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.
J.Crew takes a commission of sales but Pinkston said she cannot share the amount. But Pinkston added that the deal is great, as traditional wholesale is split 50-50 and this contract with J.Crew has been better for her company.
Even as La Paloma gains popularity, Pinkston’s goal is not to be everywhere or maximize the number of stores carrying her clothing. She approached the company’s first season conservatively because of cash flow constraints — Pinkston said she would rather sell out than have large amounts of leftover inventory.
Time with J.Crew will help tell Pinkston how much she needs to expand production. La Paloma manufacturers in India and Peru, so to keep shipping times low, Pinkston has switched from using the sea ports in Los Angeles to air shipping. It takes about one week for products to make it to the U.S. from India using this method, she said.
La Paloma didn’t create an exclusive line for J.Crew due to the tight timeline but the company is open to creating an exclusive collection in the future. So far, J.Crew has purchased La Paloma clothing for this fall and for spring, Pinkston said.
About 90% of La Paloma sales are direct-to-consumer online through its website, but the company is expanding its horizons in retail as it hosts some pop-ups around Austin and recently launched sales with brick-and-mortar partners in California, Tennessee and on the East Coast. This helps the customer interact with the product and get a feel for the fabric used, Pinkston said.
So far, Pinkston hasn’t taken money from investors so she can stay focused on operations and reaching profitability, but she said it’s not out of the question. She believes the company might be ready to open the door for investors in about two years.
“I’m not really interested in super quick growth and looking for an exit,” Pinkston said. “I think for doing something pretty special in the market, I would like for it to be around for a while, to have it have legs and longevity and for it to be something that my kids could go into someday if they wanted to.”
As the business continues to find its footing, Pinkston is the company’s only employee and works with several contractors to help streamline parts of the job, keeping overhead costs as low as possible. Based on current trajectory, Pinkston hopes to hire several workers in 2024, but to get to that point, she’s keeping costs as lean as possible.
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