Soaked in Purpose and Colour

We had a blast chatting about the weather, Manchester and Mary Poppins with SOAKED  sustainable umbrella co-founder Meg Oliver. We shared confessions of losing umbrellas, rejecting fast fashion and building a small yet mighty brand. It’s estimated that one billion umbrellas are discarded every year, and that has to change. Find out how. 

“I'll start by saying that when I thought about what life would look like at this point, I didn't think it would look like this! I'm glad it does, but I honestly never envisioned running my own business. The idea was simply born from frustration.

I live in Manchester, which is obviously notoriously associated with rain. I was subconsciously growing really irritated with umbrellas because I just felt like I was going through them constantly - chucking them in the bin after blowing inside out and never coming back down the right way, and far too often rocking the drowned rat look which is hard for anyone to pull off. 

On rainy days I'd started to look around and see broken brollies everywhere. And I was thinking, this isn't just me. This is a real issue. And in a rainy city, why have we not solved this problem? Why is there not something better?

It was at a time in my life a few years ago when I was starting to think about my own consumerism and about where I spent my money. I was making more conscious purchases, especially looking for longevity in things, what products are made of, and generally just looking for things that felt like they’d last beyond a few weeks - which had started to become my experience with fast fashion. Something that can feel cheap and cheerful until it quickly doesn’t.

Those thoughts combined led me on to thinking about umbrellas and a decision to change up what I was doing at that point - spending a tenner every time it rained to grab a high street brolly that bit the dust a few rains later. And this is really where the seed for SOAKED was born - for the very first time in my life, I just couldn't find the thing that I was looking for. And that doesn't happen often in the age of the internet. There were some beautiful umbrellas that did exist that were sustainably made, came with repair services and long warranties, but they were way out of my budget and although I was prepared to spend a little more, I couldn’t achieve that. It felt like this real gap between fast fashion, poorly made disposable brollies, to beautiful high-end luxury umbrellas with nothing in between. I also didn’t get the visual buzz I wanted from those higher-end brollies I was looking at, and I had this real feeling that if I was spending more money on something, I wanted it to be beautiful. I wanted it to be something that I’d treasure.

So, I started to research the idea informally with friends and family to test the water. The feedback was unanimous - "If you do anything about that problem, I’d buy one." And I think that's where I stopped fighting it and accepted I was going to do something I’d never considered - start a small business. I felt totally unequipped, unskilled, and like I was winging it. But I was at a point in my career where I needed a bit of a change and to do something completely different. And with the encouragement of my partner we just decided to go for it. We went into it together and never looked back. 

It took another two years from that point before we went to market, but the energy was there. I was working full time, spending my evenings and weekends plugging away, almost like living two lives. We made loads of mistakes and it wasn't always as quick as we wanted, but it was kind of this process that we just got swept up in, and here we are growing a small business in the heart of one of the most creative cities in the UK.” 

We know from our experience helping startups and scaleups come up with new names and branding that it can be a really knotty and emotional experience. How was it for you? 

“Well, I have to thank my Mum for this. She was saying, “I get your story. I get all this messaging about broken brollies, I understand why you want to do it, but if you are making umbrellas, I want them to look good. I want them to be fun, vibrant, something that goes with my outfit and compliments it.” That encouraged us to dive into more bold design ideas and then one day she said the word ‘SOAKED’ and that was it - we never questioned it or looked for alternatives, that was our name. We love it.”

“So, I knew of 1% for the Planet already. It was something that I wouldn't say I necessarily looked for, but it was just something that added to my purchasing decision. What I like about 1% for the Planet is that they aren't the people you donate to. They're an auditory body who make sure you're doing what you say you are going to do, which is donating 1% of your total turnover to organisations working to protect our planet. So, I can still support the organisations that feel right for my brand, but then my customers can have that confidence that I've actually gone and done it and somebody is checking on that.

I think that's so important because there can be a lot of greenwashing and exaggerated claims out there. As a new brand without years of experience, we need to make sure we’re building that trust and not just talking the talk. 1% doesn’t always sound like a lot, but when you’re a small brand, that’s actually huge. It’s not 1% of your profit - it’s your turnover. Profit margins for small businesses can be really slim, so for us this feels like a big commitment, but one we’re really proud of.

Buy Women Built is much newer to me. It started organically as I saw the iconic sticker on brands that I was following on social media or buying from. I've only been a member for a few months but what an amazing community! I feel like I've got this army of people who, if I have a question or what to try something we’ve never done before, there’s people to help and learn from and share with. A lot of us small business owners come up against the same kind of challenges whatever industry we might be in.

