to go live permanently and be running around like a chook with its head cut off. I’m already figuring shit out on the fly, let’s wade into the water, not scuba dive into the fucking Marinara trench here.
- Clear-defined workflow. I market → I launch → I sell → I ship & pack → I plan for next drop. Less chances for things to go wrong when clearly defined steps are in play. If I launch raw dog 24/7, I’ll be juggling marketing, shipping, creating, designing all at once, all the time from then on. I want to make the best fucking shit possible, and this will allow me to.
Overall, I think in this scenario it’s the best possible option for friends wanting the best possible experience, and for me being able to ensure I can deliver.
Expecting to launch end of January, I’ll be in touch about it don’t worry!
Polos, t-shirts, caps, and endless amounts of stickers. As the great Bill Lawry would say, “IT’S ALL HAPPENING!”
Polos and tees I have the blanks ready to be screenprined. I’m lucky in that I’m able to order the blanks and be creative with what goes on after that, no pesky MOQ’s
upcoming products
Done some sample testing already and absolutely stoked with what I’ve got.
The first sample of the hat below was an absolute stinker (will eventually make a video), but the refinements that got me to the below was well worth it. Mid profile, corduroy, with all the trimmings is exactly the kind of cap I wanted to be able to wear while playing golf, but yet keep on when going out afterwards.
I refer to this comment a lot:
free marketing advice I gave someone: write a comment ~about~ your stuff from the perspective of a really excited redditor who's gushing about how excellent your thing is. you don't necessarily need to share this with anyone, but writing it will be clarifying
I’d like to imagine people saying about OKKA “holy fucking shit, the effort and attention to detail on these products and the packaging is insane. I bet a lot of time, effort, and care has gone into these. Beyond happy to support someone putting this much effort in”
samples in the works
As with everything I’m doing with OKKA, I’m making shit that I wanna wear.
So besides a corduroy, I want an athletic cap and a bucket hat! These samples are in production now and should hopefully arrive soon.
The core of the website is now done. The layout, colour scheme, informational pages, and the vibes are on point. Only thing left really is the final touches on marketing images and the product photos. Both topics I’m learning on the fly.
The site is through Shopify (Dawn theme if ya wondering), and I’m loving it. The only thing I’m a bit confused/scared/unsure about will be the shipping costs/labelling/shipping updates as I’m all new to this. Might need to do a couple test runs.
misc updates
The packaging design and style is basically finalised. Only thing stitching me up is that caps will need a cardboard box and they're a bit more expensive than I thought???
In the words of the great John Hammond “spared no expense!”, but damn has it been a curveball for me in the final stages of launch prep figuring out cardboard boxes of all things lmao.
Also, checkout the packaging for the sticker packs!
I only got a couple of packs left to give, so if ya keen on one, flick me a message before someone faster snaps it up.
2023 recap
May - started to form the idea of actually committing to this and launching.
June/July - hardcore research on the industry, spitballed hundreds of potential names, and started clarifying my position/offering/reason for doing it.
Aug/Sept - started buying and learning to use all the screenprinting equipment, first samples ordered, and started my new day job as a financial accountant.
Oct/Nov - test runs screenprinting (see video below), sample testing, re-ordering new samples, building a cost calculator, organising and researching shipping.
Dec - moved into our new house and got all my gear set up for there, built website, started to take marketing photos and product pics, committed to posting a lot more on socials, and started slowly putting the word out there.
2024 goals
I don’t want to put any ceiling on what is possible, so some open-ended goals here:
- Launch. Low bar I know, but everybody gotta start somewhere.
- Get some consistent short-form video content going.
- Be consistent with this newsletter. At least 1-2x per month
- Personally, a single-digit handicap would be nice.
- Keep improving and getting better at offering unique golfwear!
- Make the best stuff possible in everything OKKA
Brand is the story you tell.
Design is how you bring it to life in your products and customer experiences.
other recommended content:
Just want to share the best of what I’ve consumed the past month.
I would never normally recommend so many podcasts in one go. I just had a road trip where I covered a tonne of kilometres so binged hard!
Marcus runs Minted New York which is a sort of New York premium running lifestyle brand. A few parallels to maybe what I’m aiming for in an Australian premium golf lifestyle brand. 6.5/10
Quit procrastinating (which I’m guilty of!), and get farking posting! 6/10
Get comfortable with risk. Louis more than anything just seems comfortable in putting the negativity of failure and forges ahead. Fair credit to Louis, at least he does mention some numbers around his business (rare for others to do this). Said that last drop they had ~1,000 orders and their AOV2 is $100+. 7.5/10
Ari is just built different. 100% go, 100% of the time. 8/10
So if you were going to give life advice —
EMANUEL: Some of them would be don’t be indifferent. The other one is be curious. The other one is be comfortable in the uncomfortable. Another one would be show up — meaning half of my success, like that phone call I took beforehand is — do I want to take that meeting? fuck no. But I want to get to this. I’m going to take that meeting. […] And then, try and be as consistent as you possibly can.
Being a leader is not about how many punches you can throw. It’s about how many punches you can take. Trying to buy a company is about how you can last through the brutality of it. Because it’s brutal, right? They want certain things. You want certain things. You’re going at it and just hanging tough. Yeah. You just have to be comfortable in the uncomfortable.
Rory is legit one of my all-time favourites. Great lessons. Great stories. And just seems like a real fucking happy dude. 9.5/10
of all the things that probably needs to be more widely known, and which would aid the creative community greatly, is this understanding that many great ideas are not overnight successes
Cheers for reading kings! Hope you’ve had a fucken good 2023 and have an even better 2024.
Let’s fucking get after it!
