Today we’d like to introduce you to Shatoyia Bradley.
Shatoyia, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I have always loved fashion, however, my journey into becoming a fashion designer started from a desire to help my kids start a t-shirt business. As a homeschool mom of six, a lot of my focus is on creating a loving and inspiring environment for my children. My husband and I have both started various businesses over the years, and entrepreneurship is something that we discuss often as a family. In order to teach them how to design t-shirts, I purchased a graphics drawing tablet. Instead of my kids taking an interest in a t-shirt business, I found myself drawn to it. I would play around with creating designs using the graphics tablet and quickly realized that I had found something that I really loved and enjoyed doing.
From there, I began taking online classes learning how to use various programs to create designs. So by day, I continued to homeschool my kids, and by night I would work late into the night, and often early mornings, learning all that I could about creating designs. Over the years I’d spent a lot of time praying and trying to find something that I was passionate about that I could have as an outlet for myself. When you’re a stay-at-home parent, and specifically a homeschool parent, much of your time and attention goes towards your family, and so it was important for me to find something that I enjoyed doing and that I would be able to do as a business from home. So, what started out as a t-shirt business, quickly evolved into a clothing brand, and that’s how “Prime & Peachy” came to be what it is today.
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?
It has not been a smooth road by any means. One of the struggles that I’ve encountered along the way is running a business as a homeschool family. It’s very difficult to run a business that takes a lot of dedicated time while homeschooling six kids. My kids are ages 15, 11, 7, 4, 2, & 1. My two oldest are also aspiring actors in the movie industry, and so whenever they get booked for films or tv series, I’m usually the one going with them. In addition to that, they are involved in many extracurricular activities that keep us busy. As you can imagine, my day-to-day schedule often leaves me exhausted. I often have to find creative ways to balance spending time with my husband, one-on-one time with my kids, time with my mother, all while managing a household. It’s a struggle, so I am thankful that I don’t have to do it alone. My husband, as well as my mother, who lives with us, help out tremendously and we are able to have each others’ back. Another struggle along the way has been in not finding ways to outsource some of the more time-consuming workloads. We knew starting out that we wanted to have a unique website, however, we had a hard time finding someone that could create what we wanted.
We wanted to give our customers a one-of-a-kind online shopping experience, and so it was very important to us that if we were going to do alot of the operations work ourselves, it had to be quality work. My husband began reading books and taking online classes to learn how to build a website, how to create professional-looking graphics for websites, and how to edit code for websites. He would come home from his full-time job, and then spend hours after our kids were in bed taking classes so that he could help with building the website. At the same time, I started learning how to do logos, custom t-shirt designs for customers, designing different types of apparel and shoes for customers, all as a way to sharpen my skills as a designer, as well as do all of the graphic work needed for the business.
My mom is an amazing mother and grandmother. She joyfully helps us with managing all of what we do and is such a blessing to our family. The amount of time that we’ve had to dedicate to the business fluctuates, and so my mother will watch our kids and help in any way that she can. Also, our older two boys will watch their siblings from time to time, as we take business calls, manage orders, or work on other business-related projects. We include our children in every aspect of the business so that they will be able to learn from our successes and failures. The saying that “It takes a village” is definitely true. I’m sure we will continue to have struggles along the way, however, the support from my family has made the difference in our ability to overcome challenges.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Prime & Peachy – what should we know?
We are a clothing brand specializing in apparel and accessories for women and men. We offer dresses, skirts, kimonos, leggings, t-shirts, fashion joggers, tracksuits, men’s polos, scarves and hats, handbags and totes, as well as limited edition shoes. All of our apparel and accessories are exclusively designed and made to order. We are known for our unique patterns and vibrant colors. As a creative designer, I also do custom designs for clients. I love to work with artists and clients that are looking for statement worthy apparel suited to their personality. We believe in creating apparel that stands out in a bold, yet tasteful way. I love to pair colors and patterns together that you wouldn’t see traditionally paired together. I truly believe that what one person sees as chaos, another sees as organized creativity. I’m always willing to push the envelope when it comes to fashion. Creative risks are often rewarding.
We are proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish as a clothing brand in such a short amount of time. With less than 1% of fashion designers in major department stores being African American, we are proud to be one of the brands looking to increase that percentage and infuse more diversity into the fashion and shoe industry. What we are most proud of as of recent are our two shoes that are in full production with a shoe manufacturer based in Italy.
One is a unisex retro basketball sneaker made from 100% Italian leather with a gold shoe sole and features a picture of the Atlanta skyline in the tongue of the shoe. My husband, an Atlanta native, is the inspiration behind the concept of the shoe. There’s a poem by Tupac Shakur called, “The Rose That Grew From Concrete”, my husband is a reflection of that poem. He had a rough upbringing, yet, by God’s grace, he has been able to blossom and flourish despite the environment in which he grew up. Atlanta is full of beautiful and amazing people that have overcome many obstacles to become people that give the city hope. My unisex basketball shoe, the “Cityscapes” is a celebration of the beauty and complexity of the people and the city of Atlanta.
We also have a men’s loafer, the “Escapades”. These loafers are made of 100% Italian leather and suede. They feature pony jaguar and a beautiful combination of navy and rust-colored Italian leather. The concept behind this loafer is one of adventure. I wanted to create a men’s loafer that embodied men with ambition, adventurers. Our motto for this loafer is, “Adventure awaits those bold enough to take risks, those willing to escape the ordinary”.
What sets us apart is the fact that all of our apparel and accessories are made to order. We’ve outsourced the cutting and sewing aspect of our brand and have partnered with eco-friendly and sweatshop-free manufacturers all over the world. It was important for us to build a clothing brand that took seriously the responsibility to reduce waste. We are proud that we are able to offer quality clothing and shoes, while at the same time, paying the makers of our clothing a great wage. We wanted to be able to stand behind how our clothing is made and also the quality of products that we offer.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
What we believe is important to our success will be our ability to be consistent in offering quality clothing and accessories and exceptional customer service. Our aim is longevity. We want to change the perception of online shopping. I’ve had experiences myself of ordering clothing or accessories online, only to have an issue with what I ordered and no ability to get in contact with anyone that can help resolve the issue. There is an increasing number of online clothing brands that have no information on who is actually behind the company, and that has decreased consumer trust when it comes to ordering online. We intend to change that by offering a high-class experience to our customers by ensuring that they are personally taken care of from the time they place an order with us, while their order is being made just for them, the shipping process, through the delivery process. If an issue arises where a customer isn’t satisfied with their purchase, we will do what we can to resolve the issue. We can’t promise that issues won’t arise, but what we can promise is that we are committed to catering to our customers individually, dedicated to quality designs and fabrics, and loyal to conducting our business with honesty and integrity.
Contact Info:
- Address: 245 Highland Ave, STE 230 #165
Atlanta, GA 30307 - Website: www.primeandpeachy.com
- Phone: 770-625-1258
- Email: atlanta_office@primeandpeachy.com
- Other: https://linktr.ee/primeandpeachy
Image Credit:
Makeup: Mia Glass, Family Photographer: Derrick Mivens
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