Here's our first blog post with Adam Jones. Adam’s passion for creating and designing, alongside his love for all things active and outdoors, led him to found Palm Culture. A clothing brand we love the look and style of and feel resonates with our values too.
Once a month we're going to be writing up some blogs and posting content to share some insight into brands and business' on our radar. Enjoy
Hi Adam can you tell us where did the idea start?
In 2016 I finished my first summer season abroad in Greece, Vounaki. I’d been working towards getting my qualifications in watersports for a while beforehand and travelling part of Europe the year before. Previous to this however, I had spent a significant number of years living a standard boring routine, a 9-5 nightmare! Once I had finished my first season I dreaded going back to the UK and falling into that trap again. I found that the best way for me to do something different and not fall back into my old ways was to keep myself busy and focus on something different.
I had many years of experience in graphic & website design and wanted to incorporate the whole beach/summer lifestyle that I loved into my project.
I thought clothing would be ideal, as I’d enjoyed drawing along with one of my best friends Brad, who owned a tattoo studio at the time. I thought the designs would look pretty decent on some t-shirts and thus began the idea of the brand! It actually took a long few months to work out the look I was going for and researching everything to do with the clothing industry and how I could start my business.
You have a passion to create and design was there anything like a light bulb moment when you decided to turn your passions into a business? Basically was there first moment that got the pistons firing?
I wasn’t great at focusing in school & college, I was always interested in doing my own thing and researching things I wanted to learn online. I think I can honestly say I’ve learned more from online tutorials, videos and guides than what I learned in school- in relation to what I’m doing today!
I’ve also always enjoyed computer generated graphics, and over the past few years alongside Palm Culture I work as a Freelance 3D Product Designer which has allowed me to work from wherever whilst I grow my skills and bring me new ideas into my own brand. I think in terms of Palm Culture, the biggest lightbulb moment was just after the summer of 2017, when I had created the unique looking Palm Tee for my brand. I really enjoyed the creative process of that t-shirt, and it pushed me to start using that unique ‘palm leaf’ look that most of our products have today, shortly after that Tee was created I was flooded with ideas of various products I could incorporate that style with, including our skateboards & balance boards that we sell today!
What are two of your biggest challenges ?
At the start my biggest challenge was being organised, I learned fast that if I wanted to be efficient with my time and grow the brand, I had to get better at managing my time and tasks!
The other is having to learn that even if you have an idea that may look or seem easy to do, there are certain things you can’t do so easily in the manufacturing side. For example- that original Palm Tee turned out super nice on the mock-up, however I had so many problems making it as the design went over the seem of a t-shirt, so once the material was printed, if it didn’t line up in the sewing stage- it made the whole t-shirt look weird and distorted. Super annoying but you have to adapt to these creative challenges all the time!
Those balance boards look awesome. tell us a bit about them, how long do they take to make and how many have you made ?
Thanks! Literally came back from Whister, BC last month and again, wanted to keep busy during lockdown! I had used a balance board in Lemnos once and really enjoyed it, I thought it would be a fun thing for others to do and practice balance skills whilst locked up at home. I released them on the off chance I’d have a few to make to pass the time. A week later, I’d had over 300 orders!
I then realised that 1- It’s just me to hand make them all.. and 2- I need to put a lot of time into getting it right! But man, I love a challenge, and learning how to put these boards together and create them, using a CNC machine and sourcing materials in the tricky Covid climate has been a crazy learning experience, and pretty stressful! However receiving really nice feedback from customers has been incredible and well worth the hours and hours I’ve put in.
I’m literally working day and night whacking out these boards and luckily, I have some understanding customers who appreciate that it takes a few weeks for me to get round to their order!
What do you find most rewarding about running Palm Culture ?
The most rewarding feeling is creating something from scratch that people like or enjoy using. Getting through that anxiety of releasing something is quite hard. Initially it’s pretty scary to put out your stuff to the world, but I’m learning that if I trust my instincts and keep pushing with my creative vision then it pays off! That, and working with some incredible people over the years, one of which is now part of the team, shout out Hugo Taylor!
What advice would you give to anyone starting a clothing brand?
Research, research, research. Don’t stop learning things and coming up with ideas. There’s so much involved if you want to do it right and I’m still learning new things everyday about marketing and business. Connect with people and use every tool you can to grow your brand, but most importantly- find a niche and keep it unique. There are hundreds of clothing brand start ups every month, what makes you different and what is your image? Get yourself a business plan and stick to it.
I could go on and on, but I’ll leave it at this- trust yourself and your idea, some people will fuck with it, others won’t. As long as you do, you’re winning, and it’s all good experience anyway!
Adam Jones.