Sahar Chmais, Staff Writer – Austin Business Journal
La Paloma
J.Crew is now selling online the women’s and children’s pajamas made by Austin-made La Paloma.
Jen Pinkston was looking at swimsuits for her daughters on the J.Crew website one night when she realized that in addition to its own clothes, the company sold the wares of other businesses.
That got the Austin entrepreneur interested in how she could get her pajamas featured on the site — she felt they aligned with the J.Crew style. After some digging, she found someone at the company to message, but had little hope of getting a response.
But the morning afterward, the apparel heavyweight responded to her, ready for a pitch.
Six weeks later, La Paloma, legal name Jen Pinkston Companies LLC, landed its women’s and children’s pajama line on the J.Crew website on Aug. 26. Sales have already been strong, its founder said.
While she was surprised by the company’s response to her cold message, but that kind of determination is a hallmark of successful entrepreneurs.
“For every story that came out like [J.Crew], I can tell you more about cold emails that … have never been responded to or it didn’t happen,” Pinkston said. “It just all seems to align with this one.”
La Paloma launched in May 2020, early in the pandemic. Sales were up 725% in August from the same month a year prior, and Pinkston expects the company to become profitable by the last quarter of this year or the first quarter of next year.
The deal with J.Crew was at least partially responsible for last month’s growth, as the company saw a major jump in order volume, Pinkston said. E-commerce sales also grew directly through La Paloma’s website — Pinkston believes that represents some spillover effect from the J.Crew deal, as people rally around a small business landing in a major national retailer.
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