Today we’d like to introduce you to Latif Hamilton and Marley Marotta.
Latif and Marley, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
We use to make fun monster hoods for burning man before we launched the company. One day we took one out for a night on the town and not only was it a wild experience, we had a dozen offers to buy the hat off of us. The power of that night inspired us to create a brand that encouraged self-expression and donated back to endangered species (where we drew our inspiration from). We had a zillion ups and downs from the moment we launched the company and truth be told we almost lost it a few times. When we started we had no idea what we were doing but what propelled us forward despite the challenges we faced was serving the community of people who supported the brand and understood what it meant to wear a SpiritHood. That passion and drive is what keeps the company creating fun and innovative products to this day and is why we’ve donated upwards of $200k dollars to nonprofit organizations that protect endangered species. In short, it’s just like anything… We had a dream, took action, had a bit of luck and fun, and it became a reality.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There is almost no start-up on the planet that had a smooth ride to stability. For us, being sucked up into pop culture from the get-go was a double-edged sword. We had to learn real quick how to ride a trend wave and stay on long after the wave was over. Having a phoenix for a logo was an accurate choice given we’ve thwarted disaster so many times and always seem to be rising from the ashes (a theme we are actively trying to break). We’ve had to be creative to stay ahead of our competitors. We’ve been in lawsuits, knocked off, had cash flow problems, manufacturing issues, technical issues, you name it. More than once on a great PR opportunity for us like the Good Morning America show, our server crashed. The number one reason businesses go out of business is poor management of cash flow, and we’ve made a few cash flow mistakes ourselves with no safety net as we’ve never had an investor. At the end of it all, we can honestly say we don’t regret any of it. As hard as it was those challenges stretched our imagination and creativity. They were our best teachers and in the end usually, they happened because we needed to evolve and re-align our thinking.
Please tell us about SpiritHoods.
SpiritHoods is a faux fur animal inspired apparel brand. We specialize in animal-inspired, predominately faux fur headwear, apparel, and home goods. We are the original creators of the SpiritHood, and we give a 10% of net proceeds from every item sold back to endangered species.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Probably the time my friend’s dad mowed hidden paths in the tall grassy field next to our house… we played in it for weeks.
Pricing:
- Throws and blankets range from $179 – $229
- Coats range from $189 – $350
- Hoods range from $99 – $150
Contact Info:
- Website: www.spirithoods.com
- Phone: 213-542-5550
- Email: help@spirithoods.com
- Instagram: @spirithoods
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/spirithoods
- Twitter: @spirithoods
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