Eating the punch

It’s been a minute—certainly longer than I would have liked.

This morning, I was talking with some people at run club about Minted Minutes and its evolution. I admit the frequency of posting hasn’t been up to the standard I originally set. In the beginning, when the slate was blank and the business was smaller, it seemed like I could sit down and write about anything that crossed my mind.

As time has gone on and the business has grown, a part of me feels apprehensive about posting what sometimes feels like an unfiltered stream of thoughts.

While that’s not necessarily the point of this piece, I felt the need to preface it since it’s been over a month since my last post.

Sometimes, you just have to eat the punch.

Toward the end of 2023, we submitted a large production run for some hoodies that would release over the course of 2024. It was an order size that, admittedly, made me nervous.

I'd like to take a moment to discuss "going with your gut" in business. I believe that, often, a founder is forced to "feel" their way through the decision-making process.

When you're just starting out, you have little to no data to guide your next decision. You're building on hard work, a bit of luck, and blind faith in what you're working on.

As time goes on and the business grows, so do your responsibilities—to yourself, your shareholders (if you have any), and the people who believe in the business. This growth can put pressure on that "gut" decision-making system.

Risks you may have taken at the beginning suddenly feel too daunting because of the added weight of those responsibilities now influencing your decision-making process.

So, the order is submitted, time passes, and eventually, the hoodies arrive at our warehouse. All good, right?

This is where the problems start. Shawn and I noticed some inconsistencies with the embroidery. These were beyond the normal threshold for minor errors here and there (example below).

With a warehouse already packed to the brim and new products on the way, we had to figure out a solution.

Initially, the situation felt dire. Shawn and I were both equally frustrated with what lay before us (a mountain of unsorted hoodies). We knew the product couldn't be sold at normal retail prices, and we were unhappy with the idea of introducing (new) customers to Minted New York through a product that didn’t represent the quality standard we uphold.

We considered donating the entire batch, but after some research, we couldn’t find many organizations willing to take thousands of hoodies.

The part that Shawn and I struggled with was knowing that the hoodie itself—the construction—met our standards and was wearable. The issues were cosmetic (embroidery, print, etc.).

We eventually decided to sell them at a 50% discount while clearly communicating everything mentioned above.

In the end, while this situation was far from ideal, it pushed us to find a creative solution to an unfortunate turn of events and gave some people the opportunity to grab a nicely discounted hoodie.

While there are not many left - if you would like one, you can grab one through this link: https://mintednewyork.com/products/discounted-hoodies

Cheers

Marcus

PS. we started to produce new episodes every 2 weeks on YouTube if that is something of interest: https://youtu.be/UcM1n7Tclp8

If you have any questions, comments, ideas etc… please feel free to drop them below!