My journey setting up A equestrian clothing Brand.

Equestre Co. affordable luxury equestrian clothing.

In the middle of the Covid pandemic in 2021 I had an idea to start my own equestrian clothing brand!

Specifically designing young rider clothing as my 3-year-old daughter was a super keen equestrian toddler, but I couldn’t find any clothing that we liked that came in her size.

I had a vision but no idea where to begin. So as anyone who has no idea how to do something I jumped on Google and YouTube 😂

Jokes a side YouTube was very helpful, I watched some really helpful you-tubers who documented their journey setting up a fashion brand.

This was very different to an equestrian clothing brand but offered so much helpful information from legalising the brand, trade marking, design software, mock ups, design tech packs, sample process and finding a good manufacturing team etc etc!

 A lot of work laid ahead! With two small children, ponies and being a freelance riding instructor the year a head was very busy…

I learnt so many new skills from using adobe illustrator design software to designing my mock ups and putting together design tech packs and size charts.

The brand name and logo were the first task on my to do list after I had a basic understanding of how to use the design software, I began!

Finding the amazing manufacturing team that I use today who make my vision of affordable luxury products a reality was one of the trickiest and financially draining part of the whole process.

The first hurdle was where to look, the internet can be a mind field for who to trust, then you have to find manufacturers that produce quality in your budget.

I ran into many issues on the way; MOQ or minimum order quantity was one major problem, being a small start up I did not want hundreds of pieces of each product and manufacturers from China especially this was a requirement.

Eventually through continued search I found a site which was a manufacturing directory, this helped me find my first manufacturers.

We communicated and I sent my tech packs and got my samples ordered, this took longer than expected. The first samples arrived in October 2021; this was such a milestone we were all very excited!

The second set of samples from a different manufacturer never arrived this was a scam, which made me very cautious and a little nervous to carry on with the journey.

I did though and I’m so happy I did; My first young rider collection launched in January 2022.

We have now expanded to adult's rider wear and horse wear.

My products are now stocked in 9 stores nationwide and I have the most amazing supportive manufacturing team who bring my vision to life! The products are being received so well for there outstanding quality, luxury styling and most importantly their fair price point.

Equestre Co. Will be coming to A equestrian store near you soon!

If you have a vision don’t give up…

Please contact me if you would like to become a trade stockist or to ask me anything about the products or our journey.

I’m always happy to offer support or advice in anyway I can 😊

Best wishes

Clare Bradshaw      
info@equestreco.co.uk