Here at Little Hippie we have a few brand crushes, and Big Bud Press is at the top of that list. We love their bright colors, their fun graphics, and the way they integrate their creativity across all elements of their business from their products, to their website, to their Instagram, and all stops in between. We were really excited for them when they opened a store in Los Feliz (Los Angeles) last summer, because we hope to have a store like that ourselves someday, and we’ve loved watching them grow over the last couple of years. When they announced in January that they would be running a Kickstarter campaign in February we got even more excited for them, and we hope you’ll support them too!
Launched in 2015, Big Bud Press has been on a fast track ever since, starting with accessories, mostly pins, much like the enamel pins we make, and quickly adding women’s clothing, all of which is made with pride and attention to detail in Los Angeles. Just like our philosophy at Little Hippie, Big Bud Press is not trend driven, and their priorities are creating fun, bold fashion and high quality long lasting products. Also like us, they don’t employ professional models, choosing instead to work with their friends to showcase their products on real people. These are the ideals we’ve been standing on for fifteen years, and it’s so great to see more brands emerging that believe in them too!
Why is it important to prioritize quality over trends?
Every single thing you ever buy has an enormous impact on the environment. ENORMOUS. There’s simply no way around it. Even organic cotton with low impact dyes still uses a ton of water to produce, creates chemical byproducts, generates waste, and requires the burning of fossil fuels to ship. By the time a garment reaches your hands, it has been shipped multiple times in various formats from raw material to finished product. The best thing you can do for this planet is simply to buy less stuff. When you buy less stuff, you’ll notice your priorities inevitably shift to quality and style that has the potential to endure.
The easiest way to buy less stuff is to seek out products that are built to last.
We understand shopping can be a lot of fun, and at Little Hippie we strive to create some of that fun for you. We want you to know about the people from whom you’re buying and why we do what we do. That’s why we write this blog, it’s why I’m writing a book, and it’s why we share so much of our behind the scenes action on our Instastory. Rather than providing you with the opportunity to mass consume, we prefer instead to provide you with information and experience. When you shift your purchasing habits from “buy more” to “buy less,” you can spend that extra time on research, and you can take pleasure in knowing your purchases have a positive impact on the lives of the creatives you’re supporting, meanwhile reducing your negative impact on the world we all live in. Hooray for everyone!
Built to last products cost more to buy, but not in the long term.
It’s not easy to make high quality products, and it’s especially not easy for small businesses to stick to these ideals when working with the limited budgets all small businesses are up against. A couple of weeks ago, Big Bud Press did an amazing job on their Instastory explaining the true cost of a cheap garment, using a Forever 21 t shirt as an example. If we could link to it we would, but in a nutshell, the point they made is that when you buy a $12.99 t shirt (or cheaper) from a fast fashion company, that t shirt still has to be hand sewn by someone somewhere, and by purchasing it you are supporting a system that exploits overseas labor (almost always women) and compromises quality and environmental concern for trendy products that will quickly become landfill. Yuck for everyone!
Little Hippie enjoys a long running reputation for creating products that are built to last. We regularly receive emails and notes on social media from customers who purchased items from us years ago. They’re either still wearing those same products, or, in the case of children’s items, they’ve passed them on, often to many children successively. We know for a fact that shirts we sold fifteen years ago are still being worn! The screenprints may have faded a bit, but they did not disintegrate like a cheap print would have. That’s because from the start, we always knew we wanted to be built to last. And yet, the number one obstacle we face is resistance to our prices. Despite the fact that we’ve existed on razor thin margins all these years, AND we have the added expenses of maintaining highly coveted licensing, some people still think we should be able to offer them our high quality products at prices competitive with fast fashion.
These are the same obstacles Big Bud Press is facing. That’s why we’re supporting their Kickstarter, and why we hope you will too. Click here to read the full story of what they plan to accomplish with this Kickstarter. They’re more than halfway to their goal, and we’re so excited to see them reach it soon! Please show them some of that Little Hippie love and grab yourself some fun (built to last!) gear in the process!
P.S. We have no affiliation with Big Bud Press, and they didn’t ask us to write this. In fact, they probably don’t even know we exist. We wrote this because we truly believe in them and everything they stand for, and we respect their choice to maintain their independence while remaining committed to their goals.