We've got so many things that we would like to do and we’re just at the beginning of our journey. In Buy Women Built, there's tiny startups, and there's massive organisations that make up the community and there seems to be this real feeling of collaboration not competition. There's a need to bring each other up and rise together. I've seen brands in the same exact industry sharing advice and tips with each other. And I think for me that's the power of women. Coming together and sharing that knowledge and partnering up. I’m excited to continue to grow with this fantastic community with me.”

On that very note, tell us more about who you would love to collaborate with, think artists, musicians, cultural icons, brands alive or dead. Time for some expansive thinking.

“So, the first one is Don Henley, founding member of US band the Eagles. He's got a song called Praying for Rain. Obviously, when you're in the business of umbrellas where most people are really happy when it's a sunny day in the UK, which is rare, we're really happy when it rains because that inspires people to support us. That is what we need to keep our small business alive. So me and my partner always sing it to each other, praying for rain. It’s our theme song.

Secondly it would have to be the national treasure that is David Attenborough. In his 100th year he is more topical and vital than ever. If we could do something with him that would be unreal because he is just incredible. Say no more on that one.

Then lastly it would be Mary Poppins because I couldn't think of a better brand ambassador than her flying around with one of our umbrellas.”

These are a few of our favourite things too.

“Alongside a brilliant Mary Poppins pop up shop - I would try everything. This sounds like a bit of a generic answer, but to explain, I think one of the biggest challenges we have as a small business is competing with the big guys. And it's so hard when products can arrive at people's doors just a few hours after they've placed an order. There's fashion and accessories that are available cheaply and quickly. The only way we can compete with that is through our story and proper decent, thoughtful, unique product design. We’re also really really keen to work with local people where we can as the brand is so rooted in us living in Manchester, our story, our connection with the people and place.

But keeping it real, it is just so hard to get your brand voice heard, to drive awareness. I think lots of small businesses (including ours!) underestimate how hard that can be. So I would love to have the budget to just try stuff across mutli-media channels and audiences. Testing different creative and really elevating the brand. At the moment the budget is so limited, we’re careful to minimise risk and use the most tried and tested channels that keep the business afloat, but we’d love to be bold, do things our way. There’s a saying all Mancunians know… ‘This is Manchester. We do things differently here’. I’d love to embed that ethos into the way we approach marketing.”

We hear you. We know you need campaigns that are affordable and can show some impact. Essentially a controlled experiment where there could be a number of outcomes. Sometimes some unexpected wins when you blend analogue and digital media and lean into your community. We are monitoring how AEO is evolving and some smaller brands are getting discovered as folks shift to AI led search. Then communications strategy and landing press coverage becomes all the more important.

Now that I've had this experience I have become so passionate about small business. People are doing all sorts of creative things with vision and commitment. The graft that people put in is staggering, I mean, I got to my co-working space at 7 a.m. this morning and there were already plenty of people buzzing around working on their own stuff. They are giving it all they've got because they've got something they actually believe in and they really really care about, and that for me is so inspiring to be around.

So, if I wasn't doing SOAKED I would love to be doing something to support other small business owners at a time that I think can feel a bit lonely, when you feel a bit vulnerable and create a safe space to share these experiences and advice. What lessons can we learn that might save us some business pain? I am trying to talk quite openly about the difficulties on my social media, not for tea and sympathy more to show the reality of what some weeks can be like alongside the wins and beautiful dewy umbrella shots on cobbled streets!" And on that note, the final word from Meg goes something like this.

"I want people to think about their relationship with umbrellas. Think about how many brollies you've had in the last year or last five years or in your lifetime and start to question that relationship. When you’re panic buying or automatically putting the lower price point in your basket, start asking some questions about the lifetime value that you are really getting when you spend that tenner. I’d never say - go and buy one of our brollies, because I want people to make their own decisions and choices about what’s best for them, their budget, and their lifestyle. But I would ask people to not get swept up in that buy, break, and repeat cycle that we’ve all lived in with umbrellas for so long. Let’s do things differently.”

As we’re drafting this article from sunny Valencia where an umbrella is often paraded to protect from the sun, it is raining. Gentle spring time rain before the next wave of heat. We’re off to get completely soaked.

PS. Get in touch with Melissa at melissa.fretwell@whitecamino.com if you’d like to find out more about building your brand’s story.