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The first thing I have to ask: Why bowties? Don’t get me wrong, I think that they’re great, but it still seems like a very niche market. It is a niche market, and we also get so many people ask that same question: “what is so special about bow ties?” I actually stumbled into entrepreneurship back in 2014. I made a gift for a friend’s daughter and it was a hairbow, and the hairbows kind of took off, and supported me over the summer time. Then I started getting parents ask for items for boys, and so it kind of naturally progressed into this, like, “okay what can I make for boys?” A friend of mine who actually co-owns a boutique with two other women, called Make Matter. She one day was like “it’d be cool if you made little bowties.” I kinda took the market’s requests, and my friend’s great idea, and kind of combined the two. I said okay now I’m going to decide to pivot and do research and really understand what is a really great bow tie. And in that, we create handmade bow ties that are reclaimed and repurposed fabrics and material. So that is the niche-within-the-niche, like okay bowties but then you make them out of reclaimed and repurposed materials, which is attractive to a whole different customer base.
Nisha Blackwell Interview By Justin Brown
| Issue 20 15
